Chill out: tips to quickly and easily cool your drinks at home

These top summer hacks will cool you down in no time

How to make ice quickly and (relatively) easily

• Fill your freezer ice-cube tray with hot water rather than cold. This might feel counter-intuitive but it really works, thanks to an observation known as the Mpemba effect. Essentially, it’s been proven that when you have two containers of water with a temperature difference of more than 30ºC between them, the warmest will freeze first.
• The ‘blow-to-the-bottom-of-the-bottle’ technique. Simply place a large bottle of water in the freezer (preferably distilled or purified) and as soon as it starts to ice up, around two hours, take it out and give the end of the container a hard bang. Thanks to a phenomenon known as supercooling or undercooling, this will result in the rest of the liquid freeing also.

Tips to cool drinks without ice

• Take a napkin or a piece of kitchen paper, wet it and roll it around your cans or bottles. The more surface area you can cover the better. Once you pop them in the freezer the napkin will of course begin to freeze and cool your drink down in no time.
• This last trick is only useful if you have ice already made but you want the drink to chill faster. Pour your ice into a large container, add salt and put the cans or bottles inside; if the mixture is stirred, the salt will dissolve in the ice and you will achieve a faster cooling speed.