So here we go: the only place that cubed ice belongs is in a drink with a straw. If you try to take a swig of a drink with cubed ice at the bottom it becomes stuck together and right when you tilt the glass back, all the ice slides down toward your face! It just gets worse as you continue to drink as well because the ice continues to solidify and slides more easily. Pretty soon you are trying to drink as fast as you can so that the ice does not slide into your face (like one of these baseball-size hail) and cause your drink to spill everywhere.

This phenomenon occurs less frequently with crushed ice because the ice tends to melt faster and therefore has less time to form a solid block in the bottom of your glass.

Therefore, crushed ice is better than cubed ice in a strawless glass, but even in a glass with a straw, I would still prefer crushed over cubed.

After I have finished my drink, I like to be able to suck on the little shards of ice that are left over from my drink. In Pam’s words, “It’s like second drink!”