Two ways to make ice faster (and two tricks to chill drinks without ice)

Due to the high temperatures that have been recorded in Spain for weeks, in which several heat waves have been chained, the demand for ice has grown tremendously. In these circumstances, citizens have found themselves in a situation in which finding bags of ice is becoming increasingly difficult: the rise in price and gasoline have caused a drop in supply; ice makers cannot keep up with the high demand, and it has reached the point of shortage of this product in supermarkets, gas stations and grocery stores.

But do not panic, there is no need to throw your hands in your head if when you open the freezer there is not even an ice cube left. From the Sixth we have prepared a list of tricks to be able to have ice at home quickly and relatively easily. There are different ways to make your own ice cubes faster than the conventional way.

How to make ice quickly?

• Put an ice bucket with hot water in the freezer: there is a phenomenon that makes hot water cooler than cold water in certain cases, which is known as Mpemba effect: In a case where two containers with water with a temperature difference between them of more than 30 degrees, the warmer one will freeze earlier. This is due to different factors that have to do with the circulation of the liquid, evaporation and the amount of gases dissolved inside it.

• The blow to the bottom of the bottle: also thanks to physics we can be able to get ice quite quickly with a very simple trick. You just have to put a large bottle of water in the freezer, wait for the freezing process to start and as soon as it does, you can take it out. Once outside, you have to give the bottom of the bottle a sharp blow, which will cause it to freeze completely, thanks to a phenomenon known as supercooling or supercooling.

Although this is not a trick to make ice very fast, it is an obvious but simple recommendation: always have large ice buckets nearby. It seems logical, but it is not always done. If the bucket is bigger, the ice is bigger, it will last longer and you can enjoy cold drinks for longer.

The tricks to cool the drink

If you haven’t got ice and you don’t have ice cube trays either or you simply haven’t had time for anything to freeze but you want to chill cans and bottles very fast, this trick works very well.

What you have to do is take a napkin or kitchen paper, whatever you have on hand, wet it and roll it around the cans or bottles that you want to cool down; the more paper touches the surface of the container, the better. Then they are immediately placed in the freezer: once inside, the wet paper will freeze and, therefore, transfer that cold to the drink. After a few minutes there will be some very cool cans to quench your thirst and face the heat much better.

This last trick is only useful if you have ice already made but you want the drink to chill faster. In a large container pour the ice, add salt and introduce the cans or bottles within; if the mixture is stirred, the salt will dissolve in the ice and you will achieve a faster cooling speed.