Last week, The Columbia Room played host to Ice Jam 2011, where bartenders from around town gathered to learn more about the art of carving ice. Gardner Dunn, a rep from Suntory Whiskey (yes, the one that Bill Murray advertises in Lost in Translation), demonstrated how to carve ice in to diamonds and spheres.

Over the last year or two, ice has become a point of focus for a number of bartenders. If you’ve had a drink around town, you may have noticed that some of your cocktails now contain very clear and square cubes of ice, created by a machine called a Kold-Draft. At Jack Rose and Bourbon, you might receive your brown spirits with a spherical ice cube made with a special press.

The main reason for the attention to this particular detail is the belief that different drinks are best served at a particular temperature, and with a lower amount of dilution. Temperature affects the way taste buds and the brain sense flavor compounds — it’s part of why cheap beer tastes best ice cold, and why cookies taste more sweet fresh out of the oven.

Therefore, the preference is for ice spheres and diamonds with less surface area to cool drinks while reducing the amount of dilution. Some take it a step further with clear ice, which is both pretty to look at as well as reducing the minute voids that add additional surface area. (This can be done at home by making cubes with distilled water or freezing, melting and refreezing water a few times. Arduous sounding, I know.)

The staff of the Columbia Room prepared the ice for carving — large blocks of ice from deep freeze were tempered by allowing them to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. This allows the ice to “soften” without really melting. Then the blocks were broken down with chain saws and handsaws in to three-inch cubes. From there, a very sharp knife can quickly shave down edges to make a diamond. Alternatively, ice picks can be used to slowly form a sphere.

Obviously, there are many different schools of thought on the value of fancy ice and fancy cocktails. But any activity that involves chain saws, and ice picks is pretty fun to watch. And having tried my own hand at making an ice sphere, it’s definitely a bit of an art to get it to exactly the right shape — mine looked a bit like a brain. But if you want to learn and get in on the action of carving an ice ball, The Columbia Room will be happy to let you try.