Ice buckets

Start by calculating how much ice you need. For a meal at home, a one- to two-liter bucket is enough. It can hold a bottle of wine, or enough ice for a handful of drinks. If you're hosting a drinks party and it's warm, allow about half a kilo of ice per guest per hour. You'll soon need five to ten liters.

Next, look at how the bucket is made. A double-walled bucket has air between the walls, which provides insulation. A single wall transfers the warmth from your bar straight to the ice. Even more important is a removable inner bucket, so the ice stays out of the meltwater. Also consider the opening. A wide opening makes it quicker to use an ice scoop; a narrow one keeps the cold in better. Behind the bar, one large bucket is better than a few small ones.

Water conducts heat about twenty-five times faster than air. If your ice is sitting in a puddle of meltwater, you can watch it melt away. Dry ice lasts much longer. So pour out the water often, even if the bucket still looks full. Or choose a model with a strainer bottom.

Fill the bucket generously, too. A big pile of ice keeps itself cold; a half-empty bucket will be empty within an hour. Always scoop ice with a scoop or an ice tong, never with a glass. If a glass breaks in the ice, you'll never find all the shards. That's the last thing you want behind the bar. If you're working with large clear blocks, you'll need ice tools to break them into the right size.

Ice is food. An ice bucket belongs with your tableware, not as a storage bin. Clean it every day, even if it looks clean, and let it dry thoroughly before adding fresh ice. Moisture with a little sugar residue is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

Stainless steel almost never breaks and looks sleek. It does feel cold and causes condensation on a wooden table. Plastic is lighter, won’t break if it falls off the bar, and insulates better than metal on its own. For large buckets, pay attention to the handles. Lift a full ten-liter bucket with both hands.

If you mainly want to keep bottles cold and don’t need to serve ice, then wine coolers and champagne coolers are a better choice. Want to make clear ice in the right size for your glass? Then check out the ice cube trays. And you can quickly see which ice goes with which drink. An Old Fashioned needs a large cube, while a mojito needs crushed ice.