Tovolo Bulldog Ice Mold Set of 2 for Cocktails Dog Lover Gift, Charcoal

I bought these molds to make ice spheres to add to whiskey drinks and other concoctions served in an old fashioned glass, and they have been outstanding. They are durable, easy to clean, and they produce a sphere that is the perfect size for a standard old fashioned glass. There are several things I especially like about these molds. One is that they are mostly made of a BPA free hard plastic, which I prefer over molds made completely of silicone for a couple reasons. The first is that I am not completely confident that consumption of tiny bits of silicone is harmless. These do contain silicone, but only part of the sphere is in contact with it, and since I can't find sphere molds made of metal or any other natural material, I figured this at least reduces my silicone consumption. I also read in many reviews of 100% silicone molds that they tend to leave behind a silicone film on the spheres they create, which then transfers to your drink and floats on the top as a sort of thin scum. To be clear, that can happen with these too, but again, because of the decreased silicone contact, the effect is diminished. I have also found that by washing these minimally, I don't get the silicone film. I am only putting water in them, so once I use a sphere, I just refill them and put them back in the freezer. It seems that the film occurs if I scrub them and disturb a thin layer of silicone, so by doing that only rarely as needed, the film goes away. Out of curiosity, I filled a pint glass with cool tap water and put a sphere from one of these molds in it to see how long it would take the sphere to melt completely if I left the glass out. After 90 minutes, there was still a chunk of ice in the glass. I am able to make ice water, drink it, and refill multiple times with the same ice sphere cooling the refills down. Because they take longer to melt, the ice spheres don't water my drinks down as much, which I appreciate both for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. I have always hated watery soda, so I rarely put ice in it before I got these sphere molds, but now I can enjoy ice cold soda without it getting weak. If I am drinking an old fashioned, these spheres add just the right amount of water as they melt, mellowing the drink out without making it too bland. Also, and this is important, my friends think they are cool. I don't know what it is about a large ball of ice, but people get oddly excited when you make them a drink with one. Some of the simple things in life are the most satisfying, and this is a simple thing that people get pumped about, which amuses me.

In the life of the average whiskey drinker, "Good Ice" might not be the first thing that comes to mind in quality drinkcraft. But, the type and characteristics of the ice you use can have a major impact on the taste and enjoyment of your drink. And since most whiskey drinkers like their firewater without mixers, you're left with drinking the stuff neat, or on the rocks. Thus, a drink with only two ingredients: Whiskey Ice And now you see how one will inevitably consider ways to improve on how they bring the second ingredient to bear in their libation of choice. Most drinkers eventually find a bottle or style of whiskey that suits them, rendering #1 solved. And while there are those of us who are always curious and trying new bottles of the brown stuff, one can't simply think of whiskey ALL day (though I've certainly tried). Enter, accompanied by fog machines and probably lasers, the Tovolo Ice Sphere. The goal of an ice sphere is performing 3 roles in a glass of whiskey: Keep the drink chilled Melt slowly, thus maintaining said chill while keeping dilution to a minimum Look super sweet These Tovolo spheres do a thricely great job of tackling that to-do list. These bad boys turn out perfectly round spheres of ice that chill a glass of the brown stuff nicely, while dissolving slow enough to last through a second pour (don't you JUDGE me, internet). The molds come in two pieces: the clear plastic bottom, and a silicone top. The plastic bottom gets filled with water to a marked fill line, and you insert the silicone top. The silicone top has rounded sides that form the top half of the sphere and push the water upward into the sphere shape. The top has a small hole in the center so if you overfilled the excess water comes out on top of the mold. The only trick is to insert the top slow enough that water doesn't come spurting out the top, but unless you're slamming it home you've got nothing to worry about. These bad boys go in the freezer, and in a few hours you're ready to enjoy. The silicone top is flexible, which makes removing the ice from the mold easy. We've had our set for over a year with no sign of wear. Durable enough in my opinion, and at this price point if anything happened we'd just buy a new set. Highly recommended. Rating: 4.3 out of 5 Tasty Whiskeys.

Went to a party at a friend’s home and she had these. Ordered them immediately when I got home. These are excellent!!! Perfect for drinks. The ice ball lasts a long time without watering down your drink. Super easy to fill and remove ice ball. Highly recommend! Would order again.

I bought a pair of these (4 total). Overall, this is an excellent little item for the price. The top and bottoms fit together well, they generally make round ice balls with only a little experimentation. The ice is typical for a mold - filled with some imperfections and often will fracture (but not collapse) if introduced into a room temperature drink or run under water. The molds are durable as heck, I have been tugging and ripping at the silicone part of the mold for days making ice and trying different things and none show a bit of wear. Freeze time for me is around 5 hours and I can turn out a lot of these balls in a day if I need to. You have to play with the fill line - I have found slightly below fill with something sitting on top of the mold makes something more round than the freezing ice popping up the lid, which is where your ovals come from that you may have read about in other reviews. What you should know though - if you intend to try to make a beautiful, clear sphere without the imperfections of an outside-in freezing process (which is what happens with any ice mold that doesn't have a mechanism to allow directional freezing), you won't be able to do it. I wanted to produce the clearest spheres I could with these and bought them to try. I can say after 100 attempts and trying every combination, you can make a round ice cube, and with work you can even free them without them cracking, but no amount of toying with these will achieve a clear sphere. This might not matter to you, but when you melt into the 'imperfections', those imperfections create significantly more surface area. I do have the tools to create a clear ice sphere (although, one a day is about the best rate I can do that and it cost me more than the Tovolo's by a fair amount). I can say from experience that the melt rate for clear ice sphere vs. typical outside-in frozen ice sphere from this mold is significantly different. These do melt slower than your typical fridge cube, but are also significantly faster melt than a sphere without imperfections. So if you're a perfectionist and you're going to buy these, and you want them truly clear and won't be satisfied until you get them that way - look elsewhere and be prepared to pay more, this is not the method you are looking for and you will likely spend more money after this. If you're looking to make a round ice cube for garnish, appearance, uniqueness, or some notable improvement over the ice from your fridge as far as melt rate, go for it, they do work very well.

