Why Ice in Victorian Bars Remained a Rarity Because of Contaminated Water

By the 1840s American bartenders had already shown the British cocktails with ice, but the use of ice in Victorian bars remained a curiosity all the same. Strange as it may seem, many sensible people were extremely wary of drinking water, and equally of adding it to their drinks, even in the form of ice. The trouble lay in the contamination of the country's fresh water: a few mouthfuls could bestow an unforgettable bout of cholera, botulism or typhoid. Ice was used for preserving food and was harvested from ponds of standing water and freezing ditches, and so it contained all the filth of those unwholesome bodies of water. The wider British public was able to try proper cocktails with ice only once steamship deliveries of ice from the USA and Canada had been established in the late nineteenth century, although society was not yet ready to accept this blessing without fear