Issue #5

Words by Cory Ohlendorf | Photography courtesy of Samurai Bartender

In the world of cocktails and bartending, where everything from the ingredients and techniques to the shape of the glasses are meticulously crafted and perfected, one element that’s often overlooked is the ice. Yet, in Japan, where precision and aesthetics intertwine in all aspects of life, cocktail ice has been elevated to an art form. This focus on delicious, crystal clear ice isn’t merely about keeping drinks cold; it’s a reflection of the Japanese dedication to perfecting even the smallest of details.

The country’s reverence for ice can be traced back to its historical use and cultural significance. For centuries, ice was a luxury item in Japan—often reserved for the elite and used in traditional ceremonies and offerings. Today, this historical appreciation is mirrored in the meticulous care Japanese bartenders and enthusiasts apply to cocktail ice, which can be traced back to Yokohama’s Grand Hotel in the late 1890s. It’s believed that Japan’s first cocktails were mixed here soon after former San Francisco saloonkeeper, Louis Eppinger, arrived to manage the bar.

The hotel catered to foreign guests, but aside from Eppinger, the rest of the staff was Japanese and they soaked up his style. By 1910, they were opening their own bars, this time in Tokyo and aimed at a domestic audience—mixing Japanese hospitality with their mastery of drink-slinging. In a culture that works as hard as the Japanese, bars and cocktail lounges emerged as the ideal bridge between the worlds of home and office.

Always one to strive for excellence and innovation, resourceful bartenders started making and carving ice with special characteristics. You see, the quality of ice can significantly impact the taste and texture of your drink. The Japanese concept of “mono no aware”, or the appreciation of the beauty in transience, can be seen in the way ice is crafted and used. The fleeting nature of ice, as it melts and changes the drink, is embraced as part of the overall experience. Ice is not just a vessel for chilling a drink; it is integral to the overall drinking experience. Clear, slow-melting ice is preferred over regular ice cubes for several reasons:

Clarity and Purity

Japanese cocktail ice is renowned for its clarity. This is achieved through a process that eliminates air bubbles and impurities. Clear ice not only looks visually stunning, but also ensures that the taste of the drink remains untainted by unwanted flavors or odors.

Controlled Melting

The slow melting of ice is crucial in maintaining the integrity of a cocktail. Clear, dense ice melts more slowly than regular ice, which means it chills the drink without diluting it too quickly. This controlled melting process allows for a more balanced and refined drinking experience.

Custom Shapes

The shape of ice can influence how a drink is presented and enjoyed. Japanese bartenders often use large, perfectly formed ice cubes. The larger surface area and reduced number of edges minimize the rate of dilution while maximizing the visual appeal.

There’s an art and science to crafting the perfect ice for a cocktail, says Daigoro Nishikawa, the bartender who shares his passion for drinks and beautifully polished and presented ice on YouTube as the Samurai Bartender. His videos are a mix of visual instruction and ASMR-worthy clips of ice being chipped, cracked, sliced and carved into stunning shapes. Sometimes a drink calls for a long rod or several large cubes. Other times, a drink benefits from a unique shape like a diamond.

Like many aspects of Japanese design, these unique ice shapes serve both a functional and aesthetic purpose. Did you know that this is where the perfect ice sphere originated? It kick-started a cottage industry of molds that never quite live up to the ones you get in a proper Japanese bar. And the founder of Ginza’s Bar High Five, Hidetsugu Ueno, was the first bartender to discover that a diamond-carved cube would offer the same slow dilution while glimmering in a rocks glass.

Nishikawa says the diamond’s facets reflect the whisky in numerous ways and allow you to admire its beauty in addition to its aroma and flavor. Using an extremely hard and incredibly sharp knife known as a deba, he shows us how to carve one by placing a large piece of crystal-clear ice on a wooden cutting board. He slices into one side of the ice at a 45-degree angle to form the top facet. He then places the cube top-side down and starts shaving down along the sides of the cube at a more obtuse angle, leaving eight facets along the sides of the diamond. He then cuts horizontally, slicing down into the cutting board at the opposite angle from the last cut, creating a grand total of 24 facets.

The end result is nothing short of amazing: A perfect, hand-cut diamond of ice as clear as crystal. It’s much more than a simple component to a drink. That chuck of frozen water has been refined in such a way that it’s able to embody Japan’s commitment to quality, craftsmanship and aesthetic beauty. It encourages you to slow down, appreciate the little details and really savor the drink you’re holding.

Established in Tokyo in 1919, OHTO started by manufacturing high-quality dyes and ink. But the company soon pivoted to creating writing utensils and became famous after producing the world's first ballpoint pen with a chrome ball in 1949. Fifty years later, they would introduce the “strong needle tip” pen. A combination of low-viscosity soft ink and a thin ballpoint tip with a diameter of just 0.7 mm, the “Grand Standard” pen allows you to control the line width depending on the writing angle and pressure you provide. The result is a customized writing style that pretty much suits anyone. What’s more, the pen itself is really cool. The well-balanced aluminum shaft sits comfortably in the hand and the unique machined design changes shape from a smooth round tube near the writing tip to a hexagonal silhouette at the far end.

Shouganai (しょうがない) is a word that’s often said in slight exasperation, usually with a sigh. A rough translation for this might be, “it is what it is” or “it can’t be helped”, but it’s a little more nuanced than that. It’s more of an admission: the common belief among Japanese people that comes down to control of a situation, or rather lack thereof. Situations that call for using the word should be the ones you have no control over, like if you got caught in the rain without an umbrella.