Whiskey Stones: Worth the Hype?
22 January 2013 in Op-Ed, Whiskey Accessories and ProductsBy Jake Emen
Whiskey stones in a Glencairn glass
(Credit: Jake Emen)
I love the idea of whiskey stones, and I wanted to actually love using them. Which is why I was extra disappointed by my experience with them versus my expectations, and wanted to share that with the other whiskey-heads out there.
The premise of whiskey stones, which have been popping up as popular gifts and hot items all over the place, is a simple one – chill your whiskey without diluting it. The concept is fantastic, but there’s a failure of execution.
Don’t get me wrong, when you grab a few whiskey stones from the freezer, they feel ice cold. You’re expecting great things. This could change everything, you happily think to yourself while pouring in your spirit to recommended specifications.
But then… not so much. If you’re using a proper whiskey glass and follow the guidelines of how much spirit you should have versus how many stones, then you’ll notice a slight chill. It certainly takes a bit of the edge off a harsh spirit and lowers the liquid down from room temperature a tad.
However, it’s by no means a substitute for having a few pieces of ice in your glass. The whiskey just never gets that cold, or really, close to that cold. The stones are cold, and the glass may even be cold to the touch. But the liquid you’re drinking isn’t, it hovers just slightly below its starting point fresh out of the bottle.
Rocks in your whiskey?
(Credit: Richard Thomas)
And if you use a wider glass, or more liquid compared to the number of stones used, then you’ll hardly notice anything at all.
When you pay attention to the fine print of the box, you’ll see a description that provides a disclaimer to your expectations, basically telling you to expect a slight chill. A slight chill is at best what you receive, but that’s not the way the product is marketed, and not what I was expecting.
So the next time I want my whiskey on the rocks, I’ll stick to the fake ones, not the real ones.
7 Comments to Whiskey Stones: Worth the Hype?
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Of course they don’t work. Ice does not chill the liquid itself, it is actually the melting ice within the liquid that is cold.
Why in the world do you want ice-cold whiskey? If that’s what you want, pop a bottle in the freezer. Of course, you’ll be masking everything that makes a whiskey great by doing so. But if that’s what you want, there’s an easy solution.
You’re losing out on the state change from ice to water, which takes a lot of heat and is where most of the cooling comes from. (It takes as much heat to melt ice as it takes to heat the resulting melt to 175F.) By my math, even chilling the granite cubes with dry ice first won’t absorb as much heat as ice would.
I also use the stones. I find they work best when you also keep the glass in the freezer with them.
You can also chill your whiskey without diluting it by simply keeping it in the fridge or freezer, though I have no idea why you’d want to.
[...] Here’s something any chemist could have told you. Stones won’t get your whiskey nearly as cold as ice will. [The Whiskey Reviewer] [...]
I just don’t get it. I know several people that swear by stones, cubes, rocks, whatever. I reviewed Whiskey Disks a while back. The temp barely dropped in the whiskey and definitely didn’t chill it. It must be working for someone… Here’s my review:
http://whiskeynose.com/review-whiskeydisks/