The Koozie Trick To Keep Your Ice Cream Pint From Melting

Ice cream is great in just about any season and situation. What's not so great is when that pint of ice cream starts to melt, which seems to happen as soon as you take it out of the freezer, especially if it's hot out (which, let's face it, is when you really want some ice cream).

Although using a pre-frozen ice cream bowl is a simple hack to prevent ice cream from melting too fast, it does require a bit of planning ahead — you want to have the bowl in the freezer for at least an hour, and ideally for four hours, to get it cold enough to make a difference. Plus, there's something just downright delightful and decadent about eating ice cream straight out of the pint, even if your hands get cold while holding the pint, and the ice cream seems to melt even faster when you're holding the pint. Luckily, you probably already have something at home that you can use to keep your ice cream pint from melting: a koozie. It works great for keeping your beer cold, and will work just as well to keep your ice cream cold.

Koozies work to keep drinks cold by both providing insulation and preventing condensation from forming on the outside of the container, explains Dale Durran, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington. The same principle applies to keeping a pint of ice cream cold. If you have a regular koozie, you can just use that for your ice cream. Although koozies are usually designed for beverage cans, which are typically smaller than a pint of ice cream, they're often made of a stretchy material like neoprene that you should be able to pull over a pint.

If a regular koozie doesn't work, you can always buy or make your own ice cream koozie. Some ice cream makers, including Ben & Jerry's and Jeni's, even sell koozies specially made for their ice cream pints. Some koozies also come with extra features, like a small pocket on the side to hold a spoon or a sleeve at the bottom of the koozie so you can easily hold the koozie and pint. And for ice cream superfans, koozies for half-gallon containers, like this one from Blue Bell, also exist.