Not long ago, before refrigeration, ice was more precious than gold. Nothing else could do what ice did, and in most parts of the world it simply didn’t exist. And where it did, it was nearly impossible to harvest, transport, or store. It was the one commodity that could literally vanish in your hand. Not many people consider this today. If I weren’t in my line of business, I suppose I wouldn’t, either. Yet for much of human history, ice was a phenomenon. Ice was elitist. Rare. Powerful. Ephemeral.
