With summer here, there’s no better time to celebrate the warmer months with cool cocktails in the comfort of your own home. Whether it’s an after-work happy hour or a weekend soiree you’re planning for your backyard, serving up a host of perfectly chilled cocktails will definitely let you toast a season of summer fun.

When planning a summer party, keep in mind that the drinks are often the most important item. In other words, you don’t want to serve only wine or beer. When planning a summer cocktail party, consider the base of the drinks you’ll be serving and don’t limit yourself to individual spirits. For example, it’s always a good idea to have a rum-based drink, a vodka-based drink, and of course, the obligatory fruity, icy summer concoction.

With that in mind, cold drinks require ice, and this is especially important with iced drinks, as ice is a major factor in building the perfect Tom Collins or Scotch. The best quality, best tasting ice makes or breaks a great drink, and cubes should be shaped so that they don’t take up too much surface area, as this prevents the drink from “watering down”.

Therefore, if you are organizing a summer cocktail party, do not forget to have a large supply of ice. Although your refrigerator’s ice maker can provide enough ice for a few glasses of water or iced tea, you may need to look at other methods to obtain larger amounts of ice. Many people buy ice at the supermarket or even from ice companies. These companies use state-of-the-art ice-making equipment with a reverse osmosis purification process, and the resulting ice is bagged and made available to customers.

This type of ice usually comes in the form of dry ice, glacier ice blocks, and ice cubes. Dry ice is carbon dioxide in a frozen state and is ideal for keeping perishables frozen for long periods of time. Because dry ice does not melt into water but instead turns into a gas, it is not used directly in beverages. Glacier block ice comes in large blocks and is perfect for ice chest camping. Cubed ice, on the other hand, is what most people use in their drinks, and these can be purchased in bags of various sizes and quantities.

However, if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of buying cubed ice from an ice company, a portable ice maker may do the trick. These types of units are compact, good for countertop placement, and typically produce ice in minutes without needing to be connected directly to a water line. Instead, bottled or tap water can be poured directly into the ice maker. Also, many portable ice machines can produce ice in different sizes and shapes of cubes.

Our product team has spent the better part of the summer months testing and reviewing some of the most popular portable ice makers on the market today. Well-known ice makers include Franklin Chef, Amcor, Avanti, and Sunpentown, but when NewAir, a company known primarily for its air conditioners and heaters, offered to provide us with their NewAir AI-210SS portable ice maker for testing, we were excited to see how it measures up in terms of features compared to competing units. This is what we found:

Style and Design:

When we received the AI-210SS ice maker, we really liked its elegant and stylish design. It featured a silver body with black accents that looked great sitting on our kitchen counter. Although it weighed approximately 46 pounds, we could tell that it was built with heavy-duty materials and built to last. This 115 volt ice maker easily plugged into a household outlet, and the front door was easy to open and close. A removable bowl and ice scoop were also included. The LCD screen was bright and easy to read, and we were able to have the unit up and running after just a few minutes. We also appreciated the fact that it even had a “self-clean” feature.

Ice making:

According to NewAir, the AI-210SS Portable Ice Maker produces ice in as little as six minutes, and we found this to be true. Twelve pieces of ice were made per cycle in our choice of three different sizes (small, medium, and large), and instead of having to deal with a water line, we just poured bottled water into the reservoir. In terms of maintenance, when we are done using the AI-210SS, we simply empty the unused water through the side drain.

General impression:

Overall, we think the NewAir AI-210SS is the best option for homeowners who need a compact ice maker. It produces a large amount of ice in a short time and is actually more affordable than other units with similar ice making capabilities.