I am sucking on an ice cube which has been harvested from a Greenland glacier and shipped to the UAE. As it melts in my mouth I make a promise to buy a tree from Dubai Garden Centre and plant it to offset the environmental cost—and assuage my guilt—of this experiment. I roll the ice around my mouth and taste… absolutely nothing.
In the water game, the purity of what we drink is measured in total dissolved solids (TDS). Bottled water from the Norwegian brand Voss has a TDS rating of 44, Evian is about 360 and Pellegrino hovers around 1,100. However, the water in Greenland from where the ice cube in my mouth has originated has a TDS of just 2.8.
“It’s the purest water on earth,” says Samir Ben Tabib, chairman of international relations for Arctic Ice, the company responsible for importing 22 tonnes of ice that now sits in a freezer in Al Quoz having taken nine weeks to be shipped 20,000kms from Greenland to the UAE. The ice, he hopes, will be sold to bars and restaurants in Dubai as well as beauty salons who treat the skin with ice cubes. Tabib intends to deal only with venues whose profile matches the exclusivity of the ice. F&B managers at Atlantis The Royal and Burj Al Arab should probably expect a phone call.
“Dubai was the perfect match for us,” says Tabib, who was born and raised in Denmark. “We considered launching in Tokyo because the Japanese have a big love for ice but we chose Dubai because it’s an international city that is moving forward to the future. Our purpose is not to be everywhere, only the best bars in Dubai for the client who wants to enjoy the best of Greenland.” When asked about the price of his ice, Tabib is cagey.
“It’s towards the higher end, of course, this is not a cheap product,” he explains. “We have received a lot of requests from high-end individuals and celebrities all around the world. Our clients are concerned about quality, not price.”
Having been compressed for more than 100,000 years has squeezed out any air bubbles to give the ice a transparent appearance. It melts three times slower than regular ice, claims Tabib. “You put the ice in your mouth and you can taste the cleanliness, the purity and the freshness,” he says. “It tastes of nothing, which is good because it doesn’t alter the taste of your drink.
Cold hard truth
Right now you might be picturing someone in a Dubai bar sipping a Negroni containing a chunk of crystal clear Greenland ice. You might also be recalling that much-seen photograph of a polar bear clinging precariously to a tiny iceberg.
When Arctic Ice posted news of its iceberg export on LinkedIn, the reaction was vociferous. Devina Shah is a sustainability and climate expert at Rovensa—the world’s largest biosolutions platform for sustainable agriculture, and called it an “idiotic proposal” adding, “Given the melting of ice sheets globally, you should not be idealising consumption of these endangered things and essentially helping to open up further avenues for iceberg ice exploitation. Have you heard we are in the middle of a climate crisis?”
Environmental consultant Nathalie Menet said she was “shocked and flabbergasted” at Arctic Ice’s plan. “How can you plunder this 100,000-year-old pure ice, make it travel
thousands of kilometres, just to satisfy for a few minutes the hubris of a few inconsistent billionaires?” she asked. “It’s absurd. Your business is obscene, irresponsible. And please don’t say its ‘green’ and part of the ecological transition. You’re suffocating the human soul.”
Kate Birch is the editor of Sustainability Magazine in the UAE and believes importing ice from Greenland jars with the country’s eco-minded pledges. “The issue is less about impact and more about messaging and behaviour, especially given the UAE’s ambition to build new national norms around responsible consumption and ultimately reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030,” she says. “It’s not a great alignment with the UAE’s push toward responsible consumption. Taking the ice will have little impact, there are much bigger environmental pressures to tackle, like sea levels rising. Though they are shipping frozen water halfway across the world, which seems unnecessary. But then so is the shipping of Evian water from France to Asia.”
She does, however, suggest this imported ice presents an opportunity for hospitality brands to give something back. “If the bar or hotel serving the luxury ice creates positive messaging around the plight of the Arctic—by donating a percentage of profits from each drink to an environmental charity, for example—then that is a more sustainable story,” she says.
Tabib offers a staunch defence of his business’ environmental impact. “It’s extremely difficult to get a licence from the government of Greenland,” he states. “They would never have approved our licence if it damaged the environment. My three business partners are Greenland locals. In Greenland the environment is a way of life and people take care of nature, otherwise they ruin the food chain.”
