Berry Ice Cubes

Knowing how to make berry ice cubes is a good way to take your drinks up a notch! Use up that produce in an easy and beautiful garnish for cocktails and mocktails.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one and buy something, Feast + West receives a small commission at no additional cost to you. All opinions are our own. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Berry ice cubes recipe

One of the easiest ways to make an impression with a cocktail comes down to the most basic ingredient: ice.

Have you ever noticed that the fancy cocktail bars will freeze a flower in an ice cube, but the cocktail itself isn’t actually that fancy?

It’s true: the wow factor is supposed to be the ice cubes.

That’s what I love about these berry ice cubes, which feature fresh farmers’ market fruits and will give all your July 4 drinks that same wow factor. Even if they’re just sparkling lemonade!

But you don’t have to enjoy them in the summer only. They can dress up your drinks year-round!

To be fair, fine cocktail bars put a lot of work into their ice. If you ever noticed that the ice your fridge makes from regular, cold tap water comes out looking cloudy, you’re not alone.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but it has everything to do with the water you use. Cocktail purists will go to great lengths to freeze clearer ice.

How to make clear ice at home

I could write an entire post about making clear ice at home, but it’s actually not that hard. So I’ll give you a hint. You need boiling hot water!

I use this stovetop kettle, but I’ve always wanted one of these electric kettles. They look so sleek!

First of all, boiling water eliminates impurities from the water, so that’s going to give you a clearer result than what you’d get straight from the tap.

You can also use distilled water, which is already purer than the tap. You can take it a step further and boil distilled water, too. That’s going to give it another layer of clarity.

But the key is the temperature of the water. When you freeze water from a warm temperature, it can actually form faster.

You don’t want to pour boiling hot water into your ice tray. (If it’s plastic, it could melt!) So definitely let it cool down a little.

Then, pour in your hot water, and pop that ice tray in the freezer. When it’s ready, you should have crystal clear ice!

How to make berry ice cubes

Berry ice cubes are an easy way to make drinks stand out.

You can drop them in all kinds of cocktails and mocktails, even just plain water! Sparkling water is one of my favorites for berry ice cubes, and that’s what you see in my pictures here today.

All you need to do is take your ice cube tray (I love these ice trays from OXO) and fill each cavity with your fruits of choice. Then, fill it with the warm water and pop it in the freezer for a few hours.

You could also make giant ice cubes or ice spheres filled with berries, which would be delicious (not to mention gorgeous) in a spirit-forward drink like an old-fashioned cocktail.

Berries for ice cubes

Use fresh, ripe berries. Even better if they’re from your local farmers’ market, but any kind will do.

The choices for berries are many:

• raspberries
• blueberries
• blackberries
• cherries (use a cherry pitter first)
• strawberry slices
• cranberries

Other fruits are also welcome in ice cubes, like grapes and kiwi slices. You can even add a piece of fresh mint, basil or rosemary to your ice cubes for a hint of greenery.

If you like, you can add squeeze a whole lemon and strain it into the water that you will make the ice cubes with. Or you can add a piece of lime or lemon zest to each ice cube.

This will give the cubes a little flavor to dilute in your drink as they melt. (On top of the berries’ flavor — which might be the best part: munching on them at the end of the drink!)

Drinks for berry ice cubes

Now that you have berry ice cubes, what to use them in?

If you want to go the non-alcoholic route, lemonade and iced tea are the perfect canvas for a pop of color. I love them in these sparkling balsamic mocktails.

You can also simply add them to a glass of water — still or sparkling — to jazz them up a bit. This berry infused water would be perfect!

Strawberry slices would be gorgeous suspended in ice cubes for strawberry rosé sangria.

Raspberry ice cubes would be delicious in this raspberry mint kir royale cocktail for Easter, and blackberry ice would be amazing in this spicy jalapeño blackberry margarita for Cinco de Mayo.

I’m going to try cranberry ice at the holidays in these yule mules, which are perfect for Christmastime.

Soon you’ll be on your way to fancy, berry-filled ice cubes! Hope you love them.

More fancy ice recipes

Love dressing up your drinks with pretty ice cubes? Try one of these ideas for your next party:

• Flower ice cubes
• Tea ice cubes
• Herb ice cubes