Ice Balls

Best solution: no ice ! I think the perfect temperature for rum is 20°-25° Celsius for intense aromas. For drinks, yes, I use ice, Cuba Libre, Dark 'n' Stormy….

I have tried a bunch of round molds, and you're right, none of them are convenient. For ease of use, I think you can't beat the extra large size silicone molds - e.g. https://amzn.to/3gON3oJ They're easy to fill, you get 6 per tray, and they pop out easily. Sipping straight, I don't use ice at all, but they're nice to have for those guests who do (when we can have guests again!). Alternately, a little dash of room temperature water does nicely to open up hot/cask strength rums (and whiskeys!) and bring the ABV down a bit.

Rene and kheiligh, I haven graduated to sipping with no ice yet. Perhaps once winter comes, but here in summer, its so hot I need the cooler drink. I also got a silicon tray for cubes, but haven't tried it yet. As for the balls, they look cool, and I saw a sweet video of a Japanese guy carving a perfect sphere from a block of ice. I am way too lazy for that, so I thought ice ball tray! They will be completely frozen today, so I will give them a try and report back. Thank you for the insight!

Get these stainless steel cubes. They chill the drink well, but don’t water it down. Low maintenance and they work perfectly. https://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Whiskey-Beverage-Chilling-Stones/dp/B00NOPV7J6

Those are really cool! Pun intended :)

If you want really nice ice spheres, presses are the way to go. Way over-priced in my opinion, but the end results are nice. Probably not worth it for the casual drinker though.

Wintersmith is the answer.   Perfect, CLEAR ice balls that are extremely cool......see what I did there?

Comes in cubes, too.

This is the one you want:  https://www.wintersmiths.com/products/ice-chest

Cheers,

tj