Icebergs, as everyone knows, are much bigger than they appear. So, it seems, is the ice industry.

Every summer, during the crux of the sizzling tourist season, ice alchemists are turning water into that solid, crystalline substance that fills our coolers and helps us keep the catch of the day fresh and our summertime cocktails refreshingly chilled. Even as you read this, this week well over 250 tons (yep, that's half a million pounds) of ice is being manufactured, packaged and sold by or to restaurants, grocery stores, caterers and fisherman all along the Seacoast. The chemistry of ice is simple enough. Water molecules succumb to freezing temperatures and bond together in groups of four, creating a crystalline lattice. The crystalline structure is held together by way of attractive forces that exist between the oxygen atoms and the hydrogen atoms, and voila, a solid is formed. Water is unique in that it's one of the few substances that expands and becomes less dense in the solid state, which is why ice floats. The fact that liquid water reaches its maximum density just before it hits the freezing point, causing the ice to become even more buoyant, makes it that much more unique.

Not many people are thinking about crystalline structures or maximum density when they are sipping cocktails on a warm summer evening. Stephen Tischner, however, was definitely thinking about ice when he was working his way through college as a bartender 12 years ago. "I noticed that when people ordered a bottle of Perrier, and I'd give them a glass of ice to go with it, they'd dump the ice out," says Tischner, and it's no wonder. "Why would you order a spring water or a mineral water," he asks, "and then ruin it with ice made from tap water?" Tischner hatched up a plan to market ice made from natural spring water, and Natural Rocks was born. He rented a small, 800-square-foot building on Rock Street in Portsmouth and began making ice cubes. In the beginning, Tischner was the sole employee of his new company. He started out producing about half a ton of ice a day, packaging it by hand and delivering it to area grocery stores (Jack DeMoula, original owner of the Market Basket chain of grocery stores, was one of Tischner's first clients). Slowly but surely, the business expanded, and today Tischner works out of a 4,600 square foot building in Eliot, employs 10 full-time staff members, and produces an average of 35 tons of ice a day. Fresh Maine spring water is delivered at least once a day, seven days a week, by way of tanker truck, and Tischner's staff works almost 'round the clock to keep up.  The facility looks like a big, open, concrete kitchen, but instead of stoves and ovens, there are 35 ice machines, each churning out a ton of ice at a time. Accompanied by the constant hum of compressors as water is piped in from the water tanks, and by the banging of ice as it drops from the freezing unit, workers work quickly and quietly, bagging ice, loading it onto pallets and whisking it into the walk-in freezer or loading it onto a refrigerated 18-wheeler that has just pulled up to the loading dock.   

Tischner is one of a handful of ice manufacturers on the Seacoast, but one of only two manufacturers of spring water ice in the country (he was the first, he says), and his cocktail cubes are distributed from Maine to Maryland. Local caterers like Mahalo's and Two Girls use Natural Rocks, and the pristine cubes can be purchased at Market Basket, Fresh Market, Portsmouth Provisions, Gary's Beverage, and dozens of other locations throughout the Seacoast. Surprisingly for a man who runs a 35 ton-per-day ice factory, Tischner welcomes walk-ins to his shop, located about two and a half miles north of the Kittery traffic circle on Route 236. Find yourself needing a bag of ice on a hot summer day? "Sure, anyone can stop by and pick up a bag of ice," says Tischner. A bag of Natural Rocks ice will cost about 25 cents more per bag than tap-water ice, but not only is it made from crystal clear spring water, says Tischner, it is also formed into perfect little cubes (rather than shaved from sheets or blocks into chunky bits), which he thinks are much more suitable for elegant cocktails. But perhaps you're not sipping Perrier. Instead, you're the skipper of the Priscilla Nolan, a scallop boat heading out to sea for four days. Where would you go if you needed 20 tons of ice blown onto your boat? More than likely, you'd head to Great Bay Ice Company, in Newington. Just don't expect to find spring water.

