The Ice Garnish

In case you missed it, our beloved ice machine celebrated its first birthday last month. That might not mean much to you, and that’s totally cool. But after a year of preparing hundreds of ice baths with the help of this machine, I have to admit that I’ve developed a rather intimate relationship with it. 

When someone accidentally leaves the scooper inside and it gets trapped near the bottom, I feel as though my child has been wronged. On days it’s particularly humid out, I worry about my baby, who can be very sensitive to the heat. If someone ever takes ice out for their water bottle, (which they absolutely can and should do if they’d like) or accidentally scrapes the side of the machine with a bench or barbell, I’m here to tell you right now that OF COURSE I SEE YOU! Like a mother with eyes in the back of her head…

Well then. By now you can only imagine the joy I feel when I open that machine up and see it completely filled with ice. Pure joy & admiration. What’s even better, though, is when I open up the machine to see huge chunks of ice still intact. This happens pretty often during the winter months; and naturally, the “ice garnish” has been born out of it.

Before you go calling me the crazy ice lady, (it’s ice doula, by the way), I’d like to tell you about this “ice garnish”. It’s quite simple. I reserve a piece or two of large ice chunks, and delicately add them on top of an ice bath after it’s completely filled with ice & water. Like a little lemon wedge served with water, or a sprinkle of herbs to finish a dish, the ice garnish is its own aesthetic equivalent for B&E’s cold exposure.

I share this silly but endearing new tradition as an example of bringing light to an otherwise mundane task. Yes, attention to detail can be burdensome. But also, it can be fun. I hope you choose to engage more in the latter.

Kimmy Moss

@kimmy.moss