Juice Cubes

Regular ice cubes water down your drinks as they melt. Juice cubes don’t. Freeze unsweetened pineapple juice (or any fruit juice) in ice cube trays and drop them into glasses instead. As they melt, your drink gets more flavorful, not more diluted.

This is one of those ideas so simple you wonder why you didn’t think of it years ago. Lemonade stays lemony to the last sip. Iced tea gets a subtle fruit infusion. Cocktails keep their punch instead of turning into flavored water by the bottom of the glass.

Kitchen Tips

• Use unsweetened juice. Sweetened juice cubes will make your drink progressively sweeter as they melt, which gets cloying fast.
• Fill the trays about ¾ full. Juice expands when it freezes, and overfilled trays overflow and freeze the cubes together.
• Pop the frozen cubes out and transfer them to a freezer bag for storage. They’ll keep for a couple months without picking up freezer flavors.

Variations

• Freeze orange juice cubes for iced tea or sparkling water.
• Make lemonade cubes and use them in regular water for a slow-release lemon flavor.
• Freeze coffee in ice cube trays for iced coffee that never gets watered down.