Editing 2902: Ice Core

Some people may like to taste a wine dated to the year they were born, or perhaps are subject to it as a family tradition. This would more typically be for a special occasion such as a milestone birthday than because it happens to be a 'good year' for the wine(s) they favor (unless they were particularly fortunate). Reaching the legal drinking age would be an appropriate opportunity to partake in a wine that is the same age as themselves.  This comic extends this practice into a joke that {{w|paleoclimatologist|paleoclimatologists}}, who study the climate, use dated ice instead of dated wine, drilling into the ground to find the layer of ice matching the birth year of the recipient, either to drink 'neat' (once sufficiently melted) or as the '{{w|Bartending terminology#On the rocks|on the rocks}}' part of another drink, perhaps a cocktail.

[[Megan]], a paleoclimatologist, decides to make a cocktail with the ice from the ice sheets (present in the Arctic and Antarctic, for example). Normally, scientists would try to date the ice and then use it to describe the state of the climate when these ice sheets formed. Here, Megan tries to find the ice layer corresponding to [[Knit Cap]]'s birth year to use the ice for the chosen drink. The caption asserts that this method of creating drinks is “traditional” for paleoclimatologists. She then asks if Knit Cap has the cocktail shaker that they presumably brought to the site ready. Cocktail shakers are used in the preparation of many mixed drinks, which often contain ice (usually produced by refrigeration, rather than harvested from natural sources).

The title text says that if they manage to find some ice with ash coming from an eruption which destroyed an island with {{w|Camellia sinensis}} growing on it, they'll be able to make a cocktail called a 'Gone Island Ice_τ', which is a punning reference to the cocktail known as a {{w|Long Island iced tea}}. Camellia sinensis (common name, "tea plant") is generally used for making tea, so this cocktail would have tea infused into the ice. The Greek letter tau is used in place of "tea". The joke here likely is that this character is used in various fields to denote time, and presumably in this case refers to the time the ice deposit in question dates to.

:[Knit Cap and Megan are both wearing knit caps and scarves in a snowy and icy environment, most likely a glacier, looking at an ice drill that is a tripod with the drill in the middle. There is a helicopter on the ground in the background, with their footprints between them and the helicopter, suggesting they flew with the helicopter to the glacier. Knit Cap is holding a small container between her hands while Megan is holding the middle of the drill.]