Tovolo King Cube Ice Mold Tray, Long Lasting Sturdy Silicone, Fade-Resistant, 2 Inch Cubes, Set of 2 Trays, Charcoal Gray

tl;dr: This thing is pretty sweet. Buy it.Let me start by stating the obvious: this thing makes ice. And it does it well. If your freezer can freeze, removal's a breeze, but that's not why you're here. You read 600 reviews of a $9 ice cube tray to find out if this is the product that will finally turn your life around and I'm here to tell you it is.The cubes pop out easily and are nice and big with beveled bottom edges (pro tip: flip the cube over and it's got beveled top edges). And here's the kicker: these suckers are big. They fit in a Collins glass, but they create a nice big surface across the top of your beverage that is awesome for floating dark rum over your Mai Tai. If you're clumsy like me, this is a perfect alternative to trying to float using a spoon. It probably even works for virgin drinks (blueberry juice over ice tea? Sounds lovely!).So what about scotch? I take mine neat, but on a hot day a rock might be a welcome addition given a 90 degree liquor cabinet and these cubes cool beverages nicely but melt slowly. Anyone with half an understanding of thermodynamics knows that if it isn't melting quickly, it's not sopping up the heat in the beverage at large as quickly as quick melting crushed ice. This means these cubes really shine in their role as longer term solutions to your beverage's cooling problems. These are slow melting cubes for keeping your drink cool longer. You want it cold fast? Shake it with ice before pouring it over one of these.Final thoughts: this is a great tray, making large cubes. It's not the only size tray you should have, but it's well worth the purchase.

I ordered these last week in three colors as well as the Orb ice cube tray and the smaller cube version of this. I used to own similar ice cube trays from Ikea (smaller sized cube tray) but found over time a bad taste/smell formed and I noticed a film on the surface of drinks when I used the cubes. Both of these issues have been mentioned towards this brand as well. This brand may actually be the same brand found in Ikea, I am not sure. Because these issues and solutions were mentioned in other reviews (cleaning with vinegar etc, etc..) I felt I was making a pretty informed decision and was prepared for whatever issues may develop.After using the cubes for the first time about 10 minutes ago I have to say I LOVE these trays. They are not perfect, but the resulting cubes are exactly what I have always wanted.Lets get the bad out of the way first. They are silicone so I expect them to be soft and not hold their shape holding it with one hand. I expect to have to use two hands after they are filled. The individual walls are a bit thinner than I expected and they are less firm than their smaller cubed counterparts but they are pretty much what I expected. Fill with care to the top, hold it steady with two hands, and place on a flat surface in the freezer. The only bad thing I really have to say about these trays are I expected to be able to sit them on top of each other in the freezer. With the smaller cubed tray you can fill them, stack them, and they sit level on top of each other. These trays have a beveled bottom so if you place them on top of another tray of the same size, it sits into the tray below. If you want square cubes then you pretty much have to fill the tray to the top. If you want to rest them on top of each other you have to guess how far to fill to and then stack a tray into it. This will result in possible spills if you guessed the water level wrong and a ice cube that is no longer square. Certainly not an issue if you were not going to stack them and of course after they are frozen you can stack them. My solution was to mix the jumbo size cube trays and the normal size cube trays alternating between the two. I was able to stack them nicely and all the cubes came out square.The biggest pro to these cubes are they are huge! You know when you fill a cup with ice and a warm drink and you take a sip and it's not cold yet... Not with these!! I use really big glass mugs so I can fit 3-4 of these cubes into a mug. I filled it with liquid and by the time I sat down with the mug my first sip was cold! no waiting, no mixing, just pour and drink a cold beverage!The cubes also last a long time like other reviewers have said. Because your ice lasts longer you drink does not get as watered down and you can refill and still have an immediate cold drink. If you use a smaller glass you may have an issue of more ice than drink in your cup but my solution to that is, just get a bigger cup :)Since I have just gotten this product I am interested in how they will perform after freezing something other than water. Will they eventually hold a bad taste? and will I be able to get rid of it with vinegar? Will they somehow start to form a weird film that will float in my drink? I certainly hope not. Time will tell.If you want large ice cubes that will quickly cool your drink and last a long time, these trays are the way to go. I love em, and look forward to creating a bunch of cubes and storing them in a sealed container it the freezer. This way I can just reach in my freezer and quickly pull out the number I want.

I found this while searching for a better ice-cube tray. I was not looking for a tray that creates "jumbo" ice cubes; but having found this product I decided to buy it instead of a standard-size-ice-cube tray. I am really pleased with the results. I was looking for a replacement for another silicone tray that I bought and found to be a disaster. That other tray (a) was so flexible that it is impossible (unless you have three hands) to get it to and into the freezer without spilling a lot of the water from it, and (b) stuck to the smooth bottom of my freezer compartment so I could only get it out by opening the freezer and letting it warm up a bit -- and even then bits of the silicone were stripped off and were left stuck to the bottom of the freezer. The sticking-to-the-freezer-surface is not related to water spillage: even when I drew a paper towel under it after getting it into the freezer, it still stuck. So, on the whole, this other product was completely unusable. By contrast, the Tovolo is designed so that it is sufficiently rigid that it droops only slightly when held in one hand after being filled with water: you can carry it to the freezer, and place it in the freezer, with one hand. Also, it does not stick to the bottom of the freezer. It is easy to remove a single jumbo cube without the other cubes popping out, and you can easily top up the tray (put water in empty slots while ice cubes remain in the other slots) without making a mess or causing any difficulty. The jumbo ice cubes are excellent: I'm now a convert. They do indeed last longer in a drink. (This is because the rate of drink-cooling/ice-melting is proportional to the square of the width of the cube; whereas its volume, and therefore its cooling capacity, is proportional to the cube of the width. So, by having double the normal ice-cube dimensions, it cools like four normal cubes but takes twice the time to melt.) Overall, a really great purchase and one that creates guest-impressing ice cubes.