The cool factor—pun intended—of ice spheres at a low price ruled the day, as Tovolo’s sphere ice molds dominated the voting this week’s ice mold Co-Op. But there’s an argument to be made for all the finalists, since none of them are really trying to make the same kind of ice.
The Tovolos make spherical ice at a low price, but the Wintersmiths Phantom system’s spheres (or whatever ice shape you choose) will come out crystal clear, instead of cloudy. Ditto the Mainstays big ice tray and the True Cubes system: The former is cheap, but makes cloudy ice, while the latter is much more expensive, but produces completely transparent cubes.
I’m a big fan of True Cubes, personally. I definitely don’t use it for my daily cold brew and Coke Zero, but it’s fun to pull out really fancy looking ice cubes when people come over for drinks.
I also really like Studio Neat’s Neat Ice Kit, which is what introduced me to the world of fancy ice. It’s more expensive than True Cubes, and only produces one (massive) clear cube per mold, but the included chisel and muddler are so unapologetically bougie that I have to respect it.