People Are Making Floral Ice Cubes And They're Perfect For Summer Cocktails

These ice cubes contain flowerheads or sprigs of herbs which add colour as well as flavour to your drinks.

Here professional gardener Tanya Anderson explains the best way to make these adorable complements to your cocktails.

Firstly, you need to make sure you choose the right flowers - it's so important you do your research beforehand to avoid eating the wrong variety and making yourself ill.

"Cut edible flowers when they are at their best and use the types which are compatible with your drink," Tanya explains.

For example, borage works well with Pimm's because of the cucumber flavour of its blue flowers. Borage blossoms and mild voilas are also perfect for a lemonade or a gin and tonic.

Don't worry though, most edible flowers only have a very subtle flavour so it won't ruin the taste of your drink. Although, you should avoid pungent flowers as they can taste garlicky or oniony.

As well as taste and aroma, these ice cubes can easily affect the colour of your drink, meaning that you can create the perfect aesthetic.

Tanya adds: "Some edible flowers will tint your drink as the ice cube melts. For instance, if you put magenta flowers such as amaranth into ice cubes and your drink is a light colour, maybe Prosecco-based or gin-based, it will turn the entire glass pink, providing a real fun effect. Alternatively, hibiscus flowers infuse a deep red."

Tanya is also keen to bust the myth that boiling water leads to clear ice crystals.; instead, just use distilled water, she says.

It can also be quite annoying when flowers float to the top of the cube, but there's a simple trick to stop that from happening.

"A lot of people find the flowers float to the surface and don't freeze inside the ice. The trick is to put a little bit of water into the ice cube mould, maybe half a centimetre, freeze that, take it out when it's frozen.

"Wet your flower on the end which is going on the bottom, press it down on to the ice and it will stick. Then fill the remainder of the mould to the top with distilled water and freeze it again. That way the flower should stay inside", Tanya adds.

For an extra quick tip, she also mentioned investing in silicone moulds.

"Silicone ice cube moulds are really easy to use and you can get big cube-shaped ones, or circular types, which are really popular", says Tanya.

Anyway, I think it's time for an ice-cold beveragino now.