The idea for Arctic Ice came when one of Tabib’s co-founders was sailing in Greenland and saw large pieces of clear ice in the ocean. “In Greenland the ocean is like a highway, people sail everywhere,” explains Tabib. “These pieces of ice are very dangerous to sailors because they can’t see them and every year people sail into them by accident and die. We thought we could pick up these pieces of ice, make income for Greenland and also make sailing routes safer. Ice was made in the ocean, we’re using natural resources for something rather than let it melt away. Around 280 gigatonnes of ice melts in Greenland every year. Our licence allows us to export a tiny percentage of that.”
Revolutionary Swiss sustainable water company Be WTR launched in Dubai in June 2022, offering a subscription service to hotels and restaurants as well as private customers. Installed in the likes of the Westin Hotel, Be WTR’s technology filters tap water three times to eliminate pollutants and particles. Luigi Bologna, regional managing director at Be WTR, says sustainability in Dubai F&B is a hot topic. “We hear from many of our five star clients in Dubai that the new luxury is about storytelling and purpose,” he says. “The guests want to hear more about the why and the how of things and sustainability is key in this. Hotels stopping importing millions of bottles of mineral water from Europe, and instead use BE WTR to upgrade their local tap water is a story that echoes well with the demanding and conscious guests.” Commenting on Arctic Ice, he adds, “Like everyone else I’ve heard
horror stories about exporting ice from Greenland to put in cocktails in Dubai. We all have a responsibility to take care about the planet in the best way we can. To me it doesn’t
seem like these initiatives go hand in hand with that.
Ice Man
John Gillespie founded boutique ice brand The Artisan Ice Co. in Dubai in 2022 and has major restaurants the likes of Zuma, LPM, The Arts Club, Atlantis The Royal and Gaia on his books. Operating out of a AED 3.6 million two-storey warehouse in Al Quoz, Gillespie’s team manhandle 300kg blocks of ice onto tables where they are cut with Japanese knives and a motorised bandsaw. The ice can be shaped into pillars, diamonds, cubes and spheres to fit the glassware of Dubai bars.
While industrially-produced ice using unfiltered water is cloudy and spotty, Gillespie’s blocks are clear because any impurities, bacteria, sediments or residue have been removed in a four-step process. Ordinary DEWA water is filtered through paper and charcoal before reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light conclude the purification process.
Over three days, this water is frozen slowly from the bottom up in large baths, forcing impurities to the surface and resulting in clear ice. “It looks almost invisible in the drink,” says Gillespie. “You want to taste the spirit and mixer in your drink so you need ice that has minimum dilution but maximum chill. Our ice has a lower melt rate because of the filtration process, and so it lasts longer. This isn’t just ice,” he says picking up a cube, “it’s a piece of art.”
Having jumped through numerous bureaucratic hoops to get his business off the ground, Gillespie is sceptical of the Greenland glacier now taking up residence in Dubai. “Ice is a food product that is highly regulated by the UAE,” he says. “It took me a year to get my HACCP [Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points] certificate because you have to gather data. How are these Greenland guys bypassing these regulations? They’re importing ice from a foreign country. Who’s doing the tests? Think about the harvesting, packing and shipping—how many people are touching it? You’ve got to be cautious about contamination.”
Tabib explains that, after harvesting the Arctic ice, it is tested in a lab in Greenland to prove there is zero bacteria present in order to be approved for export by the government. “It’s not an easy process, the rules are very strict,” he says.
With The Artisan Ice Co., Gillespie has pioneered the boutique ice sector in the UAE and says the Greenland story reminds him of a similar attempt made years ago by another Dubai entrepreneur. “This guy approached me about importing ice from Canada,” he says. “I just laughed. His strategy wasn’t sustainable or long-term.”
The environmental impact of shipping ice to the UAE from Greenland concerns Gillespie. “Hotels in Dubai say they’re being environmentally responsible, but how can they be if they’re buying this product?” He’s also curious about the financials of the product. “Who’s going to buy it? Across the US, London, Australia and Dubai the standard price of a piece of ice is $1, or about AED 3.5. This Greenland ice is going to be expensive—maybe five times more—but I can’t see the likes of [hotel group] Jumeirah paying more than AED 3.5 per piece.”
With Dubai having hosted the COP28 climate change conference in December, Gillespie agrees with Birch that this story reflects poorly on the emirate. “It’s a bad image for the city,” he says. “Bringing in this ice was the sort of thing Dubai did 15 years ago. The city has worked so hard to create an image that is more sustainable and affordable. This ice feels like a step backwards—plus, it’s not supporting the local economy.”
