Clear Ice Cube Maker, 2.5" Stainless Steel Ice Ball Maker Mold for Whiskey & Cocktails, Non-BPA Premium Silicone Ice Cube Molds, Easy-Release Sphere Ice Maker, Bourbon Gifts for Men (2 PACK)

This is the best solution for DIY large clear balls of ice. There are a lot of products for 2" ice balls, but few for 2.5" - and the ones that are available aren't very space efficient, and tend to be more difficult to use. These are small, and dead simple to use. I use cold tap water. (If my tap water wasn't good, I'd probably use spring water, like Deer Park.) Fill the container to the fill line on the inside, marked MIN. Over the sink, slowly insert the silicone mold into the vessel allowing the water to flood the mold slowly. Once it's in, I like to place my finger over the top hole in the silicone, and push it down firmly - this will cause a little bit of water to spill over the side - just dry it off with a towel, and set this into your freezer. Freeze it for 20 hours. Take it out of the freezer. The silicone mold should have pushed itself up as the water froze. Grab the silicone firmly, and give it a little twist while twisting the metal container the opposite direction. Once it breaks free (and it doesn't require much force), you can pluck the silicone mold out, separate the two halves, and you'll have a perfectly clear ice ball. The surface may not look clear, but that's just frost. If you set it in a rocks glass, and give it a couple minutes to temper, you'll see just how clear it is when you pour your drink over it. (Important to let the ice ball sit for a couple minutes at room temperature - if you immediately pour over it, the ball will probably crack. It needs to acclimate to the room ambient temperature.) The first time I saw molds like these, they were almost $50 each. From this vendor, $15 a piece, or $12 a piece if you buy the 8 pack (October '25). These are a great value. I may buy another set for my own use, and I can definitely see giving them away as gifts. Each individual unit comes in a nicely printed box, and has a decent set of printed instructions.

I think these are the clearest ice cubes I have made. This was my 1st attempt and the ice quality was beautiful, though not as clear as shown, user error, I will fine tune! Great durability and the melt time was longer than any others I have made. It even comes with a container to make many, for when you have a lot of guests coming over. The quality of the ice cube container was superior to any others I have used and they were very easy to fill.

Got this as a gift for my dad and he absolutely loved it! The clear ice cubes are a great size, especially for an Old Fashioned or similar drinks. The maker is easy to clean and feels well made. The only downside is that the cubes can be a little hard to remove from the mold, but overall it’s a great product.

This product makes a clear ice ball that's just the right size for most tumblers. It's also easy to remove the ice from the silicone. It loses one star because the ice melts faster than ice made with other, less expensive moulds I have despite claims from the manufacturer that the ice melts slower. The clear ice is much more aesthetically pleasing, but I bought it mainly for the slower melting claims so that my drink would be less watered down. Since the mould is designed to remove air from the water as the ice melts, there's also less faults and cracks in the ice ball, meaning it won't split. Of course, once an ice balls splits, it melts much faster in pieces. You could also argue that this ice, on average at least, melts slower, since its very rare for it to crack into pieces. Overall, this is a well made ice ball maker, I just don't know if it's worth the money if you have other moulds already.

Easy to prep and once the ice ball is formed, just twist the silicon mold and pull out the clear ice ball. Works well as advertised and I like the stainless steel and silicon construction.

I'm not a professional bartender, but I do like making cocktails at home. One thing that I have learned without a doubt is that ICE MATTERS! My favorite drink is an Old Fashioned, and since there are only a couple of ingredients in an Old Fashioned, the quality of the ice plays an even more important role! Clear ice is not only visually more appealing than cloudy ice, it also melts slower allowing the drink to last longer without getting watered down. These ice molds make almost perfectly clear ice and are really easy to use. It does take time though, but I still haven't found a reasonable way to rush the process. It takes 18-24 hours minimum to make two ice spheres with these molds. I wish I could say these are foolproof, but there is a small learning curve, and I'm still figuring out how to get the clearest ice possible, but overall they are very easy to use and produce really clear ice spheres. These molds use directional freezing to make the clear ice spheres. Each mold consists of 2 silicone mold halves and an insulated metal cup that holds the molds. The silicone moldes have small holes in the bottom and when they are inserted into the insulated cup, there is space at the bottom that allows the impurities to drop to the bottom as the water freezes from the top down. To make clear ice, you fill the cup to a fill mark with warm tap or mineral water (not purified or distilled water). You want some impurities in the water to help the freezing process which will actually result in clearer ice! Then put the two silicone molds together and slowly drop them into the filled cups letting the water fill the inside of the mold. Put the filled molds into the freezer and freeze for 18-24 hours. Getting the frozen spheres out of the molds is really easy compared to other molds I've tried. Simply pull the silicone mold out of the cup and gently separate the two halves. Refill, wait and repeat! That's it! The spheres I've made still have a little cloudiness at the bottom with a few air bubbles, but it's most likely due to the temps in the freezer causing the water to freeze too quickly. Overall, I'm very satisfied with these molds and truly appreciate how something as simple as clear ice elevates a simple cocktail!

It does work, and the mold doesn’t crack like others

Absolutely useless purchase, it’s extremely difficult difficult to take ice out of the cup, myself and my husband really struggled every time when we had whiskey- I decided to throw it away, just pain in the as.