There’s an ice bucket out there for every person and every situation.
, you need your ice to be easily accessible. And let me just stop you before you so much as glance over at that metal mixing bowl and think to yourself that it will be an appropriate substitute.
Ice buckets do a couple of things: First, they insulate ice and keep it from melting . Second, they allow you to keep your drinks station separate from the kitchen, which crucially prevents traffic jams where you’re trying to cook and assemble food—and keeps people out of your freezer during a party.
Do you want people rifling through that cavernous ice chest full of stock bones, mixed berries, and forgotten lasagna slices? I didn’t think so. If you have an automatic ice dispenser, maybe you can admit to getting flustered at a small crowd forming around your fridge hoping to get a few cubes in their glasses. Oh, look—someone pressed the wrong button and spilled water all over the floor. “Don’t worry, this always happens. Our fridge is tricky,” you say, even though it really isn’t.
There are plenty of options out there. Some ice buckets are of the more decorative indoor type, meant to embellish aor act as a bucket for champagne. These will be great come holiday season. Others take a more practical line, acting as tabletop coolers designed specifically for ice. These are your friends during the coming scorchers, where you plan to entertain in your yard, on your roof, etc. No matter what, there’s an ice bucket out there for every person and every situation.