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- A Greenland company called Arctic Ice harvests ice from the country’s shrinking glaciers.
- The company sells “the world’s purest ice” to Dubai’s elite cocktail bars to chill drinks.
- Greenland’s ice sheet has been melting at an alarming rate in recent years.
If you’re really, really the elite of the world, you can’t just chill your drinks with old ice. It requires “the world’s purest ice”, harvested directly from Greenland’s rapidly melting glaciers.
At least that’s what Greenland-based startup Arctic Ice is hoping to do now that it’s started selling glacier ice to upscale cocktail bars in Dubai.
Arctic Ice’s website says, “Our pure iceberg ice has very little flavor and, unlike ice made from tap or mineral water, does not change the flavor of your drink as it melts.” It is written. “Additionally, its construction means your drinks will last longer, giving you the best experience at bars and restaurants.”
The company claims the ice is harvested from icebergs that have “already naturally calved from the glacier and is floating in Nuukfjord” and has a “very minimal” environmental impact.
It is then transported frozen by cargo ship to Natural Ice, Arctic Ice’s sales partner in Dubai. It’s unclear how much it costs a high-end bar to obtain a piece of glacier from Arctic ice, as is the cost of a single serving of his cocktails to chill them.
Representatives for Arctic Ice and Natural Ice did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Arctic Ice, which was founded in 2022, just recently shipped its first 20 tonnes of ice to the United Arab Emirates, The Guardian reported. The project was partially inspired by co-founder Malik V. Rasmussen’s desire to increase Greenland’s economic independence from neighboring Denmark, the newspaper reported.
“In Greenland, we make all our money from fish and tourism,” Rasmussen told the Guardian. “For a long time, we wanted to find something that we could benefit from.”
Rasmussen insists his company keeps environmental sustainability in mind as it operates, but given the devastating impact the climate crisis is having on Greenland’s iconic glaciers. And critics aren’t sure that’s possible.
Researchers say Greenland’s glaciers are melting seven times faster than in the 1990s and have “crossed the point of no return”, dooming the giant ice sheet to extinction.
“I want to get this right 🙂 Are you transporting ice from Greenland to Dubai? Is it for use in drinks? What’s the sustainable part of it?” on Instagram one commenter said of Arctic Ice’s recent post.
“Shame on you for killing us all a little sooner,” another punched. However, comments on the company’s account are limited.
Arctic Ice isn’t the first company to come under fire for using glacier ice to chill drinks. Martha Stewart faced harsh, but perhaps justified, criticism last year when she posted a photo of a small glacier floating near a Greenlandic fjord that she said she used to cool cocktails while boarding a luxury cruise ship. faced.
“Martha, please don’t put ice sheets in your drinks because they’re melting,” one user said in the comments section.
Greta Thunberg, an environmental activist who has had nightmares about arctic glaciers cooling the drinks of the social elite, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
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