Cape Town – There is nothing better than a cool glass of wine on a hot day, but adding ice cubes to your drink can weaken the taste.
We explored other ways to chill your drink without watering it down.
Organic Authority and Popsugar Living offer these clever alternatives.
Frozen Grapes
This one is for white wine and other fruit drinks. Keep a bag of grapes in the freezer. With this method, when wine needs to be cooled and you don’t have enough time or patience to pop it in the fridge and wait, simply add a few frozen grapes. The grapes add both a chic look and the perfect coolness.
Frozen Cups
This works well for wine and offers a touch of sophistication. Before serving beverages at a party or get-together, place wine glasses and regular glasses in the freezer. The glasses will develop a cold, misty appearance, and will cool both the drink on contact and the lips with each sip.
Just add salt
You probably know that putting wine in a bucket of ice and cold water, rather than just ice, will chill your vino faster.
Did you know, though, that the addition of salt will hasten the cooling time?
Salt reduces the freezing point of water and allows it to become colder without turning into ice, which in turn chills your wine more quickly.
Give it a spin
If even the water or ice or salt method is not chilling your wine fast enough, keep the bucket nearby and gently spin the bottle in the ice water every few minutes.
Spinning the bottle moves the contents around, allowing more wine to come into contact with the cold glass, so chilling it faster.
Keep in mind that this method works best for non-sparkling wines.
Try this with a bottle of Champagne and you will be in for a shock when you pop open the bottle.
Wet it down
Putting wine in the freezer will chill it relatively quickly, but to hasten the process, wet a clean dish towel and wrap it around the bottle before you pop it in.
The dampness conducts and holds in cold better, and having the icy cold towel pressed against the bottle ensures the entire surface of the bottle is being chilled.