How Jeff Banks crystalized Atlanta’s cocktail scene!
For 15 years, Jeff Banks watched the Atlanta bar scene evolve from simple highballs to worldclass mixology. As a veteran bar manager, he saw the city’s top Japanese spots and French brasseries pouring pricey bourbons over cloudy, rapidly melting ice. At the time, the only option for clear ice was a grueling DIY project: buying 150-pound blocks and attacking them outside with chainsaws and bandsaws to create manageable cubes.
“Nobody should give a bartender a chainsaw,” Banks says. That realization, paired with a win at a 2018 Beldam Vodka Bar Fight cocktail competition, provided the seed money for King Cube. Starting with a single ice block maker, a small bandsaw, a chest freezer and free space in a local distillery, Banks set out to provide Atlanta with the one thing its luxury spirits were missing: perfect transparency.
A common myth says clear ice requires boiling or distilled water. In reality, it’s all about physics, Banks says. In a standard freezer, ice freezes from all sides, trapping air and minerals, including flavors and aromas, in the center, hence the cloudy core.
Banks’ process uses directional freezing. By freezing 300-pound blocks slowly from the bottom up over five to seven days, the ice pushes dissolved oxygen and minerals to the surface, leaving a crystal-clear cube. The process is a slow-motion labor of love; from the first drop of water to the final bagged cube, a single batch takes eight to nine days. “We don’t do it because it is easy; we do it because we thought it would be easy,” Banks says about the eight years of trial and error required to master the thermal shock that can shatter a block if it’s cut too soon.
Clear ice isn’t just about “eating with your eyes.” Because it is free of air deposits and minerals, King Cube’s ice is significantly denser than standard ice. This density ensures a slower dilution rate, keeping a cocktail tasting exactly as the bartender intended from the first sip to the last. Clear ice lacks that freezer taste of silicone molds, as King Cube’s airtight packaging prevents the ice from absorbing outside aromas.
Banks’ traditional cube is the 2-by-2 inch that fits most glassware, but he delivers custom sizing to fit a bar’s glassware, including cubes with flowers suspended inside or branded with a logo. For effervescent drinks like a French 75, Banks’ Collins spears provide fewer “nucleation points,” meaning your gin and tonic stays fizzy significantly longer.
Today, King Cube supplies nearly every Michelin-starred restaurant and high-end establishment in the city, including Mujo, Marcel, St. Cecilia, Lucky Star, KR SteakBar, Fudo, F1 Arcade, Yeppa and new Koshu Club, as well as most hotels in Buckhead and downtown.
For the home mixologist, King Cube offers retail bags of 12 cubes at local spots like Corks & Caps, Grapes & Grains and Tuxedo Wine & Spirits. The set of a dozen cubes is by design. “If you do a 2-ounce pour from a standard 750 ml bottle, you should have 12 pours per bottle,” says Banks. As King Cube expands into a new 15,000-square-foot warehouse in Doraville, enthusiasts can expect new offerings like spheres, custom engravings and even soccer ball-shaped ice just in time for the World Cup.
kingcube.com
@kingcubeice
For the home mixologist, purchase here:
CORKS AND CAPS
corksandcaps.com
@corksandcapsatl
GRAPES AND GRAINS WINE & SPIRITS
grapesandgrains.com
@grapesandgrainsstore
TUXEDO WINE & SPIRITS
tuxedowineandspirits.com
@tuxedowineandspirits
PHOTO: Joann Vitelli
