giphyDon’t you hate when you open a bottle of wine and forget about it? After being uncorked for a decent amount of time, your booze adopts a certain stench – one of something spoiling – and you feel as if all is lost. Talk about a bummer. Well forget about fretting over your wasted wine (pun intended) because the American Chemical Society (ACS) has a simple trick that’ll help save your spoiled vino.

Through the American Chemical Society’s web series “Chemistry Life Hacks,” they prove how spoiled wine can be renewed with just one penny (yes, we are referring to the 1 cent piece). All you need to do is; first, wash your coin very, very well. Think about how many people have previously held your penny and then scrub the heck out of it. Now that everything is clean and go-to-go, drop the penny into a glass of less-than-fresh wine. Almost immediately, you’ll notice that your wine’s aroma and taste transforms from semi-sulfuric to fragrant and palatable. BOOM! Crisis. Averted.

According to ACS, what’s actually happening is “the copper in the penny reacts with the thiols (sulfur compounds) that give spoiled wine its stink. The reaction produces copper sulfide, an odorless compound.” Crazy right? If a penny just seems too disgusting for you, try the hack with a silver spoon – it will also do the trick.

View this life hack and more at the American Chemical Society’s YouTube channel.

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