How to Chill Drinks in Only Five Minutes

How often has this happened to you? You were hosting a party, and supposed to provide cold drinks, then someone shows up at the door, and you realize—you completely forgot to chill the drinks! You know it will take hours to get those drinks cold in the refrigerator. Don't worry; there's a simple fix for the problem which has been tested by science! Whether you are serving beer, wine, champagne, or soft drinks, in cans or bottles, here's the easy and fast way to get those drinks ready in a hurry and keep the situation under control. In only five minutes, you can have those drinks cold enough to please anyone!

If for some reason you need to save the label on a bottle, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. You may want to do this for that special bottle of wine or champagne, for example, if you plan to save the label for a memory book, scrapbook, or a craft project. Otherwise, simply follow the directions below to have your drinks ice-cold in a flash!

For chilling your drinks this quickly, you will need an ice chest, rock salt, and ice, of course. If you have a lot of drinks to chill you will need multiple tries to chill them all, so start with a variety so that everyone can have at least one cold drink, and hope they don't finish their drinks too fast!

1. Fill an ice chest halfway full (leaving room for the bottles or cans) with ice, and pour a generous amount of rock salt over top of the ice. Mix it up vigorously.
2. Add the drinks and cover to the top of the ice chest with more ice and rock salt.
3. Shake or agitate or stir the ice and rock salt mixture.
4. Put the lid on the chest and keep shaking the chest for five minutes.

In only five minutes, your drinks will be at approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit—cold enough to please almost anyone! Congratulations—you've avoided another entertaining disaster!

Some things to remember:

• Pour the ice and rock salt mixture down the toilet to get rid of it. This will kill tree roots that may be starting to grow into the sewer lines and will keep those lines running clear!
• Don't throw out the ice and rock salt mixture out into the yard when you've finished--the salt can kill your plants.
• If you are going to have to repeat the process multiple times, put the second batch of drinks under cold running water (a hose will work just fine) to draw off some of the heat while you chill the first batch. This will cut down the time needed to chill the drinks by a few minutes. The third batch of drinks can probably just be put in the refrigerator, but if you need more cold drinks, just repeat the process again until the drinks are cold enough.