[ir77]

is it me or pretty much all of those icecubes are infested with air bubbles?

i'd think the "cocktail ice" criteria would be to be 100% clear. I make my own ice, usually in the winter, because it's fun when it's -20 outside and i stock pile it in a deep freezer for the remainder of the year.

process: + fill a small cooler almost to the top with water + leave the lid open and leave the cooler outside over night, or 2 nights, depends on the size + *key*: you want to remove the ice from the cooler before it freezes all the way through, ideally you want ~2 inches of water left on the bottom unfrozen. ice freezes from top to bottom, so all the air and impurities keep getting pushed down. this top layer will pretty much be perfect, you may have to wash off the top layer due to frost/snow that have accumulated over night. +. take your new slap of ice and score it with a bread cutting serrated knife, tap the knife with a wooden spoon and you'll have a perfect cut of a of a huge chuck of ice. keep serrating/hitting into smaller chunks.

[KevinGlass]

The author of the website not only describes this exact method but he also invented the method.

If you scroll to the bottom of this page you can see an example of perfect clear, if not smoothed, ice:

https://www.alcademics.com/2017/05/how-to-monogram-your-ice-...

[schwartzworld]

Boiling water before freezing is another way of removing dissolved gases.

[brenns10]

Tested on this very website!

https://www.alcademics.com/2017/10/boiled-versus-rested-wate...

Conclusion they came to (your opinion may vary) is that it's not worth the time and energy to get e.g. 1/2" more clear ice.