We’ve all been there at one time or another… whether you have friends and family over for an evening BBQ and run out of cold drinks, or you just need a cold beverage fast, it’s not good. Especially as spring turns to summer.

But this simple method ensures you’ll be back to the drink fast.

The trick is to cool your drinks in saltwater instead of ice alone, or plain ice water.

The reason this works is that water freezes at 32 degrees, but as the salt dissolves in the water, you get what’s called a “freezing point depression”. It’s the same reason you added salt to ice when you cranked out homemade ice cream as a kid.

The sodium and chloride crystals break down within the water and inhibit its ability to crystalize. So the temperature has to be colder to turn solid. This drops the temperature of the water and cools your cans faster.

If you want to speed this up even further, take the bottles and spin them, evening out the cooling effect within the bottle.

Step 1: Fill your cooler to the 1/2 to 2/3 mark with cold water.

Step 2: Add enough salt so that the water takes on a milky white appearance

Step 3: Add Ice and Beverages

Step 4: Spin away

Step 5: Enjoy a below icy-cold beverage