Gillespie says he relishes the competition from Arctic Ice but isn’t worried it will harm his business, which extends past supplying bars and into retail with packs of Artisan Ice Co. ice stocked at MMI. “Ice is the ingredient that no-one talks about,” he says. “People say, ‘Oh, it’s just ice,’ but my ice is a luxury product and it’s so important to how a drink looks and tastes. Michelin-starred chefs want the best ingredients and bartenders want the best ice.
As a result of things like The World’s 50 Best Bars [Dubai’s Mimi Kakushi and Galaxy Bar made the 2023 list] we’re seeing more bartender talent come into the city and they’re asking their bosses for the best products. Owners are investing in their bar offering because they realise that, nowadays, drinks are just as important as the food.”
Raising the bar
One man convinced of the value of quality ice is Ricky-Lee Lewis, beverage manager and expert mixologist at Savant, the chic cocktail bar at SO Uptown hotel. Every month he orders 500 luxury ice cubes from Clear Ice, one of a handful of quality ice suppliers in the UAE. Lewis supplements this with ice made in the hotel using Hoshizaki machines that have an in-built water filtration system. Whereas an average ice machine costs around AED2,000, the Hoshizaki is priced between AED27,000 and AED36,000. “It’s worth it,” says Lewis. “The Hoshizaki makes clear ice with no air bubbles, the blocks last longer and they are consistent in size. Bad quality ice doesn’t last as long and the increased dilution waters down the drink and affects the flavour profile. Bad quality ice lasts about two minutes, but a piece of ice from a Hoshizaki machine lasts about 20 minutes.
It’s a huge difference.”
Ice matters, but only to certain customers, says Lewis. “It’s the final touch and it makes guests feel like they’re drinking something high quality in a classy bar.” However, for the average Dubai customer, Lewis says ice isn’t the be-all and end-all. “I think experts notice what ice is used, but most people don’t care. When it comes to luxury ice I actually think the perception is quite negative. There are lots of videos on social media showing people removing the ice block from their drink and complaining they only have 40ml of alcohol left but they’re still being charged full price. They feel like they’re getting robbed.”
When asked about the glacier ice from Greenland, Lewis is immediately concerned about the environmental impact but also doubtful about the bottom line. “Alcohol suppliers control the market here,” he explains. “I can buy a bottle of Stolichnaya at African & Eastern for AED49, but if I buy it from my supplier for the hotel I pay AED99. That’s why drinks in Dubai hotels are so expensive. Adding these ice blocks from Greenland to the mix could double the cost of the cocktail.”
Putting aside the environmental implications for a moment, Lewis accepts that if anywhere was going to embrace the idea of glacier ice, Dubai is the place. “There might be a demand for it and it might work in a few places like Zuma or Amazonico,” he says. “There are customers in Dubai who want to pay silly money and show off these gimmicks for social media—just look at Salt Bae at Nusr-et—but I honestly don’t think it will take off.”
Food writers such as Simon Ritchie, a seasoned commentator on Dubai’s food and beverage scene, agrees with Lewis about the desire for a unique experience in Dubai. “I’m a fan of having an attractive artisanal ice cube in my glass—it provides function and form. This isn’t the liquid nitrogen fad. Good quality ice is as purposeful as it is pleasing to the eye and that’s what will give it staying power.”
Stamping the bar’s logo on the ice, Ritchie believes, is “a bit tacky” adding “bars will soon learn that not everything needs to be branded. We outlasted logo-on-the-foam Guinness, so I’m sure boutique ice will find its niche, even if it happens at a glacial pace.”
Respected food and drink writer Laura Lai Coughlin has been writing about Dubai’s hospitality scene since 2012 and believes logo stamping is a helpful tool to raise a bar’s profile in the city’s ultra competitive market. “Embossed ice cubes absolutely levels up your cocktail game,” she says. “Not only does it help create a more distinctive presentation, but it also acts as free publicity when photos of the cocktail—and the ice cube—inevitably go up on socials. It’s a win-win.” Ritchie concedes, “Let’s face it, in our Instagram-focused world, the
aesthetics of a drink are more important to customers than the taste anyway.”
Gillespie has lived in Dubai for 15 years, working across the beverage industry and will open an ice workshop in Alserkal Avenue this month to educate brands and the public. He’s disappointed the Arctic Ice story has gained so much traction around the world. “Look, ice from a Greenland glacier is a great marketing tool,” he sighs.
“But Dubai is a real city. We’re not Dorothy on the yellow brick road so why do we keep falling for these gimmicks?”