I was so satisfied with my purchase that I bought another set. Product works as advertised. Sturdy plastic and silicon molds make 2.5 in spheres of frozen water for chilling drinks. 2.5 inches is pretty big for some glassware though. The spheres are about the size of a racquet ball, so know the sizes of your drinking glasses before purchase or use. The ice molds themselves stack neatly, and the flexible tops allow for the ice to expand without cracking the container. The ice produced was longer lasting due to its size, melting considerably slower than smaller cubes or crushed ice. kept cocktails cold for quite a while, without watering them down too much. I use these things nearly every day to chill soda, juice, water etc.(occasionally even cocktails). The ice produced adds an extra touch to the mundane with very little fuss. A quick rinse, refill, then back into the freezer. I got perfect spheres with no cracks or ridges, at home, but the ice spheres did have some cracking when the molds were used at my fathers house, YMMV. Subjective things related to the fullness of the mold, quality of water(ie. minerals from tap), and temperature of freezer can affect presentation. Lastly, some of the negative reviews I read seemed a little petty, and I cant for the life of me see how they were justified. In my experiences, I had no problems with the product what so ever. Below are listed some things that address the negative concerns I read. -Ice is only crystal clear if the water has no minerals in it(FYI, Most tap and spring water contains minerals). Try using distilled water. -Run cool water over the mold and the ice just falls out. Just like any other ice tray(I never had to do this though). -The molds are tough, and so far haven't shown ant signs of being brittle, some times I would just squeeze or torque on the mold to make the ice fall out. -Wash all new food and drink related products before using them. Everything, everywhere, is made, shipped and transported from and through dirty, dusty, warehouses. Assembly and shipping processes often leave a light film of oil or dust on products, so wash 'em.

LOVE THIS! Great for whiskey. Easy to fill and clean. Lid stays on without problem. I love the size, nearly fills the cup. Very unique

Update: My original review was for the Sphere Molds. I have recently been sent the Tovolo Sphere Clear Ice System. The Tovolo Sphere Clear Ice System is easy to use. It's pretty fool proof to fill. It makes 2 round ice balls, but only guarantees one will be clear. These come out of the molds pretty easily, especially the top one. The spheres are smaller than the ones from the regular sphere molds. This is a nice looking unit and fits on the door of my freezer. This is a bulkier product and more expensive than the regular molds. I do like it better than the molds I bought a while ago. The ice can be popped out and placed in a freezer bag if you want to make a bunch and have them on hand for a party. Sphere Molds: This is my first time trying out ice sphere molds. I shopped around and decided to go with this brand. These are easy and fun to use. Just fill to the line with water, juice, broth, etc. Put the top on and let it freeze for about 6 hours. I have tried to fill these with very hot water from a kettle for clearer, nicer looking ice. They do come out nicer that way, especially if you have added little slices of lemon or lime to the water, but I have not gotten them to be perfectly clear yet. Removal is fairly easy. Just run under warm water and pop out. These are meant to be used right away, but if you want to make some ahead of time to store in the freezer, be careful of the water causing other ice to stick to it. Also, when refilling these, make sure the hole at the top is not blocked with ice. These do melt slower than cubes and are great for keeping drinks cold. I have used these mostly for iced tea, but also for Drambuie and soda. They are not ridiculously large and fit in most of my glasses. They are also good for keeping the dog's water cold when they are playing outside. Overall, I really like these and don't really have any complaints about them, except I wish they would pop out without the help of water and that the tops are grey and not black like the photo. For the price, they are a good deal and would also make a nice housewarming gift for a new in-law or neighbor.

This is actually the second set of these ice molds we have gotten. Our first set was a gift and worked so great we got more because the family is always reaching for them. The spheres are so large the ice melts slower. They fit in all our glasses and come out of the mold easily.

Son pequeños pero los hielos con forma de arcoiris se ven bonitos, el molde es muy práctico, fácil de llenar y fácil de sacar

Buying for the second time, proper sphere size. Love it for whisky and gin.

After using the ice cube trays or moulds for a couple of days now. They mould the skulls very well filling them is very easy. It is a little difficult though to remove. When removing don’t use the pull tabs. Kind of give them a squeeze and work them out around the sides to remove the silicone. It will come out.

Prodotto perfetto per fare ghiaccioli sferici con grande semplicità, perfetti per i miei gin tonic!

I’m someone who likes there drinks really cold. These ice cubes are particularly great if you drink any spirit over ice. They just fit into a whisky glass. Nice.