Ice, ice baby could be spiking your cocktail prices by $5
A single cube of ice may be pushing up the price of your already expensive cocktail by $5.
High demand for ice has seen five manufacturers open in Sydney in the last three years.
But this isn’t just ice you get out of the petrol station freezer. This ice is meticulously hand-carved into more than 25 varieties of different shapes.
These manufacturers supply hundreds of venues, from bars, restaurants and cafes to specialty coffee shops.
Single orders have been known to be up to 3000 cubes each week.
One manufacturer is taking the game further by launching Sydney’s first at-home delivery service for high-quality ice through UberEats.
Bare Bones Ice Company serves customers within a 20-minute drive of its Marrickville warehouse.
Blocks of ice could cost as much as $2.36 per cube, not including service and delivery fees.
The ice business is booming for Bare Bones, which has just moved into a warehouse nine times bigger than its previous digs. Production is estimated to multiply sixfold within the coming year.
“We sell a lot, way more than most people would imagine. We restock weekly, if not more, to meet demand,” P&V co-owner Mike Bennie said.
P&V sources its ice from Bare Bones.
Bare Bones founder Damien Liot, a former Baxter Inn bartender said “You can compare it to glassware. Drinking out of a beautiful glass is just a better experience than drinking out of a paper cup.
“It’s so popular we’ve begun supplying mid-tier restaurants, cafes and pubs, from the city to the suburbs.
“People now expect it when they order a negroni or old-fashioned.”
As hospitality operators work on around an 80% profit margin, the cost of your expensive ice will be passed on.
Jeremy Blackmore, the creative director at Mucho, the group behind Cantina OK told Good Food, “Considering the spirits going into a cocktail typically cost between $2 to $2.50, $1 for an ice cube is a whole heap.”
The average price of a cocktail in Sydney is between $20-30.
However, Stefano Catino, co-founder of The Rocks cocktail bar Maybe Sammy told Good Food he doesn’t understand the $5 jump.
“If ice costs $1, and you charge three times [that amount] to make a profit at the most, [it would add] $3 maybe.”
Catino believes that not every venue, nor every drink needs high quality ice.
“A lot of our venues, like Maybe Frank [pizzeria in Randwick], are casual and customers would rather pay a couple of dollars less for their negroni and drink it with normal ice,” Catino says.
Jonathan Jackson, 13th December 2023
