Ice goes straight into the customer’s glass — legally and in practice, it is food. Yet many businesses choose their supplier on price alone. These are the questions worth asking.
1. What water is used?
Ice quality starts with the water. Ask whether it is treated or purified and how it is monitored. Water high in minerals or chlorine gives cloudy ice and can pass on flavours.
2. How is it produced?
Professional equipment (like the Japanese Hoshizaki machines we use) produces dense, clear cubes. Check whether the supplier has its own factory or resells third-party ice.
3. How is it packed?
Ice should arrive in closed, labelled food-grade bags. Torn or reused bags are a red flag.
4. How is it transported?
Ice that melts and refreezes forms stuck-together blocks and loses quality. Ask how it is transported and in what condition it arrives.
5. Does it have the formats you need?
A cocktail bar needs more than cubes: crushed ice, spheres, large cubes, Collins spears. One supplier simplifies logistics. See the types of ice.
6. Is it reliable at peak times?
Friday nights, summer weekends, events: that is when ice runs out. Ask how the supplier guarantees deliveries in high season.
7. Invoicing and terms
For businesses, company invoicing, volume pricing and terms for regular customers all matter.
Iceology is an ice factory in Lisbon supplying bars, restaurants and hotels in Lisbon and the Algarve. Explore ice for bars, ice for restaurants and ice for hotels.
