Finance people ask me for an ROI percentage. I will not hand you one, because we do not yet have audited venue data to defend it: we are pre-launch, and a founder quoting "12% margin uplift" with no cohort study is the vendor behaviour this journal pushes back against.
What I can give you: the one number we do publish, and a map of where money leaks in your current setup. Jewellery ice sits in the €1–€3 range per piece, depending on the collection. Whether that stacks up depends on three things: labour, waste, and perceived value. Here is each.
What "we make our own clear ice" costs
In-house clear ice sounds cheaper until you account for the full stack: freezer footprint, water filtration maintenance, mould inventory, carving labour, trim waste, inconsistent yield, and the remake when a sphere cracks during a VIP pour.
Forum threads price ice per kilo and stop there. The bigger line is opportunity cost: every hour a barback babysits freeze cycles is an hour not spent on prep that touches more covers. Outsourcing does not remove the cost; it turns variable labour and waste into a predictable line item you can forecast.
Perceived value, without inventing a markup
Guests read the glass before they read the price. A centred halo signals that the venue cared about the serve: that does not let you charge anything, but it creates room for top-tier positioning when the rest of the pour delivers. (Which collection fits which menu tier is on the Trade page; I will not repeat the catalogue here.)
Price it into the drink. The moment ice appears as a line item on a bill, guests judge it on its own instead of as part of the serve. That is the one piece of pricing advice we give every partner, and the reason we never sell Aurasphere as a standalone add-on.
The photo test
"Instagram ice" gets used dismissively online. On a floor, it looks different: a serve guests pause over keeps the table engaged, gets talked about, and gives someone a reason to come back. Bacardi's 2026 research ties willingness to spend directly to serves that feel like an experience: 31% in the UK, 27% in the Netherlands.
I will not quote you a repeat-order multiplier until our launch partners help us measure one. But you can run the test yourself before any contract: same cocktail spec, same glass, different ice, one week each. Watch remakes and second-drink rate. You will feel the difference before a dashboard proves it.
Where the maths dies
One caveat: ice that arrives fused, freezer-burned, or inconsistent destroys the economics in the loading bay, before the glass. That is why every pouch is vacuum-sealed and light-proof, and why we are building frozen delivery routes from Breda rather than dropping pallets at a depot. ROI survives or dies in the cold chain.
First deliveries are targeted for autumn 2026, the Netherlands and Belgium first. Early-access partners who go live at launch receive lifetime trade benefits.