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In parallel to this democratisation of ice, a new wave of cocktail bars had started to focus on ice as a key component of their offering. In Liquid Intelligence – the bible of modern cocktail culture – Dave Arnold dedicates a whole chapter to the subject, coaching his readers on the science and technology of making and using the sort of high-quality ice that "was the norm in the days before mechanical refrigeration". Bars increasingly put this sort of ice front and centre: when The Aviary opened in Chicago in 2011, it did so with a promotional video that showcased 25 individual types of ice in different shapes, sizes and flavours – from tiny pearls to cricket-ball-sized shells (as used in the classic, much-imitated "In The Rocks", in which the cocktail is served inside an ice cube that the drinker shatters at the table) – made on-site in a dedicated ice room by a dedicated ice guy. This new "craft ice" even looked different: crystalline, "water-clear" in Arnold's formulation, carved (in the fanciest bars) or shaved into exquisite shapes. The cloudy, brittle cubes lurking in the nation's freezer drawers were exposed as the abominations people in the trade had always thought them to be.
在冰塊的民主化進程中，新一波的雞尾酒吧也開始把冰塊作為他們產品的關鍵組成部分。在現代雞尾酒文化的圣經《液體智能》一書中，戴夫·阿諾德用了整整一章的篇幅來講述這個主題，指導他的讀者如何制作和使用“在機械制冷之前是標準的”高品質冰塊的科學和技術。酒吧越來越傾向于將冰塊放在前沿和中心位置：2011年，當鳥舍在芝加哥開業時，它通過一段宣傳視頻展示了25種不同形狀、大小和口味的冰塊——從小珍珠到板球大小的貝殼(就像在經典的、被大量模仿的《巖石之中》中使用的那樣，雞尾酒被放在一個冰塊里，喝的人可以在桌子上將冰塊打碎)——在一個專門的冰室里由一名專業制冰人現場制作。這種新的“工藝冰塊”甚至連看上去都與眾不同：晶瑩剔透，阿諾德將其描述為“無色透明”，雕刻(在最高檔的酒吧里)或切成精美的形狀。那些藏在國家冰屜里不透明的、易碎的冰塊被公開示眾，正如那些討厭的商人所期望的那樣。
As the author and spirits expert Emma Stokes told me over email, the craft cocktail movement also helped to foster a growing awareness that "you need a decent amount of ice to make good cocktails". Add insufficient ice to a drink and the ice will do what ice always seeks to do: melt into a watery mess. Add lots of ice, though, and the opposite happens: the drink remains cold and crisp. These were encouraging signs for the packaged ice business: if ice was supposed to be abundant, then a single domestic freezer tray or integrated fridge ice dispenser was no longer going to meet demand.
正如作家兼烈酒專家艾瑪·斯托克斯在電子郵件中告訴我的那樣，工藝雞尾酒運動還有助于培養了一種越來越強烈的意識，即“想要做出好酒，你需要添加適量的冰塊”。在飲品中加的冰太少，冰塊就會正常融化成水。但如果加了太多的冰，就會出現相反的情況：飲料會一直冰涼爽口。這些對包裝冰業務來說是鼓舞人心的跡象：如果冰量充足，那么單一的家用冷凍托盤或者集成的冰箱冰分配器將無法滿足需求。
Within the space of a few years, ice in the UK had started to matter, both in quantity and quality; people were even starting to display signs of ice snobbery. Within the trade, of course, they have always heaped derision on inferior product: Camper English, perhaps the pre-eminent cocktail ice scholar, refers to "shitty hotel ice" in contrast to proper, craft stuff; in The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, David Embury warns against making ice at home, lest your fridge-freezer introduce unwanted notes of "camembert cheese or leftover broccoli". But a giant piece of market research commissioned by The Ice Co in 2014 revealed that the average consumer, too, had an opinion: increasingly, people wanted different kinds of ice depending on how that ice was going to be used – whether to pack into a cocktail shaker, chill an ice bucket, or melt decorously and imperceptibly in a dram of single malt.
在英國，冰塊的數量和質量在短短幾年內開始變得越來越重要。人們甚至開始表現出冰勢利的跡象。當然，同業間總會對劣質冰大加嘲諷。杰出的雞尾酒冰學者Camper English將“劣質的酒店冰塊”和正規的手工冰塊進行了比較。在《調制飲料的藝術》一書中，大衛·恩伯里警告大家不要在家里制冰，以免冰塊沾上冰箱冷凍層中不想要的“卡芒貝爾奶酪或吃剩的西蘭花”的味道。但The Ice Co在2014年委托進行的一項大型市場調查顯示，普通消費者也有自己的看法：越來越多的人想要不同種類的冰塊——取決于冰塊的使用方式，是放入雞尾酒搖酒器中，還是放入冰桶中，還是在一小杯純麥芽威士忌中優雅地、悄無聲息地融化。
