5 Best Ice Cube Trays, According to Experts

For fancy ice with fruit, vegetables or anything else you want suspended in your ice, try out this silicone ice cube tray from Trovolo. The cubes are big enough to put in pieces of fruit so you can get that perfectly Instagram-worthy shot of your drink. We found the silicone to be sturdier and thicker than other silicone trays we've tested. Ice cubes slide out easily with a push. While this option doesn't include a lid, they do sell the same Perfect Ice Cube Tray with a lid on their site. They come in nine different colors so you can buy a few and color code them, if you're looking to infuse ice with multiple different ingredients.

If you're looking for just a quality ice cube tray at a good price, you're not going to get much better than this tray from OXO. The few features it has are thoughtful, like the cover that clicks into place and channels between cubes to allow water to overflow into other spaces. There are large handles on each side for easy carrying and if you get multiple, they're designed to stack in the freezer. We did find that the cover sticks a little and you have to push to get it to click into place.

Our Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab Director, Nicole Papantoniou, has been using this ice cube tray from Lekue for years. She doesn't have an ice cube maker in her freezer (who does in NYC?) and loves how easy it is to fill the tray. The fun shapes look good in drinks and the included storage bin fits up to three trays of ice. The ice cube tray itself acts as the lid to the container, so note that you can't place anything on top of it. She says the cubes are easy to pop out and after years of owning this tray, she hasn't noticed any odors.

Here's another tray that's loved by Papantoniou. She notes that even after years of use, the quality silicone hasn't worn down. The hole in the center allows you to fill it up to the perfect capacity, and then overflow in case you add too much water. Handles on the sides make them easier to carry and help pop the ice out of the mold too. These come in a bunch of other shapes like lime wedges and a faceted heart. If you get two in the same shape, they stack on top of each other.

We found this tray from Dexas during our testing for how to make clear ice, and we've loved it ever since. It's a more cumbersome process than just pouring water in a tray and putting it in the freezer, but we found that it produces clear cubes that are perfect for the aesthetic cocktail. There aren't any handles but the tray is wide and thick so it's easy to grip and very sturdy. Inside of the plastic insert there are lines so you can judge how much the silicone molds will displace the water so you don't run into an overflow situation. When you want to clean the tray, the plastic insert pops out easily, and we haven't noticed any odors.