Suddenly you have company. They had no electricity or their cable was not working or their TV broke down so they decided to come over at little or no notice. What are you going to serve them? There are a few snacks but the only drinks you have are sitting in the pantry, silently suffering a sauna! Sounds like an emergency. What is the fastest way to serve cold drinks so you can chill out with them without being a bad or a poorly equipped host? Don’t panic yet, as this is what you do:

Chilling with salted ice water

Get your hands on the thickest and most insulated bowl that you have in the house. Fill it with water and ice and add a small handful of salt. Add as much ice as possible to the bowl but allow the drink bottle or can to be submerged in the cooling mixture. A half and half mix of ice and water is a good rule of thumb. This will be good for three to four drinks but if you need to cool more, you would be better off using a plastic tub or a big pot.

Instead of serving tepid cold drinks to your guests, these clever tricks really help a rapid chill out

Why add salt to the water? The science here is that salt will break up into sodium and chloride ions while water molecules, being polar, will orient themselves accordingly. This will use thermal energy in the water and the temperature will reduce. We’re just telling you this so you can sound smart while you sip the now-cool beverage.

Stir the water mix around and you will notice that temperature reduces radically in a very short time. To chill drinks further, stir a couple of minutes more.

Chilling with a wet paper towel

For the above method, you need ice in the freezer. But in case you don’t have ice in the freezer, and still have to quickly cool drinks, this is what you need to do. Soak a paper towel or two that are big enough to fit around your drink bottle or can. For a small bottle, use one and for a bigger bottle, use a bigger one or two. Wrap the wet paper towel completely around the drink carefully so that it stays wrapped around the drink.

Place the wrapped drink in the freezer. After 15 minutes, remove the drink from the freezer and enjoy your cold beverage. The paper towel is somewhat frozen and forms a thin cold sheath round your drink.

So you can keep it around your drink if you want it to keep cooling your drink. For guests and presentation, you can remove it when serving.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 7th, 2014