MIXING TERMS & TECHNIQUES

Bruise Bruising is a gentle pressure for mint leaves and delicate herbs. It is done with a muddler. Herbs like mint, verbena, and borage, and spices like ginger are used more and more to flavor drinks. These should be bruised first to release more flavor; they should not be torn apart.

Build refers to preparing a drink in the glass in which it will be served, usually by pouring the ingredients in the order listed and then stirring.

Cream drinks should always be made with heavy cream—people expect the rich flavor. Substitute half-and-half or milk for dieters.

DIRTY DUmPING means pouring the entire contents of the cocktail shaker into the serving glass after shaking. The Caipirinha (this page) is made with this technique.

Discard the ice used to shake a drink and strain the drink over fresh ice, unless the recipe indicates otherwise, as in the Caipirinha (this page).

DOUBLE STRAIN Straining a cocktail by using both the julep strainer and the Hawthorne strainer. Place the Hawthorne strainer on top of the cocktail shaker and hold the julep strainer over the top of the glass. Pour through the julep strainer to keep the finer bits of herbs or muddled fruit from entering the drink.

DRY SHAKE see Shaking a drink.

FaT Washing infuses a spirit with liquid fat, like butter, bacon fat, duck fat, or peanut butter, and chilling the spirit allows the fat to solidify on top. The fat is then removed, but the spirit retains its flavor. The ratio of fat to spirit is 4 to 8 ounces of fat to one 750 ml bottle of spirit. Use lighter fats at the higher proportion (8 ounces) and heavy ones, like bacon fat, at the lower concentration (4 ounces). See the recipe for Ibérico Fat-Washed Bourbon on this page.

FINE STRAIN means using a fine-mesh tea-style strainer to remove seeds, ice shards, and other bits from cocktails.

Flag refers to the standard garnish of an orange slice and cherry. It is used in sours, old-fashioneds, and many tropical drinks. A slice of fresh pineapple is sometimes added to the flag garnish.

Frappé and Mist Drinks are served over crushed or shaved ice.

In and Out refers to a style of martini preparation. A small amount of dry vermouth is dashed into the mixing glass over ice, swirled around, and then tossed out. Then the gin or vodka is poured over the seasoned ice, stirred to chill, and strained into the serving glass.

LAYERING Floating drink ingredients one on top of another, beginning with the heaviest and adding according to weight. Brix or sugar content determines the weight of the liquid. The Pousse-Café (this page) is an example, and often starts with a layer of grenadine as the base, since it is a nonalcoholic sugar syrup and the heaviest. A float of overproof rum is sometimes layered on top of a rum punch, because the high alcohol content makes the overproof spirits the lightest and easiest to float as the final ingredient.

Muddling More vigorous than bruising. I bruise mint leaves to avoid tearing them into little pieces while still releasing some essence. I muddle limes in a Caipirinha (this page) more aggressively to extract the juice and the oil from the skin. This easy step can add so much to a cocktail.

Neat Spirits served at room temperature without stirring or adding ice.

On the rocks Indicates a drink served in an old-fashioned or rocks glass over ice.

Rolling or TOSSING Pouring the assembled ingredients for a drink back and forth between two large bar glasses to mix without agitating too much. This technique is used for drinks with tomato juice to avoid destroying the texture of the juice on the tongue. Rolling or tossing Martinis and Manhattans is popular in Europe, especially in Spain and Italy.

Season or wash Dash a small amount of the spirit you wish to season with into the glass, then rotate the glass and toss out the excess.

Shaking a drink The ingredients and the ice are assembled in a cocktail shaker and shaken well, then strained into a serving glass. Dry shake is a technique developed by Chad Solomon, co-owner of the Midnight Rambler in Dallas, Texas, when he worked at Pegu Club in New York City to lessen the impact of shaking egg drinks on his ailing back. The egg white and other ingredients are shaken without ice first, to emulsify and integrate the egg white, and then the ice is added and the drink is shaken again for a short time just to chill. The practice was adopted by many in the craft community to create a silkier texture and more and finer foam on sours with egg white, and to raise a statuesque foam “hat” on a Ramos or New Orleans Fizz (this page). I’m not sold on the technique’s benefits versus the time it adds to drink production. It also tends to lead to overuse of egg white in drinks. I find that too much foam on top of a Ramos or New Orleans Fizz is stealing from the liquid below, the part I am most interested in!

Shaking fresh fruit in a cocktail will always improve the flavor. For example, when shaking a Whiskey Sour, throw in an orange slice and a cherry, bruise the fruit with a muddler, and shake. Strain the drink, and always use a fresh garnish unless the recipe indicates otherwise.

Shooters These small tastes served in shot glasses are fun crowd-pleasers, but they also present a dilemma to the host: they’re invariably ordered when guests already have drinks in front of them, so how do you as a host provide a fun, recreational environment and at the same time serve in a responsible way? Here is how: All shooters should be ¾ ounce to 1 ounce, no larger. Buy special shot glasses just for shooters if they are popular with your crowd. Choosing the right recipes will allow some control over the alcohol content. My trick was to take a really tasty cocktail like the French Flamingo (this page) and re-create it as a shot. The drink doesn’t have a high alcohol content, and the recipe calls for a total liquid content of 3¾ ounces. By shaking well with ice, you add an additional 1½ ounces of liquid and have a very tasty new shot that will serve six people, taste great, and spread 2½ ounces of alcohol over 6 shots. Straight shots of spirits as shooters can also be served in a ¾-ounce to 1½-ounce shot glass and priced accordingly. The check will look better at the end of the night and so will the guests.

Stirred Assemble ingredients in the glass portion of a cocktail shaker with ice and stir with a long cocktail spoon before straining into a serving glass.

STRAIGHT-UP A style of drinks stirred over ice and strained into a chilled glass.

Straight up drinks are stirred or shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass without ice.

SWIZZLE A punch-style drink mixed by rotating a wooden Caribbean swizzle stick between the palms of the hands. That modern swizzle stick, often placed in or to the side of a highball drink, allowing the guest to stir their drink, is a spinoff of the original Caribbean swizzle stick. Authentic swizzle sticks can be sourced at kegworks.com.