If you ever have an unexpected visitor at home and you want to offer him a cool drink, but you haven’t had time to put the soft drinks or beers in the fridge yet, you may think that the best way to cool the drink right away would be to put it five minutes in the freezer. It is a method that may work, but if you want to go much faster and enjoy a very cold drink, you have to follow the method we are now telling you.
The Way to Chill the Drink at the Moment
If you want to cool a drink in record time, there are several tricks, but not all of them are recommended. One of the most widespread is to pour the drink into a glass full of cubes. The liquid will cool down, but its flavour will also water down, and if it is a beer, the combination with ice is not advisable.
The Law of Thermodynamics
So what can we do? We can look a little at physics and resort to the so-called « thermal equilibrium », which refers to when two bodies in contact or separated by a conductive surface come to equate their temperatures since heat is transferred from one to the other. Other. To achieve this balance, one must resort to the zeroth law of thermodynamics, expressed in 1931 by RH Fowler and which says the following: If two systems A and B are, each separately, in thermal equilibrium with a third system, we will call C, then A and B are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.
In practice, we have to have those three elements: ice, cold water, and a little table salt. Why? Saltwater has a lower freezing point than normal water, so it helps keep the water cold without actually freezing. The cubes, in turn, will remain in the water without melting, thanks to the salt. Combining these three elements will equalize a constant balance of temperature that we will take advantage of to cool our drinks in just two minutes.
In this way, you take a container or a basin, fill it with cold water and cubes and then add a tablespoon of salt for each litre of ice water.
Place unopened beverages in the ice bath and swirl gently to allow the temperature in the water to reach the cold walls of the bottle or can. You will only need two minutes to cool each container, but the more you can cover it, the faster it will cool.
However, a unique and effective method is worth noting that chilling like this (slightly below normal freezing point) can cause carbonated drinks, including beer, to fizz badly, so keep this in mind when opening those cans and bottles.
What About the Wine?
This trick will work for wine, but because the bottle tends to be thicker and there’s also more liquid inside that larger bottle, the wine will take a little longer than a can or soda bottle.
Another potential problem, especially for wine lovers: If a bottle label is made of paper, it could get soggy, wrinkled, and even fall off.
