From peanut-infused rum to housemade lemongrass soda, nearly every cocktail component appears to be getting the artisanal treatment. The final frontier? Ice. Cracked and cloudy cubes from a tray no longer cut it at the city’s trendiest watering holes. Places like Rasika and Estadio now opt for crystal-clear blocks hand-cut to specification from new boutique ice company Favourite Ice, founded by a team of local bartenders. Others, like Hank’s Oyster Bar and Barmini, carve to order from huge blocks with the help of Japanese picks and saws. Even water comes into consideration at The Rye Bar at the Capella hotel, which conducted taste tests on an array of regional bottles before settling on Saratoga Natural Spring Water from New York for its spherical ice. The trend may seem the stuff of Portlandia skits, but the high-end ice serves a practical purpose: The dense, clear cubes melt slower and won’t water down your drink as quickly. They look nice, too, and some say the sound of their clink against the glass has a more satisfying ring. “You can say it’s just ice,” says The Passenger and Columbia Room’s Derek Brown, “and you can ignore the fact that it’s a significant part of the drink.”