Beverage Cool Down

Need a quick cool down for your summer beverages?

When we host a cookout, we usually serve drinks out of two or three large jugs.  One for water, one for tea, and sometimes one for lemonade.  Skipping the hassle (and cost) of dragging an extra cooler out for ice, I try to plan ahead and make ice chunks.

Great way to recycle all those plastic containers.

Fill empty sour cream/cottage cheese-type containers with water (or tea or lemonade) and freeze.  Once frozen, pop out the ice and store it in a clean plastic bag in the freezer.

Lemonade ice chunk.

When preparing for the event, simply pop a few ice chunks in the jug.  Ice chunks melt slower than small ice cubes, so drinks stay cold longer.  And… no need to provide extra ice for individual cups!

• Make ice chunks from the beverage of choice, and your drinks won’t have that pesky watered-down flavor.
• Use smaller containers (yogurt works well) to freeze ice chunks that fit nicely in water jugs for ball games and long days on the tractor.
• Putting up some sweet corn this year? Use ice chunks to keep your water cold to stop the cooking process.  Much nicer than going through all of your ice cubes in an hour’s time!

This post is linked to

• Kitchen Tip Tuesday
• Works for me Wednesday