There's one major difference between drinking at your house and drinking at a top-notch bar.

The ice.

OK, also the ambiance and bartending skills and seating arrangements. But for our purposes today, it's the ice.

The best bars serve cocktails and spirits with perfectly clear cubes and spheres, while the average home bar serves cocktails and spirits with sad ice from the freezer. Well, that changes today. Or whatever day you acquire the Newair Countertop Whiskey Ice Ball Maker.

What it lacks in a catchy name, it more than compensates for in function. Because this device can make 32 perfect ice spheres in 24 hours, giving you a frozen arsenal to deploy whenever the time comes. Say, at 8pm this weekend when everyone meets at your place for drinks.

The machine forms two spheres every 90 minutes, so you can skip the silicone molds and gravity-based gizmos. It also holds up to 10 spheres in storage, so you don't have to constantly unload those chilly prizes. When it's done, each sphere is two inches in diameter and melts slowly, which means you can enjoy multiple pours over the same cube.

It all operates with a simple push button, and an LED display keeps you apprised of the progress and lets you know when it needs a water refill or when the ice basket is full.

The whole contraption is only 10.5 inches wide and 18.5 inches tall, so it easily fits on your counter. Or you can stow it in a cabinet and pull it out when needed. Even if you're starting from scratch, you're never more than 90 minutes away from two gorgeous ice spheres.

They say a watched pot never boils. But a watched ice maker still makes ice.