Why are airplane ice cubes cylindrical instead of rectangular?

Maybe they take up less space? I don’t know.
But I really like them. Better than rectangular ones actually. I always stick my tongue through the hole. =]

I think the ice machines use a cylindrical extruder to make the “cubes.” They have to make lots of cubes fast, so the water passes through a super cooled tube then drops into a container.

A-ha! Makes sense.. I guess. My favorite part is still the hole. =D

Me too!

I find myself trying to lift them out of the cup with a straw but they always slide off.

Eambos is right.. With the cylinder and the hole they can make them faster. It allows them to be cooled from the outside and the inside at the same time.

I bought an ice cylinder tray at Ikea that makes ice like this so I can have hole-y ice cylinders all the time.