There’s a myth that large ice cubes chill drinks just as effectively as small cubes while diluting them less, since they don’t melt as readily. This thinking ignores one of the basic laws of thermodynamics: Ice must melt in order to chill a liquid—and the more it melts, the colder the liquid will get. We set up a few tests to demonstrate this dynamic.
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TEST 1: Proving the critical role of dilution
We placed a single large ice cube in each of two glasses of 67-degree tap water. We wrapped one of the cubes tightly in plastic wrap to trap melted water and left the other cube unwrapped. Even without stirring (which we avoided so as not to hasten dilution), the temperature of the water containing the unwrapped cube plunged almost 20 degrees in the first minute, while the water with the wrapped cube dropped just 4 degrees. After 10 minutes, their temperatures were still more than 10 degrees apart, with the diluted water at 41 degrees and the undiluted water at 52 degrees.
TEST 2: Demonstrating the impact of ice cube size
We placed three small cubes in one glass of 67-degree water and one large cube totaling the same weight in a second glass of 67-degree water. It took a little more than a minute for the temperature of the water containing the small cubes to plunge well below 40 degrees, eventually leveling off. Meanwhile, the temperature of the water with the large cube never got below a comparatively tepid 43 degrees, even after 10 minutes.
Dilution is not only an inevitable part of chilling a drink with ice—it’s essential. (Even in the test with the wrapped cube, the ice needed to melt inside the plastic wrap to cool the water outside it.) That’s because ice doesn’t directly transfer its cold to a surrounding liquid. Instead heat, or energy, is drawn from the water and used to melt the surface of the ice. Since a greater surface area of ice means energy can be transferred faster, smaller ice cubes are much more efficient than large cubes at cooling a liquid.
If you are interested in superchilling a drink such as iced tea quickly, use small ice cubes. For a less chilled (and less diluted) beverage such as an old-fashioned (where an overly cold temperature will mask flavors), use large cubes. (And if you want to learn to make ice of any size that’s crystal clear for cocktails, check out our method in this article.)
Kuna hadithi kwamba vipande vikubwa vya barafu hupunguza vinywaji kwa ufanisi kama vipande vidogo vya barafu wakati wa kuyeyusha kidogo, kwa kuwa haviyeyuki kwa urahisi. Mawazo haya hupuuza moja ya sheria za msingi za thermodynamics: Barafu lazima iyeyuke ili kupoza kioevu - na kadiri inavyoyeyuka, ndivyo kioevu kitakavyokuwa baridi zaidi. Tulifanya majaribio machache ili kuonyesha mwenendo huu. Vifaa vya kubebea barafu vya ubunifu Hakuna friji iliyo kamili bila kibanda kizuri cha barafu. Kwa hivyo, tunajaribu kuunda kitambaa cha kitchen kitchen kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit "Kuchunguza kwa makini: ""Kuweka kioo kimoja kikubwa cha barafu katika kila glasi mbili za maji ya bomba yenye joto la digrii 67." Tulisonga kiunzi kimoja kwa plastiki ili kuhifadhi maji yaliyomwagika na tukaiacha kiunzi kingine bila kuifunga. Hata bila kuchanganya (ambayo tuliepuka ili kuharakisha kuyeyusha), joto la maji yaliyokuwa na kiunzi hicho kilipungua karibu digrii 20 katika dakika ya kwanza, wakati maji yaliyokuwa na kiunzi hicho yalipungua digrii 4 tu. Baada ya dakika kumi, joto la maji yalikuwa bado zaidi ya digrii kumi tofauti, na maji diluted katika 41 digrii na maji undiluted katika 52 digrii. "Kichapo cha ""Ice Cube Size"" kinaonyesha jinsi mchanganyiko wa vipande vitatu vya barafu unavyoweza kuathiri kiwango cha joto cha maji katika glasi moja ya maji yenye joto la 67 °C na kipande kimoja cha barafu kinachokuwa na uzito sawa katika glasi ya pili yenye joto la 67 °C." Ilichukua zaidi ya dakika moja kwa joto la maji yaliyokuwa na vipande vidogo hivyo kushuka chini ya digrii 40 na hatimaye kupungua. Wakati huo huo, joto la maji katika kioo hicho kikubwa halikuanguka chini ya digrii 43 hata baada ya dakika 10. Dilution si tu sehemu ya lazima ya baridi kinywaji na barafu - ni muhimu. (Hata katika jaribio la kiunzi kilichopigwa, barafu ilihitaji kuyeyuka ndani ya kifuniko cha plastiki ili kupoza maji yaliyo nje.) Hiyo ni kwa sababu barafu haipelekei baridi yake moja kwa moja kwa kioevu kinachozunguka. Badala yake, joto, au nishati, huchukuliwa kutoka majini na kutumiwa kuyeyuka kwa barafu. Kwa kuwa barafu kubwa inamaanisha kwamba nishati inaweza kuhamishwa haraka, barafu ndogo ni bora zaidi kuliko barafu kubwa kwa kupoza kioevu. Ikiwa ungependa kuyeyusha haraka kinywaji kama vile chai ya barafu, tumia vipande vidogo vya barafu. Kwa kinywaji kisichopunguzwa (na kisichopunguzwa) kama vile kinywaji cha zamani (ambapo joto baridi kupita kiasi litaziba ladha), tumia vifuko vikubwa. (Na kama unataka kujifunza kufanya barafu ya ukubwa wowote kwamba ni kioo wazi kwa cocktails, kuangalia mbinu yetu katika makala hii.)