Boxes for Keeping Your Beers and Food Cold

24 July 2013  |  Admin

Warm Drinks, a thing of the Past!

The Warwick Castle Proms in the Park on the 13th July somehow landed on the hottest day in 7 years (as reported across the UK’s press). Knowing the weekend was going to be a bit of a scorcher my primary concern was how I was going to keep my beers and the wife’s vino chilled (oh and the picnic food as well).

Fortunately, I work for JB Packaging so I was able to borrow a spare polystyrene cool box we had around the office.

So what were we taking to the Proms?

Keeping Beers Cold

  • Two 4 packs of beer
  • Bottle of Rosé
  • Cornish Pasties
  • Mini scotch eggs
  • Cocktail sausages
  • Quiche Lorraine 

We kept everything well refrigerated up until the point that we had to leave the house at 4:30pm. We loaded up the box with our food and drink and to keep everything extra cool we added two 1kg bags of ice.

We put the cool box and the rest of our picnic gear into the oven like car and roasted our way to the Proms!

Cool Box Specifics /Treatments / Conditions

  1. The cool box was in the car for about 45 mins with an ambient temperature around 28°c according to the cars dashboard.
  2. We stood in the sun and queued for a further 45 mins before the gates opened at 6pm
  3. The lid was continuously lifted and replaced (which let the cold out and the warm in).

Conclusion – So How Did it Do?

I’m happy to report that we were drinking ice cold beers and sipping chilled Rosé all night long (well until we got turfed out at about 11pm). We freed up some space in the box by eating all the food, so there was extra room for the cider and champagne, which a couple of foolish friends had brought along without means to keep it cold. What were they thinking!

The best evidence I can give as to the performance of this cool box is the photo I took after the box had spent the night in the boot of my car, on what was a very warm evening.

This picture shows there is still ice in the box and that the current temperature of a can of lemonade about 20 hours later is recorded at 5°c and that’s without any additional refrigeration.

A great night out with friends with popular classical music performed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, all summed up by the four F’s…

The Four F's

  1. Fun
  2. Flag waving
  3. Fireworks
  4. And most importantly Freezing Cold Drinks!

This large cool box has a 32 litre capacity and is ideal for keeping its contents hot or cold. Great for picnics, outdoor events and festivals.

If you want to maximise for cans of beer the box has enough room for thirty 440ml cans (with space left for ice packs). However, I would recommend some wheels or some sort of trolley to move the weight of that much liquid. For lighter less alcohol-fuelled picnics the carry strap makes the box very easy to move around comfortably.