I finally spent this weekend focusing on one of my pet projects: novelty ice cubes. The basic idea involves taking your favourite substance, liquefying it, and then freezing it as an ice cube. As the ice cube melts, the substance will start entering your drink and (hopefully) add an interesting twist.

Here are two ideas so far:

1) Icefire cube



If you're feeling a bit more mischevious or just like hot foods, why don't you give your drinks a kick? Companies have already done this with products like Spray Awake and several energy drinks.

What you will need
Capsaicin is the substance in foods that causes the sensation of hotness. You won't want to use pure capsaicin, because it will hurt even more than law enforcement-grade pepper spray. What I suggest is taking your favourite hot sauce and diluting it to a comfortable level of heat.

Or maybe you don't like heat. In that case, make an ice cube out of milk instead.

Potential problems
A sugary drink can reduce the hotness of your ice cubes.

2) Alcoholic ice cubes



An ice cube containing your favourite drink will gradually release more alcohol and flavour into your beverage. (Please enjoy responsibly!)

What you will need
Your favourite alcoholic drink, preferably one with lots of flavour (especially since it might need to be diluted). Your mixture will freeze faster with the help of stainless steel ice cube trays, but this part is totally optional.

Potential problems
Alcohol has much lower freezing point than water. It's quite possible that your fridge won't be able to freeze this conconction. The lower the drink's alcohol content, the higher its freezing point.

That's really nice. You have shown the number of new ways to use ice cubes.