How to Smoke Ice for Cocktails: Vindulge’s Expert Guide

A memorable cocktail is a quintessential part of any successful holiday party, but in the age of molecular mixology, standing out can be a challenge. This holiday season, step up your cocktail game by adding smoke, not just to the garnish but to the ice itself. Smoked cocktails are a surefire way to spruce up a seasonal drink, but some methods are better than others.

To help you get the most out of your smoked cocktail recipes, we asked Mary Cressler and Sean Martin, the experts behind Vindulge, an online resource for creative recipes behind both the bar and the grill, and members of Big Green Egg’s “Team Green” of grill experts. All answers below are theirs.

How to Smoke Ice: The Quick Method

Smoker temperature: 200–225°F, low and below boiling
Smoke time: 2–3 hours. The longer you go, the smokier it gets.
What you need: A smoker or pellet grill that holds low temperatures, a large bowl of water and large round or square ice molds
Water: Tap water is fine. Smoked ice turns naturally cloudy and light brown.
Freeze time: At least 10 hours
Best woods: Fruit woods for subtle smoke, hickory or mesquite for bold. Avoid pine and cedar, which turn bitter.
Make ahead: Smoke and freeze it a couple of days before your party.

Smoked Ice for Cocktails: Q&A with Vindulge

Why add smokiness to a cocktail?

All cocktails benefit from a mix of flavor profiles. Smoked ice adds an interesting flavor that can really make a drink stand out.

What’s the best way to smoke a cocktail?

It depends on what you’re going for, but there are a ton of great methods. Some people use liquid smoke, but that can have a very chemical-like flavor, so we steer clear. Another way is to use a smoke gun. That’s convenient, but the flavor tends not to linger long, and no one needs another expensive gadget they’ll use once a year. You can also smoke water and turn it into ice cubes as a cocktail base. Smoked ice is our preferred method most of the time, and it’s free.

Or you can smoke the actual element in the drink, like tomatoes for a Bloody Mary or berries to infuse into a simple syrup. This gets you the most authentic smoke flavor, and you also have the option of grilling them hot and fast for more of a charred, earthy flavor. That gives you a bunch of options to modify a drink.

What’s the best tool for smoking a drink?

If you Google smoked cocktails, you’ll see a mashup of expensive and fancy “cocktail guns.” We prefer our go-to smoker, the Big Green Egg, but any good smoker that can hold the right low temperature works for smoking water or fruit. A kamado-style smoker like the Big Green Egg holds 200 to 225 degrees with no additional effort. A good pellet grill that can hold a lower temperature would also work.

From there, you need a good ice mold. If you’re going to smoke ice, you want it to look pretty. Large round or square molds are perfect, and you don’t need to bother with distilled water, because smoked water is naturally a little cloudy and turns a light shade of brown. Crystal-clear ice isn’t the goal.

How do smoked cocktails complement the holiday season?

Aside from a perfectly cooked prime rib, there are few things more exciting than telling people you made a smoked cocktail. It’s a great conversation piece for family and friends, and you can prepare many of the ingredients ahead of time to use in different drinks.

What’s your favorite way to achieve smoky flavor?

Our go-to method is, obviously, smoked ice. Fire up your grill (for us, it’s the Big Green Egg) and keep the temperature low and under boiling, roughly 200 to 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Put a large bowl of water in the smoker and let it absorb the smoke for a couple of hours. We try to go three. The longer you go, the smokier it becomes.

Another method is to make a simple syrup from grilled or smoked fruit like lemons, oranges or berries. After smoking them for a couple of hours, squeeze out the juice concentrate and add it to a simple syrup of sugar and water. Follow the normal simple syrup method from there, and you have a fun addition to any cocktail or sparkling wine.

Lastly, there are tabletop smoke tools. They certainly add smoke, but it tends to wear off quickly, so we prefer the Big Green Egg for a more authentic smoke flavor.

Why smoked ice?

The best benefit is flavor: a touch of smoke that permeates the drink as the ice slowly melts. We may not use it as a “rock” for a good bourbon, but it’s a nice touch when we want a new twist on an old classic. There are only so many ways to make an Old Fashioned, but smoked ice brings a unique, earthy aroma and flavor that stands out.

What spirits work best with smoked ice?

Almost all cocktails benefit from a smoky element. Rum, bourbon and whiskey drinks are great with smoked ice. Anything with a fruit element, like berries, citrus or tomatoes, is also a perfect candidate: smoke the fruit, then juice it or infuse it into the drink. On a fun brunch morning, you’ll see us smoke tomatoes as a base for Bloody Mary mix. It’s also great because you can make the base a few days in advance and mix the drinks when company comes over.

Are there any spirits to avoid with smoked ice?

The only one we avoid adding smoke to is mezcal, which already has its own smoky character.

Should you add smoked ice to an already smoky cocktail?

That makes for too much smoke. If we had one dream, it would be to convince people to move away from liquid smoke and do the real thing. With a good smoker, it doesn’t take much labor, just the time to set the temperature and let the ingredients smoke. That’s why we tell people to make their own smoked ice. It’s more authentic and doesn’t have the bitter flavor that comes from liquid smoke.

How do you fit smoked ice into party prep?

Running a catering company meant we not only had to plan ahead but also make sure everything was ready at just the right time. A couple of days before the party, smoke the water and get it into ice molds. It needs at least 10 hours in the freezer to freeze fully. We like to keep it simple: feature one cocktail with smoked ice, then have wine and other drinks available.

The morning of the event, we pre-mix the cocktail so there isn’t a line at the shaker. You may lose a little fresh flavor, but we want to hang out with people, not make drinks all night. We also prep all the garnishes, so lemon twists are cut and stored in the refrigerator so they don’t oxidize. When people arrive, the ice is in a bowl and the cocktail mix is in a large container, so it’s as simple as adding ice to the glass, pouring the mix and adding the garnish. Then it’s on to food prep.

What reaction do you get when serving smoked cocktails?

Without fail, it’s awe and “How did you do that?” That usually leads to a trip out to the smoker and a walkthrough of the method. People are amazed at how simple it is. Then we tell them we have the recipe online, smoked ice cocktail in hand, of course.

Anything else readers should know about smoked ice?

Play around with how long you smoke the water, and experiment with different woods. Mesquite or hickory gives a pronounced smoke flavor, and you may prefer that to the more nuanced flavor of fruit woods. Avoid softwoods like pine or cedar, which leave a bitter taste. It’s all about experimenting with the technique and finding the flavor you like.