Reddit mentions of Portable Hand Crank Ice Crusher by VICTORIO VKP1126

Hand Cranked Ice Crusher

I switched from a bag and mallet to one of these and never looked back. Also very inexpensive. You do need a stable and very smooth countertop for it to work properly - it attaches with a large suction cup on the bottom.

I don't have experience with any of the Trader Sam's Mai Tais but the original 1944 Trader Vic's recipe is detailed in one of my earlier posts.

The consensus seems to be to use Small Hand Foods orgeat if you can get your hands on it and Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao. I used what I had on hand when I made it in the post above. For the rum, Denizen's Merchant Reserve 8 Year was formulated especially for the Mai Tai, being a blend of Jamaican and Agricole rum. You can also do a 50/50 split between an Agricole Vieux and an aged Jamaican rum. I have Clement VSOP on hand for my Agricole Vieux which is a good option but others can chime in with their favorites. The world of aged Jamaican rums is vast and it's fun to substitute different ones in the Mai Tai and see how it changes. Appleton Reserve might be a good rum to start with as the Jamaican component and you can experiment from there.

For juices, always used fresh squeezed and preferably juice within a few hours of using them.

For crushed ice, you can take a lewis bag and ice mallet and smash ice cubes (while releasing some stress). If you don't want to buy those, feel free to use a rolled up clean dish towel and a rolling pin or something like that.

For bigger parties, I know people recommend the ice from Sonic Drive-In or Chick-fil-A. They'll both sell you a bag for cheap.

I've been looking to get a hand crank ice crusher but haven't yet. I've seen this one recommended a lot as well as some of the vintage ones on eBay like the Oster Snowflake.

I have this new one and I'm very happy with it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AVRZEFS

For vintage you want to be looking for Swing-A-Way. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ice+crusher+swing-A-way&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=15

At the bar we have this ice crusher. Pretty fast and the ice is still comparable to the Lewis bag in terms of dryness.

Would something like this thing work? I'd hope that I could find something closer to the Alaskan ice Crusher for less than 230 on etsy,
but that one also looks to take up half of someone's yard!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00AVRZEFS/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480549249&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=hand+crank+ice+crusher&dpPl=1&dpID=31LNZSqasXL&ref=plSrch

I got this hand-crank ice crusher a few years ago after seeing it posted on Reddit. It takes some effort, but it works great. It wouldn't be good for more than 2-4 drinks at once, but for my wife and me it works fine.

1. silver-plated julep cups are about $15-20 so it's not that scary if you just start with one or two :)
   
   
2. I used this cheap hand-crank ice crusher which works pretty well. I realized when I was testing this recipe that my blender has a "crush ice" setting but then remembered that it also produces wildly-varying sizes of ice ranging from powder to large chunks so I felt a little more confident in my purchase.

buy yourself one of these puppies:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AVRZEFS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Grinds 4 cups of ice in course or fine. About as low tech as you can get, but works well for home use (and parties). Well worth the $23 bucks!

this little dude performed admirably through a tiki-heavy summer for me.

ill admit its not the prettiest or most solid-feeling thing in the world, but its super cheap, gets the job done, and i find it more practical than smashing shit with a hammer (mostly because im in a crowded apartment)

Out of curiosity, is there any advantage to a Lewis bag over a simple hand cranked ice crusher like this?