Whisky on the rocks — Beatrice Aidin

A cooler-than-cool pop-up bar at the London Design Festival

Three lessons gleaned from this year’s long, hot British summer: 1) Even with the sun in his eyes, a British man can win Wimbledon. 2) A royal baby melts the hardest of hearts. 3) A freezer can never hold enough ice.

But as autumn starts to close in, it is time to consider very seriously how to get that favourite seasonal tipple, whisky, cool sans ice. A splash of water – and just that – will release the character, but ice cools it too fast, thus congealing the wood oils that carry the flavour, a practice that has distillers shaking their proverbial fists with rage.

The answer to such a dilemma can, rather surprisingly, be found in soapstone sourced in Vermont. Teroforma Whisky Stones (£20 for nine) are non-porous and release no flavour, but cool down whisky to its optimum temperature straight from the freezer. What better place to showcase such a design coup than at the London Design Festival, where from September 14 to 22 the brand is staging Colonial Common, which aims to bring together all things connected with US small-batch bourbon. Alongside a whisky and bourbon bar (with bartenders from an impressive roster of London drinking establishments, including Milk and Honey and The Social Eating House), the Common will play host to The Barker Band and other bluegrass groups, plus some of the US South’s finest barbecue and fried chicken, such as Joe’s Southern Chicken.

Yee-ha and dosie-doe aside, enquiring minds may ask how this idea of putting stones in a glass of whisky came about? “I discovered a small leather pouch of stones at my Swedish grandfather’s house years ago,” explains Andrew Hellman, co-founder of Teroforma. “It was hung on a hook outside during freezing Scandinavian winters. The stones were used to cool down hot liquids that came off an open stove. So, having developed a taste for single-malt whisky, I connected the original intended use of the stones with the desire among whisky drinkers to chill mildly without the overly powerful and diluting effects of ice.”

When Vermont comes to Shoreditch via Sweden, one thing is for sure – it will be supremely cool.