Great Bay employee Cheryl Josselyn, (aka "The Bait Lady," as it's painted on the side of her building) does not mince words when she declares,"Oh, our ice is definitely not for consumption." Not that there's anything all that horrible in the ice-it's made from the same drinking water that Newington residents have piped into their homes-but Great Bay Ice is part of Little Bay Fish Company, one of the largest wholesale lobster dealers in the country. In addition to sharing space in an arena-sized warehouse with enormous tanks full of live lobsters, Great Bay ice shares quarters with bins full of herring, redfish, pogies, and all other manner of baitfish-let's just say that aromas, like voices, carry.

Located on the shore of the inland tidal bay of the same name, Great Bay manufactures an average of 10 tons of ice a day. The ice-making machine is an imposing three-story mechanism that, every half-hour, creates 24-square-foot sheets of ice (30 at a time), then sends the sheets into a giant auger to be crushed, then raked into an enormous storage unit below. From there, facility engineer Ed Sherwin either pipes the ice out to the pier to be blown onto commercial fishing boats like the Priscilla Nolan, or pipes it into bins over at the retail area, where Josselyn sells it (alongside all of that bait) to amateur and professional fishermen who drive up to fill their ice bins or load frozen flats of mackerel onto their pickup trucks. Like Natural Rocks, Great Bay is happy to accommodate the smaller retail customers. "We have guys who drive up and just want to fill up their beer coolers," and that's just fine, says Josselyn, "but," she repeats, "I wouldn't put it in my drink if I were you."   

Wesley Moore doesn't recommend consuming the ice he delivers, either, but only because it would take too long. Arriving in one solid piece, it will weigh about 150 pounds and take several hours to melt. And it will likely be too pretty to eat, anyway. Using a chainsaw and a set of chisels and picks, Moore creates astoundingly detailed sculptures out of 350-pound blocks of clear ice. He's been working as an ice sculptor for 20 years, since his days in restaurant kitchens when he was taught the craft by a fellow chef. Over the years, he has sculpted everything from swans and dragons to space shuttles and wine racks. The majority of his works are custom requests, and Moore says there's seldom a request he can't accommodate. In a typical year, Moore will create 100 to 150 sculptures. Local hotels, such as the Sheraton and Wentworth by the Sea, regularly feature Moore's works, and Moore's Web site, www.icebywesley.com, boasts rave reviews from a number of Seacoast caterers who have featured his works.

Moore purchases his ice from Connor Bottling Works, in Newfields, (makers of Squamscott Soda). In addition to providing blocks of ice to Moore and a handful of other ice sculptors, Connor Bottling Works also delivers cubed ice to restaurants all along the Seacoast. Over the Fourth of July weekend, the company produced 30 tons, says owner Tom Connor, who will drive as far north as Ogunquit to fill emergency orders.   

Most restaurants produce their own ice using commercial machines that can churn out a couple of hundred pounds a day. When temperatures soar, however, these relatively modest-sized machines often can't keep up with demand, or worse yet, will break down altogether, and a harried restaurant owner will find himself or herself flailing to fill the ice bins before the start of service on a busy Saturday night. If it's early enough in the day, a restaurateur can call Connor or another ice dealer for a delivery, but in a pinch, it's off to Gary's Beverage or the local Hannaford for a couple of 40-pound bags. And it's not just for beverages, either. Ice is crucial for proper kitchen sanitation, even more so when temperatures climb past 100 degrees, as they so often do in commercial kitchens in the summertime. Chefs utilize ice baths to keep ingredients properly chilled during service, to quickly chill hot sauces and soups at the end of the night, and to ensure extra-cold storage temperatures for highly perishable foods like fish and shellfish.

So if you find yourself at an elegant wedding this summer, sipping Perrier, nibbling on perfectly seared sea scallops and gazing at an exquisitely carved ice swan, you'll have not only a bartender, a chef and a sculptor to thank. You'll have ice to thank, too.