The Penny Tip Your Bad Wine Might Benefit From, According To Science

It's important to pay attention to the expiration dates of food and drinks to ensure that you're getting the best quality from the products you purchase. Though many products may be technically safe to consume past their best-by dates, they can become stale, and the quality may deteriorate over time, affecting the overall flavor.

The same is valid for wine. While many unopened wines are safe to drink past the expiration dates — especially if they have been properly stored — you may notice that the taste or smell is slightly off. Opened bottles of red and white wine have a much shorter shelf life, and exposure to oxygen could speed up chemical reaction processes.

Due to these reactions, some wines can develop an especially unpleasant odor over time. If you open up a bottle and get hit with an unpleasant smell, your first reaction may be to get rid of it. But if you don't have a backup bottle or want to drink the one you have, there may be a simple trick to getting that smell to go away.

If you open your bottle of wine and get a whiff of a foul smell, the culprit may be hydrogen sulfide. This compound is naturally produced by the yeast in wine during fermentation and can sometimes be found to cause unpleasant odors in glasses of wine — it typically smells like rotting eggs.

Sulfur dioxide is also produced during fermentation and acts as a preservative. Wines produced in the U.S. must have fewer than 350 milligrams per liter. Despite the low amount in each bottle, it could potentially contribute to the smell.

Don't toss that bottle out just yet if it smells slightly strange — there may be a way to salvage it. If you have a penny on hand (ensure it is completely clean), carefully drop it into your wine and swirl it around. After removal, your wine should smell much better! The copper from the penny can cause the smell to dissipate.

Before you try this trick, make sure your penny is perfectly clean. If you've dug the coin out from the bottom of your purse, there's no way of knowing how many germs are on it — or how many people handled it before it wound up with you. Fortunately, there is a food-safe way to get them clean.

First, add a quarter cup of either lemon juice or vinegar into a glass. Stir in a teaspoon of salt and allow it to dissolve. Then, add your penny and allow it to soak for five-to-ten minutes. Rinse the penny off in warm water and allow it to dry.

The acid from the vinegar or lemon juice will remove the oxidization from the exterior of the penny, cleaning it off using only food-safe ingredients. This will ensure that your penny is perfectly clean and safe to be dropped into the wine without transferring any harmful germs.