UPDATE: How I finally made almost clear cubes with the Tovolo KING Cube Ice Trays. To get the best results, start with distilled water. Filtered water will give decent results, but not the best. It's important to have the cubes freeze slowly for maximum clarity. Some people have done this by keeping their freezer at a temperature not much below freezing, but this isn't going to work if you also use your freezer to store frozen food and ice cream. I solved the problem by making a small box of styrofoam boards, held together with painters tape. The walls of the box are about 2 1/4" thick and the box is just large enough to hold the Tovolo King Cube tray. Putting the tray in this box will drastically slow the freezing process. One of the reasons that home made ice cubes are not clear is due to air dissolved in the water. When the water freezes, this air comes out of solution as visible cloudy areas and bubbles. When you heat water, the amount of dissolved air that it can hold decreases. Cold water can hold a lot of air; hot water much less. I bring my distilled or filtered water to a boil and then shut off the heat and let it cool to between 185 F and 190 F. I put the King cube tray into the styrofoam box and then fill it with the hot water, using a funnel. Pour slowly, with a minimum of turbulence. USE CAUTION WITH THIS STEP; THE WATER CAN SCALD YOU! To reduce air going back into solution in the water as it cools, I put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the King cube tray. Then I put the styrofoam cover on the box and place the box in the freezer. It takes about 48 hours for the cubes to freeze. Most of the cubes will be nearly clear, with a small star-burst pattern of bubbles. A few of the cubes may be completely clear. If you really want to put a finishing touch on your cubes, place the top surface of the cube face down on a granite counter top and let it melt for a minute of two. This will flatten the top surface and give a perfectly clear, smooth face. As this is going on, all of the other faces melt slightly and become smoother. Place them back in the freezer and you're good! The next challenge you'll face is getting them in a drink without cracking. The best approach I've found is to chill the liquid I'm adding to the drink in the refrigerator. I put the cube in the glass first and then SLOWLY add the liquid. If I'm lucky, the cube won't crack at all. The large, clear, un-cracked cube looks really cool in the glass. OK, I know that this is not going to be for everyone. If you have a little geek in you and can appreciate the fleeting beauty of large, clear ice cubes...give it a try. ______________________________________ ORIGINAL REVIEW I like the cubes these trays make just because they're BIG! One cube in a drink is all it takes, and they just look amazing. On the practical side, because they have a low surface area to volume ratio, they last a long time. Your drinks will stay cold without being diluted as much as they are with multiple small cubes. Before I used the trays for the first time, I washed them with vinegar and water. I've been using them for a little over a month and so far, no problems with odor or taste. I've had no trouble getting the frozen cubes out of the trays. I've also become obsessed with trying to make perfectly clear cubes. I always use Britta filtered water, but that by itself doesn't help. I then tried boiling the water, cooling it and then making cubes. No dice. Next, I boiled it twice. Nada. If you just put the trays in the freezer, they will freeze at the top first. I figured if I could get the bottom to freeze first, I might avoid the cloudiness at the bottom. I took some foam boards and insulated the top and sides of the tray, while exposing the bottom to air. This came fairly close, but I noticed that the small amount of cloudiness in the cubes was concentrated toward the center of the tray. I then tried leaving frozen cubes in 3 of the 6 molds and making new cubes in the remaining 3 holes. Naturally, I did it both with the 3 cubes in one row and then with the 3 cubes in alternating rows. Not really any improvement. Then I read that commercial ice makers make their cubes in layers, sort of the way icicles are formed. I tried adding filtered, twice boiled water one or 2 tablespoons at a time, waiting for the layer to freeze and then adding more. I got very cool looking cubes from this, but not clear ones. Has anyone had success with this? If so, how did you do it?
