The Secret Behind The Ice Of Holes, It Turns Out That It's Not Just A Matter Of Aesthetics

Illustration of ice cubes with holes. (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Ice cubes have many functions in the culinary world, ranging from freezing food ingredients to cooling drinks. The shape of ice cubes that are often encountered are small boxes, such as those produced by the home refrigerator freezer.

However, there is also ice cube which has a hole in the middle. This shape of ice cube is commonly found in restaurants for various cold drinks offered.

Quoted from Reader's Digest, on Thursday, September 11, 2025, the holes in the ice cube are not just for aesthetics. The hole turns out to have a special function, one of which is to cool food or drinks more quickly.

"The basic idea is that ice holes increase the surface area of contact between ice and food or drinks, so cooling drinks or food is much faster than new ices in the form of a complete cube without holes," said food scientist Bryan Quoc Le, PhD.

Another thing that is the main consideration of restaurants using perforated ice cubes is the ratio that is considered perfect for cooling drinks, without reducing the taste of the drink much.

These holes allow ice contact with enough liquid to cool off quickly, but you don't reduce the volume of drinks too much makes customers feel aggrieved, said Lean Miner.

Not only that, perforated ice cubes can also be produced with special machines with large and fast production capacity. This fast production is urgently needed by restaurants that have to serve lots of cold drinks every day.

In addition, perforated rock ice is also more efficient and cheap. This is because the use of water is less, but still provides good cooling power.