It’s cooler season! Whether you’re headed for the beach, packing up for a picnic or hosting friends for drinks on the dock, knowing how to pack your cooler properly will keep your drinks refreshingly cold all day long. Follow these easy tips to enjoy ice cold drinks even in the hottest weather!
KEEP FOOD SEPARATE
Repeatedly opening and closing a cooler lets the cold escape, leaving food at risk for spoilage. Chances are, you’ll reach into a drink cooler far more frequently than a food cooler, and keeping the food separate means you can minimize the number of times the lid to the food is opened, keeping bacteria at bay. Keep your sandwiches and salads well chilled in their own insulated chest until you’re ready to eat, and pack a dedicated cooler just for drinks.
CHOOSE YOUR COOLER WISELY
You want a chest that is big enough to hold all your drinks for the day, but a giant cooler filled with ice, cans and bottles will very quickly become too heavy to lift. Look for a good quality cooler of a manageable size. Better yet, save your back and look for one with sturdy wheels and a handle that can easily be pulled around.
COOL THE COOLER
Start off on the right foot with a cooler that is cold. A cooler that has been stored in a hot shed or in the trunk of a car will melt the ice on contact. Keep your cooler in a cool place when not in use (or at least store it at room temperature) and fill it with ice a few hours before you need it to make sure that it is chilled.
PRE CHILL THE DRINKS
Help your ice last longer, and have drinks that are chilled as soon as you’d like by placing drinks in the fridge overnight. Cold drinks going into a cold cooler will help everything stay colder for longer.
BUY MORE ICE THAN YOU THINK YOU’LL NEED
The amount of ice that a cooler can swallow up is sometimes surprising. The goal is to fill all the gaps around the bottles and cans, leaving as few air pockets as possible. If you think you’ll need 4 bags of ice, buy 5 or 6.
FREEZE WATER BOTTLES
Fill a few larger plastic water bottles, leaving a little head room at the top for expansion and place them in the freezer. Once frozen, place the bottles at the bottom of the cooler. These large vessels of ice will keep the contents extra cold. You can also use large freezer packs at the bottom, but using frozen water bottles has the added bonus of providing chilled drinking water as they thaw out.
MIX YOUR DRINKS
Layering your drinks by type may seem logical and orderly, but what happens when someone wants a beverage that you carefully layered down near the bottom? Ice spills out and cold air is lost as they spend time digging around to find what they’re looking for, and then the lid won’t close properly because everything has been heaped up to one side. Layering drinks is important, but make sure each layer contains an assortment of beverages to prevent digging.
LAYER IT UP
Between each layer of mixed drinks add a layer of ice, shaking the cooler to settle the ice, fill in the gaps and reduce air pockets. Cold air travels downward, so be sure to top the drinks with a layer of ice before closing the cooler lid.
GARNISHES
If your drinks call for garnishes, such as lemon or lime wedges, slice the fruit ahead of time and place it in a container with a lid. More elaborate garnishes can be pre-threaded onto to skewers and stacked in a container. These garnish containers can be placed on top of the ice in the cooler.
DO NOT USE THE ICE IN THE COOLER INSIDE DRINKS
If you are mixing drinks or pouring beverages into glassware, do not use the ice from the cooler inside the glass. Cans, bottles and human hands can all contaminate the ice, making it unsafe for consumption. If you are pouring drinks out and would like ice in the glassware, then place clean ice for this purpose in a hard-sided container with a tight-fitting lid and nestle it into the cooler. Provide a scoop to keep hands out.
DON’T DRAIN THE WATER
Most coolers have a drain on the side, near the bottom, but don’t be tempted to pour the water out. The water that accumulates at the bottom is almost as cold as the ice and is helping insulate the ice, keeping the contents…well,colder.
GIVE IT SOME SHADE
Be sure to park your cooler out of direct sun light to help it stay cold for longer. Finding a shady spot can be difficult at the beach, so be sure to pack a beach tent or an umbrella to shield your cooler (and your humans) from the harsh sun.
