After my gripe about how hot it was last week in Gauteng - and it was sizzling hot - I knew I had to do something to keep my drinks from getting warm within a few minutes, since I'd rather savour them than guzzle them.

That was last week - now we've moved back to a sensible distance from the sungif source

And as someone who has a genetic imperfection which makes her think wine with melted ice in it tastes weird, this was not a simple a case of throwing ice cubes at the problem.

Spoiler alert - not Plan A or even Plan Z

Anyone who's overstuffed their fridge in hot weather will be able to relate to this - it becomes difficult to control the temperature in the fridge and often, regardless of the setting, the contents freeze.

....As did my gammon stock, from which I was planning to make a delicious butternut and sweet potato cold soup. I found the fridge had created this Flintstones' sized ice cube, er, ice tetrahedron (more or less - it was too cold for me to hang on long enough to really count how many sides this behemoth actually had).

What I don't suggest you put in your wine to keep it cold

A better plan

I took the advice of a friend who suggested that frozen grapes are the bees knees. Well, he didn't quite put it that way, but that was the gist. Not only are they a cool snack (as it were), said he, they also make great ice cubes.

So I tried it

Because why not, right? Here are my frozen grapes, ready for their next mission of mercy, be it cooling down a potentially imminent heatstroke victim or not diluting wine.

I may have focused on the wine instead of the grapes when I took this photo - my bad

Here's the finished product. How cool does that look?

Oops, I think I focused on the wine again

Okay, I suppose that's technically the unfinished product.

Anyway, the proof, they say, is in the pudding, so as I was pudding the wine in my mouth towards the end of the glass I found it was indeed delectably crisp and refreshing without the weird melted ice taste my genes so despise. My glass of wine lasted probably twice as long as an uncooled glass. And a bonus at the end was that the grapes had gradually melted so they were a further treat at the end of a fine glass of wine.

This lifehack is a keeper!

It strikes me it's a great way to keep a bunch of grapes longer, too. And if we have another heat wave like last week, they'll freeze in the fridge anyway.

Happy New Year, all! Stay cool out there!

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