Ice trays are boring — until yours stops working

Most people don't think about their ice tray until it becomes a problem. The standard hard-plastic tray that ships with most freezers or costs a dollar at the corner store works fine until it doesn't — until you're twisting it over the sink, cracking it against the counter, and still only getting half the cubes out while the rest stay stuck and slowly melt.

I started looking for something better specifically for cold brew and iced coffee. I needed small cubes that fit into a narrow-mouth bottle, something I could store cleanly in the freezer without the tray picking up every smell in there, and ideally a push-release mechanism that didn't require a wrestling match. I found this 68-grid ice cube tray with a lid and storage box on AliExpress at $6.02 after a 52% discount. Here's my honest take.

What You Actually Get

The tray makes 68 small ice cubes per batch. Small is the operative word — these are not cocktail-bar cubes. They're compact, roughly the size you'd get from a standard mini ice maker, and that's deliberate. The whole design is aimed at people who want ice that fits into bottles, tumblers, and travel cups rather than large rocks glasses.

The push-release mechanism is the main selling point and it delivers. You press the base of the tray and the cubes pop out cleanly without having to flex or twist the whole thing. It's a small quality-of-life improvement but once you've used it a few times you won't want to go back to forcing ice out by hand.

The storage box is what elevates this above a basic tray. Both trays fit inside the box, the lid closes with enough of a seal to keep freezer odors out, and the whole unit stacks neatly without taking up excessive drawer space. It's a practical detail that matters if you actually use your freezer regularly and don't want your ice tasting like last week's leftovers.

What Surprised Me — and What Didn't

What genuinely surprised me: the storage box feels more thought-through than I expected at this price. The trays slide in cleanly, the lid isn't flimsy, and having everything contained in one unit makes the whole process — fill, freeze, store, use — actually tidy.

What didn't surprise me: the overall size is smaller in person than the product photos suggest. Worth noting that this is a compact product — not miniature, but noticeably smaller than what most people picture when they see the listing. For freezer storage, that's actually a benefit. If you're expecting something large, you'll be mildly caught off guard.

The real con, stated plainly: if you want large ice cubes, this is the wrong product. The 68-cube format exists specifically to produce small cubes, and that's a hard tradeoff. There's no version of this tray that gives you both the volume of small cubes and the size of bar ice. If your main use case is whisky on the rocks or large-format cocktails, look elsewhere.

68-Grid Ice Cube Tray with Lid and Storage Box: Worth It?

What Does $6 Normally Buy You?

At this price point in a local store or on Amazon, you typically get one basic silicone or rigid plastic tray, no lid, no storage solution, and no push-release mechanism. You get a tray. That's it. You put it in the freezer loose, it absorbs smells, you wrestle the cubes out, and you repeat.

For the same $6.02 here you get two trays, a storage box with a lid, and a push-release mechanism. The comparison isn't subtle. What you give up versus a pricier option is build quality — this is not premium silicone, it's functional plastic — and cube size variety. There's no adjustability here. But for the base use case, the value is hard to argue with.

Buy It If / Skip It If

Buy it if you make cold brew, iced coffee, or flavored water regularly and need small cubes that fit narrow bottle openings. Buy it if you want to keep your ice stored cleanly without odor contamination and don't want to pay much for a solution that actually works. Buy it if freezer space is limited and you want something compact that doesn't rattle around loose.

Skip it if you need large ice cubes for cocktails, whisky, or presentation drinks. Skip it if you want a single large-batch tray that fills a full standard ice bucket. Skip it if you're expecting something that looks and feels like a premium product — this is honest budget kitchen gear, not a luxury item.

My honest take: it does exactly what it says, costs almost nothing, and solves a specific problem well. The storage box alone makes it more practical than most trays at twice the price. It's not exciting, but it works.

You can find it here: https://www.ali-ex.com/e9Gzn2

Price: $6.02 (was $12.54)