Barbara Costello, known as “Brunch With Babs” on TikTok, is marking New Year’s Eve with a few of her tips and tricks to handle Dhampagne on one of the biggest nights of the year.
Costello shared a video on her Instagram on Saturday, Dec. 31, sharing three of her dos and don'ts of Champagne to ring in the new year and ensure a chilled, bubbly glass each time.
Here are her tips for serving “no-fail Champagne” this holiday.
How to chill your Champagne in 10 minutes
For anyone who didn’t get a chance to chill their Champagne ahead of time, Costello has a quick trick for achieving a chilled bottle that doesn’t involve throwing ice cubes in your glass.
“Take your Champagne bottle and put it in an ice bucket, fill it with ice, and then pour four tablespoons of salt right over that ice,” she instructed in the video. “Mix it in, and then pour cold water up to the body of the bottle. After 10 minutes, it’s perfectly chilled.”
How to keep your Champagne from going flat in the refrigerator
Keeping a bottle of Champagne from going flat after opening can feel like a feat, but Costello has the perfect tip to store the beverage after the cork has been popped without wasting a drop.
“Take a metal spoon, place it in the neck of your Champagne bottle, 're-fridge,'” she shared. “It’ll keep those bubbles bubbly.”
How to make your Champagne bubbly again
For Champagne that has gone flat though, Costello has a trick for that too.
“Don’t throw out flat Champagne … just do the old raisin trick,” she said. “Drop a raisin right into the bottle and just let it go. Look at that raisin absorbing all that carbon dioxide and then letting it loose. And your Champagne will be bubbly again.”
Costello also stopped by TODAY on Dec. 26 to walk co-hosts Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander through several ways to host a New Year’s Eve party. While Costello said that she personally prefers to be in pajamas to ring in the new year, she shared a few ideas for decor, food and beverages for anyone throwing a party this year, including what to do if “casual” is the theme of the get together.
“So my idea for New Year’s Eve, truly, is to low-key it. Have it stress free,” she suggested. “Invite people over, have a ‘theme,’ have a pajama party. They could come in fancy-dancy, ones, or they could come in flannels or sweats. If you set the tone, people relax."
For decor, in lieu of buying decorations just for the occasion, Costello suggested taking the festive wearables such as noisemakers and paper glasses and putting them into vases instead to spice up your table and make the favors easily accessible.
When it comes to food and beverages for the party, Costello made good use of a bar cart, whether it’s placed out when guests arrive, or simply wheeled out before the clock strikes midnight to ensure everyone has their glass of Champagne — or their drink of choice — to toast the new year. Costello called it her “self-serve bar cart” that can include Champagne, sweets, such as macarons and chocolate covered almonds, fresh fruit, or her recipe for prosecco-vodka grapes, which she recently shared on TikTok.