You don't need specialized equipment. It's easy enough to be done at home.

definitely just for astethic reasons

I love this comment. On one hand I don't hate the idea that this exists and it's an obscure aesthetic thing. If someone wants to make super fancy cocktails then fine, whatever. On the other hand,

“Shut up and drink your whisk(e)y neat like God and the Irish meant it to be consumed. The water is already in it.”

Love it

Noe that the water can just be tap, and the equipment isn't super fancy. If the water looks clear, you can make clear ice from it.

It's called directional freezing, you stick water in freezer insulated on all sides so that it freezes from the top down instead of outside in.

If you have larger ice, you'll see the white stuff is in the middle, the last area to freeze. Directional freezing causes that to be at an end instead of in the center, and you either pull out the ice before the end freezes, ideally, or cut off the end.

I have an ice mold that doess this and it provides break off points to break the clear ice off the unclear ice.

It does take a while though and the bulky insulation takes a lot of room in the freezer.

I don't know, I've also heard that a few drops of water "opens up" the whiskey. My dad was an alcoholic who loved whiskey. He would order it with a few drops of water. Ice would do the same thing.

Not such fancy equipment. I used to make it in a lunchbox cooler with our very hard tap water; that eventually cracked but I have been rocking one of these for a decade now.

https://www.clearlyfrozen.com/

All you need is directional freezing. My ice comes out crystal clear in big ol' blocks like that.

To be fair - I would charge $5 a tray too. It takes a day & a half and space in my freezer. But it is an easy, cheap, and fun hobby

They only people I have seen that insist on such things are whisk(e)y snobs that drink their whisk(e)y on the rocks.

But then these cooled-down granite cubes are better because they don't dilute the liquor.

BTW why drink Americans their Whisky with ice? I've never seen that in Scotland.

Well it looks nice too so if you host a party I get it

Except 300g of ice is easy to make at home. You buy bags of ice because that's more ice than your freezer can make in a day

That's a hell of a lot different than buying a box of 4 cubes.

Here in Europe you'd see expensive SUVs, like Porsches and Range Rovers, parked outside the Aldi all the time. Lot's of rich people are penny pinchers especially old money who inherited their money.