Recently, online food magazine, Bon Appétit, came up with a cool trick, right in time for your holiday parties. The people behind the website figured out a cool way of keeping your liquor bottles ice cold during parties by freezing them.

Stashing liquor in the freezer, especially vodka, is a well-known method. The high alcohol content stops it from freezing, and it’ll be as a cold and refreshing as a Siberian lake. However, once you take it out of the freezer, it will obviously get warm again.

That’s where Bon Appétit’s trick comes in. Instead of just putting your bottle in the freezer they suggest you put your bottle in a container, which you fill with water. After a couple of hours, your bottle will be covered by a solid block of ice. This will make it and keep it cool.

Of course, we had to try this trick ourselves. Recently, visiting relatives brought me a nice bottle of Flemish jenever. The old fashioned jug seemed perfect for the experiment. I put a saucepan filled with water containing the clunky stoneware jug in my freezer. You can see the result below.

The tricky part is finding the right container for your bottle; Bon Appétit recommends using an old milk carton. I used a small saucepan, but really anything goes as long as it will hold up in the freezer. Use an ice-bucket or tray to present the bottle and catch the meltwater.

A word of caution. Freezers, at least non-industrial ones, can’t freeze liquor so you can put any bottle of liquor in the freezer. Yet we don’t recommend doing it with brown spirits. Spirits such as whiskey, dark rum, bourbon or cognac carry volatile flavor elements to which the spirits owe their character. Freezing them would suppress those flavor elements. In other words numbing the flavors resulting in a more bland drink (this is not a permanent effect, the liquor’s original character and flavors would return as it temperature rises).

Most clear spirits, on the other hand, are great for freezing, especially vodka, tequila, and white rum.

You could freeze gin as well but if it’s a high-end gin with lots of flavor and aroma going on you might want to refrain. And I probably don’t have to mention this yet to be safe; freezing wine is something you should never do. Putting a bottle in the freezer to quickly chill it is ok, but never leave it there for more than thirty minutes.

Try this easy trick yourself and impress family and friends.