The Benefits of Bullet Ice
With the rise of craft cocktail culture in recent decades, restaurant and bar operators have given renewed attention to the quality of ice used in mixed and specialty drinks. No longer just a means of adding water or cooling a drink, specialty ice is recognized as an integral part of the drink experience, and as a result, a variety of ice styles beyond the standard cube have emerged. One of these shapes that has gained traction is bullet ice.
What is Bullet Ice?
Named after its unique form, bullet ice looks like an oval-shaped cylinder, rounded on one end and hollow on the other. While some ice makers produce this type in various sizes, bullet ice is usually more than an inch long, about an inch wide, and an inch and a half tall.
The Uses of Bullet Ice
Bullet ice works for almost any use regular cubes are for. However, its unique shape provides an often-overlooked asset in the foodservice industry. Whether you're serving cocktails or house-made soda, bullet ice cubes have a design that could help elevate your drink's presentation and improve customer satisfaction.
Bullet ice's hollow interior gives the cube a larger surface area-to-volume ratio than regular cubes which might help cool down your drinks quicker. However, its solid shape is not ideal for blended drinks, which work much better with a more crushed ice type, such as nugget ice or flake ice.
How is Bullet Ice Made?
Bullet ice makers use a simple mechanical process. They usually use several evaporator fingers submerged in a tub of water. These fingers are filled with a refrigerant that freezes the water in contact with them. After reaching a certain size, the fingers will go through a defrost cycle, dropping the ice into a collection bin.
Bullet Ice vs. Nugget Ice
Though bullet ice and nugget ice have similar-looking cylindrical shapes, their formation is different. While bullet ice forms one solid block, nugget ice makers work by forcing shreds of ice mixed with water through a round opening to make an ice cylinder containing as much as 25 percent water.1 This gives nugget ice its distinct, chewable properties, making it popular for use in soft drinks or in healthcare settings, where people may have difficulty swallowing.
Bullet ice has similarities to other specialty ice shapes. Gourmet ice cubes have a cylindrical construction, but they usually have a rim on one end and aren't hollow. These ice shapes melt more slowly than bullet ice. Dice ice often has a hollow interior to speed up the cooling process, but their trapezoidal shape gives them a different feel than bullet ice, and they're mainly found in water or soft drinks.2
No matter what ice shape you decide on, it's important to have a vision for your resulting product. Camper English, author of The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts told KaTom,
"The greater surface area to volume ratio that the ice has, the faster it can melt- and thus, cool- a beverage. Small crushed/cracked/shaved ice will have the largest surface area to volume ratio, while a large ice sphere will have the smallest. A fountain soda poured over one big ice sphere would take too long to cool, and it wouldn't make for a better beverage. Conversely, a straight pour of a spirit over very small ice might become dilute more quickly than we would like. Your goal is to find the size and shape ice that will work best in the most drinks served in your venue."
If you want to create aesthetically pleasing drinks that don't melt too fast, then bullet ice may be the best shape for your operation.
References
- Nugget Ice Has a Cult-Like Following. Its Engineering Can Explain Why. Popular Mechanics. Accessed January 2025.
- Types of Ice Cubes. Best Ice Machines. Accessed January 2025.
