Ever since I had the best gin and tonic of my life at Jose Andres' house (no, I'm not ashamed of name-dropping the owner/chef of Jaleo, Cafe Atlantico, Oyamel, etc...), I've been trying to replicate it. I found the gin - Hendricks. The smashed mint leaves? Easy. So, too, the crushed juniper berries. It was the monster ice cubes that eluded me.

No more.

The importance of having just one huge cube of ice in the drink was that it kept the cocktail cold without melting down its power into a bubbleless, watery bore. So I went onto the internet to try and find a source. Hopeless. It didn't matter what I typed into the Search box, nor in what combination. Nothing emerged, except for a mold that produces that big diamond-shaped ice gem in the picture. Fun, but not quite what I was looking for.

So I sat and thought. And came up with the answer: those silicone muffin trays. Agreed, they're not cubed but round. Still, now I have my very own mega-size ice cubes in cocktails that won't get diluted.

If you'd like the diamond gem version, click that link to buy.

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