Herb & Lou’s Infused Ice Cubes

Herb & Lou’s Infused Ice Cubes

High-end bartenders have a neat trick available to them: Rather than chilling a drink with frozen water, they put stuff in the ice, freeze it, then let that flavor your drink as it melts. It’s also a nifty trick for home bartenders who don’t want to bother with a bunch of mixing and shaking: Just freeze up your mixers and drop the cubes in your glass as you need them.

Well, that sounds like a lot of work, too, so here’s a shortcut: Herb & Lou’s Infused Ice Cubes. While fairly self-explanatory, the gist is that Herb and Lou mix up fruit and botanicals and bitters and whatnot so all you have to do is take out a cube and drop it in your drink. Boom, cocktail’s done in 10 seconds flat. The cubes are packaged in slim cardboard boxes, with each cube nestled in its own foil-sealed plastic bin. You stow the whole box in the freezer and pop out a cube when needed.

They’re not cheap — each cube will run you over a buck — but a box of 12 will probably last until you’ve long since forgotten about it and decide to clean out your fridge.

• The Oliver — a non-classic negroni with wormwood extracts imagined for gin

• The Clyde — peach cosmopolitan with Benedictine-inspired herbs and artisanal bitters imagined for vodka and tequila

• The Cecile — watermelon and cucumber margarita with clover honey and thyme imagined for tequila and vodka

• The Cooper — blood orange-ginger old fashioned imagined for bourbon

• The Seymour — Meyer lemon daiquiri with vanilla bergamot, chamomile and vanilla imagined for rum

Keep an eye out for Herb & Lou’s near you (or online)!