Reddit mentions of The Original Miracle Thaw Defrosting Tray

I guess they don't make miracle thaw anymore. But you can still buy it on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Original-Miracle-Thaw-Defrosting-Tray/dp/B00DU5ARH8

Works better than the cold water method especially for large chunks of meat or ground meats. I leave the meat in the freezer bag and lay it directly on the metal. Easier clean up that way.

And, I get the whole don't know what I want until I get home thing. I'm the same way.

I still have my "Original Miracle Thaw Defrosting Tray" as seen on TV. Works great, it's aluminum with feet to allow for airflow under the platter. I put mine over the grate on an unused, unlit burner to really get some warm air flowing around it.

To add to this; it's not that metal gets colder or hotter, but that is conducts heat more efficiently. So it gets cold faster and translates that to the surrounding area.

This is why your seatbelt feels scorching hot in a hot car, it's not hotter than, say, the upholstery next to it. But it conducts the heat into your hand faster so you feel the heat instantly. Same thing with cold metal, it's not any colder than the surrounding area, but it conducts the heat from your hand away more efficiently, giving the sensation that it's cool to the touch.

Actually it's this efficient conducting that would make metal cubes in your drink less effective as well. The conductive property of metal works best when there are two extremes, and it just works too move heat from one place to another. But putting cold cubes of metal into a warm drink would just mean the cold dissipates faster, and the metal wouldn't retain enough cold to make a big difference in drink temperature.

This property of metal is actually useful in another way though; metal thawing plates are used to defrost and thaw frozen meat, and they work remarkably well. They work by conducting efficiently and bringing the frozen slab into equilibrium with the room temperature faster than waiting for the frozen chunk of meat to reach equilibrium on it's own.

So in short, metal isn't a very good temperature storage device, but it's an excellent temperature transference device.