Everyone knows that on New Year's Eve, the drink of choice is champagne. It's fun and bubbly and makes you feel sophisticated, all the while helping you be in, let's just say, high spirits as you ring in the New Year.
Because champagne has this reputation of being classy and reserved only for special occasions, it's an adult beverage that's shrouded in mystery. How do you open a bottle without killing yourself? What's the best way to drink it? How do you store it?
Luckily, as with most things in this world, the Internet has answers to all of this and more. Here's seven champagne hacks to help you not be afraid of the bubbly and have a delicious New Year.
1. Open A Bottle Of Champagne The Right Way
Whenever people open a bottle of champagne in the movies, the cork goes flying, champagne spills out of the bottle like a fountain and somehow no one gets wet. But that's not really how you're supposed to do it. To properly open a bottle of champagne, you need to first remove the foil and untwist the wire cage while still leaving it atop the cork. Hold the bottle at a 45-degree angle while pointing it away from anyone or anything that could get hurt if it pops off out of control. Finally, twist the bottle until the cork is fully removed from it. You might even want to hold a napkin or towel over the cork as you do so.
2. Keep It Cold
There's a special circle of Hell reserved for champagne that has gone flat. One way to avoid this is to keep champagne cold. Always. According to Scientific American, in many liquids, carbon dioxide is more soluble at lower temperatures, so the colder the liquid, the better it is able to keep dissolved gas.
3. Drink Out Of The Correct Glass
Champagne is commonly served in a flute, but other kinds of glasses might actually make the drink taste even better. The next time you pop open a bottle, think about pouring it into a coupe or a white wine glass.
4. Be More Adventurous With Your Champagne Bottle Opening
Sabrage is known as the art of opening a bottle of champagne using a saber, or sword. There are plenty of videos online that show you how to do this, as well as using knives, wine glasses and even irons. However, this is one of the hacks that you should not try at home and just live vicariously through the brave souls in the video demonstrations.
5. Use Raisins To Keep Champagne Bubbly
If your champagne has lost its fizz, drop a raisin into the bottle a few minutes before serving it. According to this video from Real Simple, the bubbles will stick to the raisin's ridges before releasing again as bubbles.
6. Use A Champagne Opener
If opening a bottle of champagne still sounds a little scary to you, you may want to get some reinforcements. There are plenty of champagne bottle openers available online for way less than the bottle costs.
7. Stick A Spoon In The Bottle To Keep It Bubbly
This hack is a bit controversial, but it's nonetheless worth mentioning here. Drop a metal spoon into the neck of the bottle, and it should help the bubbles stay in the champagne longer because the spoon's dangling handle helps cool down the air inside the bottle more quickly. Some people think this trick is just a myth, but the GIFs in this article sure are convincing.
