So, you’ve planned the perfect party, it feels like nothing can go wrong, but the summer heat begs to differ. You don’t have a freezer nearby, and your drinks are getting hot faster than you can say ‘party.’
Of course, you wouldn’t want to serve your guests hot drinks, but at the same time, you feel like your options are limited.
Now, all hope isn’t lost. There are various ways to keep your drinks cold at a party, some of which I’ll be teaching you in this article.
So how do you keep your drinks cold at a party?
- Cool your drinks long enough before the party,
- use a cooler or cooling bags,
- use flavored cubes,
- use the ice and salt combo,
- keep the bottles close to each other and use insulation.
Let’s dive into each of these tips to help you keep your drinks cold at your next party!
5 Ways To Keep Your Drinks Cold at a Party
Summertime is the perfect season to enjoy outdoor activities with friends and family. Whether you’re hosting a pool party, barbeque, or picnic, keeping your drinks cold is essential to ensuring everyone has a good time.
Here are a few tips on how to keep drinks cold at your next party:
1. Use the Ice and Salt Combo
If you’re a sucker for science, this is a fascinating experiment. But don’t fret; it works. Water and salt can chill a drink in 10 minutes or less.
How does it work?
Salt lowers the melting temperature of ice, making it drop below zero. When you add salt to ice, the ice starts melting at a lower temperature than it normally would.
With time, all the heat gets absorbed from the surroundings, cooling everything close.
To understand, if you have a bowl of ice slowly melting, the ice is at 0°C. Then you pour in some salt.
The salt dissolves into the water and ice, and saltwater has a melting point of -10°C which is considerably lower than the temperature of the ice. So the ice starts melting rapidly, absorbing heat and cooling down.
To do this at a party, you’ll need a cooler, water, ice, drinks, and salt.
Half fill the cooler with water and ice, then place the drinks.
Note that the drinks should be sealed tightly to prevent salt from getting in them. Or just keep their lids above the mix to be safe.
Add salt to the water. There’s no precise quantity, so that a handful will do. Then you can cover the cooler and leave it for a while.
Come back after a few minutes, and you’ll have your ice-cold drinks ready for consumption. It’s a simple, safe, and proven way to give your drinks the extra chill at a party.
2. Cool Your Drinks Enough Before the Party
Freezing your drinks for a minimum of 24 hours before the party is a foolproof way to ensure they stay cool.
Don’t worry about the drinks getting too cold or iced. You can always put them in warm water at the party. So, your drinks are better off too cold than too hot.
3. Use Flavored Ice Cubes
Flavored ice is an ingenious way to keep your drinks chill and add flair to the party. Try fresh herbs, edible plants, or berries. Tear off or pick your plants of choice and place them in an ice cube tray.
Next, add water to the tray like you normally would when freezing ice cubes. You can also do this with juices if you think plants are too much. Extract orange, lemon, coconut, or lime juice and fill the ice tray.
Editor’s tip: don’t try to freeze anything alcoholic because it won’t freeze.
After freezing, pop the cubes out of the ice tray and store them in a bowl or bag until you’re ready to use them.
When serving drinks at your party, add a few cubes to each cup and watch your guests sip their drinks elegantly.
4. Use Coolers or Cooling Bags
Portable coolers keep drinks chilly through insulation and ice.
These coolers are usually lined with insulators like plastic and foam that slow down the circulation of warm air. Adding ice to these coolers with your drinks keeps them at just the right temperature for your party.
Remember to prechill the drinks before putting them in a cooler, ice can only do so much. Store your cooler out of the sun, and put the ice in last.
Cold air spreads downwards, so putting ice directly on your drinks will give you the desired chill.
When the ice melts, don’t drain the water because it’ll continue keeping your drinks cold. Keep the cooler lid closed at all times until you’re ready to serve the drinks.
#1 Keep the cans or bottles as close to each other in a cooler as possible. With less space for warm air to penetrate, your drinks will stay colder for longer.
#2 Use a cheap insulator like aluminum foil to line the walls of your cooler. It’s an excellent insulator that’ll maintain the temperature of your drinks and prevent cold loss to the environment because it stops oxygen and air from transferring heat to frozen drinks.
5. Use Frozen Grapes
If you’re going to be serving wine, you can get a little creative with keeping drinks colder for longer. Frozen grapes are great snacks on hot days, and you can put them in smoothies and wine to keep them cold.
Grapes take quite some time to harden in the freezer, so this should be done long beforehand. Remove the grape stems and place the grapes in a bowl. Rinse well, then dry the grapes in an absorbent towel.
When the grapes are dry, transfer them onto a baking sheet, then freeze them.
When it’s time for the party, transfer the grapes into a freezer bag, and there you have it. You can put green grapes in white wine and red grapes in red wine, you do you.
Opt for seedless grapes since you don’t want your guests munching on seeds as they drink.
Frequently Asked Questions
Before putting foil in the cooler, you can spread bubble wrap to add extra insulation. Also, go for ice blocks instead of cubes because they melt slower due to their larger surface area.
An hour before the party starts is enough time for your drinks to start chilling.
Takeaway
If you need a quick way to keep your drinks cold, use the ice and salt method, but if you can, freeze your drinks at least a whole day before the party starts.
Before the party, put the drinks on ice about an hour before the party, but insulate the cooler before you do that. When the party starts, you can get creative and use flavored cubes or grapes to keep the chill.
