Glassware
Glassware plays an important role in the much-ritualized cocktail experience. A well-chilled vessel visually entices us with the promise of refreshment, with the right glass adding elegance to even the simplest drink. Glasses come in an endless variety of designs, styles, and colors, but when it comes to setting up your home bar, your repertoire of glassware doesn’t have to be extensive to be stylishly appropriate and proficiently functional. A few basic styles—cocktail glasses, highball glasses, old-fashioned and double old-fashioned glasses, champagne flutes, and wineglasses—will see you beautifully through a multitude of drinks.
Essential Bar Tools
Whether you have a swank bar setup in your favorite entertaining room or an area set aside in the kitchen, you don’t need all the high-tech gadgets and gizmos to put together a well-functioning home bar. All you need are the essential bar tools to see you through just about any mixological occasion. You may already have the typical kitchen tools you need: a sharp paring knife for cutting fruit and garnishes, a cutting board for cutting fruit, a bar towel, a good corkscrew and bottle opener, and measuring spoons and cups. To these you will want to add a few of the basic bar tools: a blender with a high-caliber motor, a citrus juicer, a cocktail shaker or a mixing pitcher and stirring rod, a bar spoon, a jigger, an ice bucket and tongs, and, of course, a few cocktail picks and swizzle sticks.
Cocktail Terminology
To dash, muddle, top, or float: That is the question. When you want clarification on what exactly that all means or what it means to have a drink served up, neat, straight, or on the rocks, this miniglossary of frequently used bar terms will assist you in navigating bar talk.
. Chaser . The beverage you drink immediately after you have downed anything alcoholic, usually a shot. Typical chasers are beer, club soda, and juice.
. Dash . Either a shake from a bitters bottle or the equivalent of approximately 1/8 teaspoon.
. Dry . A term meaning “not sweet,” used either in reference to some wines or to describe nonsweet spirits or cocktails, such as the Dry Martini, which uses dry vermouth rather than sweet vermouth.
. Float . This describes the technique of slowly pouring a small amount of spirit (usually a liqueur or cream) over the surface of a drink so that it floats, or sits atop another liquid without mixing. The customary technique is to slowly pour the liquid over the back of a spoon.
. Highball . The main characteristics of a highball drink are that it has two ingredients—one spirit and one mixer, usually carbonated, poured into a tall, narrow glass filled with ice (the shape of the glass helps to contain the carbon-ation)—and that it can be mixed very quickly.
. Lowball . A lowball is any drink served with ice in a short glass such as an old-fashioned glass.
. Muddle . A technique that involves using a small wooden “muddler” or spoon to mash fruits or herbs in the bottom of the glass, usually together with bitters or sugar, to release their aromatic flavors.
. Neat . Describes a single spirit or liqueur served in a glass “straight up”—enjoyed on its own, unchilled, and without ice, water, or any other ingredients.
. Neutral Spirit . A spirit distilled from grain to produce a virtually tasteless, colorless alcohol that is 95.5 percent ABV (alcohol by volume) and is used as a base for spirits such as vodka or gin or for blending with straight whiskeys or other spirits and liqueurs.
. On the Rocks . A term used to describe any liquor or mixed drink served over ice—the “rocks” being ice cubes—as opposed to a drink served “up” (without ice).
. Perfect . A term used to describe specific cocktails that contain equal parts dry and sweet vermouth, as in a Perfect Manhattan or Perfect Martini.
. Pousse-Café . Literally translated as the “coffee-pusher” (and pronounced poos-caf-FAY), this after-dinner drink layers colorful strata of liqueurs, syrups, spirits, and creams in a stemmed glass. The multiple layers—as many as seven—are artfully floated one on top of another so that each stratum remains separate. The heaviest liquid goes in first, the lightest is added last.
. Proof . A legal measurement of the alcoholic strength of a spirit. In the United States, proof is calculated thusly: 1 degree of proof equals 0.5 percent ABV (alcohol by volume). Therefore, a spirit labeled “80 proof” is 40 percent ABV, a 100-proof spirit is 50 percent ABV, and so on.
. Splash . A small amount that can fall anywhere between a dash and about an ounce, depending on who’s doing the splashing.
. Straight . This term describes a spirit served without any other liquor or mixers, either poured into a chilled glass or over ice, occasionally with the addition of a splash of club soda or water.
. Top or Top Off . A term used by bartenders to describe the act of pouring the last ingredient into a drink, usually club soda or ginger ale, filling to the top of the glass. Also used to describe filling a beer mug from a tap.
. Up . Describes a drink served without ice in a cocktail glass. Usually the drink is shaken in a cocktail shaker and strained “up” into a chilled cocktail glass, as opposed to “on the rocks,” which means served over ice.