<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/greenland-startup-shipping-glacier-ice-cocktail-bars-uae-arctic-ice>
"Frozen daiquiri anyone? Drinking a cocktail on top of a Dubai skyscraper may
seem decadent enough, but a Greenland entrepreneur wants to add ancient glacier
ice scooped from the fjords to the glass, for the ultimate international
thrill.
Arctic Ice harvests ice from the fjords of Greenland, and then ships them to
the United Arab Emirates to sell to exclusive bars. Using glacial ice in drinks
is a common practice in Greenland, and, over the years, several entrepreneurs
have unsuccessfully attempted to export it. Its co-founder Malik V Rasmussen
said the ice, which has been compressed over millennia, is completely without
bubbles and melts more slowly than regular ice. It is also purer than the
frozen mineral water usually used in Dubai’s ice cubes.
According to the company’s website: “Arctic Ice is sourced directly from the
natural glaciers in the Arctic which have been in a frozen state for more than
100,000 years. These parts of the ice sheets have not been in contact with any
soils or contaminated by pollutants produced by human activities. This makes
Arctic Ice the cleanest H20 on Earth.”
The startup was launched in 2022, but only dispatched its first 20 metric
tonnes of ice recently. It has been hit with a wave of criticism which has
taken the founders by surprise. Social media commentators have been
unflattering, making comments such as: “Shouldn’t you be worrying about the
effects of global warming rather than selling glacier water?” or “What is this
dystopia?”. Other reactions and private messages have gone even further,
including some comments which, according to Rasmussen, have “verged on death
threats”.
The company argues, however, that its ice is environmentally friendly and of
social value. The fjords around Greenland are usually full of icebergs that
have broken off glaciers which are connected to the Greenland ice sheet. Arctic
Ice have a specialised boat with a crane attached, and they take it into the
Nuup Kangerlua, the fjord around Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, to look for a
specific type of ice which has been in contact with neither the bottom nor top
of the glacier. This ice is purer and difficult to spot in the water as it’s
completely transparent, and known locally as “black ice” for this reason.
Once they have found a suitable piece, they pick it up with the crane and place
it in a blue plastic crate until the boat is full, then sail the ice back to
Nuuk where they fill up a refrigerated shipping container with the crates. This
container is transported to Denmark by the Icelandic shipping company Eimskip.
In Denmark, according to Arctic Ice, it is loaded on to another ship that takes
it to Dubai. In Dubai, the ice is sold by the local distributor Natural Ice,
which already sells other types of ice in Dubai.
The first stage of the shipping, from Greenland to Denmark, is, Arctic Ice
argues, of low carbon-intensity, as most refrigerated shipping containers that
leave Greenland would have been empty, because the country imports more frozen
goods than it exports."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
