Shaking vs stirring
Shake anything with citrus, juice, cream or egg. Stir anything made only of spirits. Both chill and dilute; the difference is the texture they leave behind.
Why it works
The rule is simple. If a drink contains citrus, juice, cream, egg, coffee or anything else that makes it cloudy, shake it. If it is only spirits, vermouths, liqueurs and bitters, stir it. A Daiquiri is shaken; a Martini, Manhattan or Negroni is stirred.
Both methods do the same three jobs in different measure: they chill the drink, they dilute it with meltwater, and they change its texture. Ice can only cool a drink by melting, so chilling and dilution always arrive together. Water is also an ingredient. A stirred drink usually takes on 20–30% of its volume in meltwater, a shaken one 25–40%. Without it, a Negroni tastes hot and harsh; with it, the flavours open and the alcohol softens.
Shaking is violent. Ice smashes around the tin, so heat transfers fast and the drink reaches about -6 to -8 °C in around 10 seconds. It also beats in thousands of tiny air bubbles. That aeration gives a sour its lively, frothy texture, binds juice and spirit together, and lets egg white or coffee build a foam. The catch is that it clouds the drink and leaves tiny ice chips, which is exactly what you want in a Daiquiri and exactly what you do not want in a Martini.
Stirring is gentle. The ice turns slowly, so there are no bubbles and no shards, and the drink stays clear, dense and silky on the tongue. It takes longer and finishes a little warmer, around -2 to -5 °C, with a little less water. For a drink that is all spirit, that weight and clarity is the point.
What you need
- Shaker: A Boston shaker is two metal tins, roughly 800 ml and 500 ml, that seal into each other; a cobbler has a built-in strainer and cap, and is easier to start with but tends to leak and stick.
- Mixing glass: A heavy, wide glass of about 500–700 ml for stirring; a straight-sided jug or the large shaker tin does the job at a pinch.
- Bar spoon: A long, thin spoon with a twisted stem that spins easily between your fingers; the bowl doubles as a measure of about 5 ml.
- Hawthorne strainer: The flat strainer with a spring that fits snugly over a shaker tin and holds back ice.
- Julep strainer: A perforated, spoon-shaped strainer that sits inside a mixing glass; a Hawthorne works too.
- Fine strainer: A small conical tea-strainer-style sieve for double straining out ice chips, pulp and herb fragments.
- Jigger: A double-ended measure marked in ml; cocktails are built on small differences, so measure everything.
Step by step
Chill the glass first
Put the glass in the freezer for 15 minutes, or fill it with ice and water while you mix. A drink served without ice warms by several degrees in a room-temperature glass before you have taken a sip. Tip the ice water out just before you strain.
Measure into the small tin
Pour the ingredients into the smaller tin or the mixing glass, cheapest first, so a mistake costs you lime juice rather than good gin. Measure with a jigger rather than free pouring. Add ice last, so it does not sit melting while you measure.
Shake hard with plenty of ice
Fill the large tin about two-thirds with fresh, hard ice. Tip the small tin in at a slight angle and tap it down with the heel of your hand to seal. Hold it with both hands, small tin towards you, and shake hard over your shoulder for 10–15 seconds, until the outside of the tin frosts and is painfully cold to hold.
Tip: Shake as if you mean it. Most of the chilling happens in the first 10 seconds, and a lazy shake gives you a warm, flat drink rather than a well-made one.
Dry shake for egg white and aquafaba
Egg white foams best without ice. Shake all the ingredients without ice for about 10 seconds to whip the proteins, then add ice and shake again to chill. The reverse dry shake does it the other way round: shake with ice, strain the drink into the empty small tin, discard the ice, and shake once more without it.
Tip: The reverse dry shake gives the thicker, finer foam, because the proteins whip better once the liquid is already cold.
Whip shake for crushed-ice drinks
When a drink will be poured over crushed ice, as in many rum and tiki drinks, add just a small handful of crushed ice or a few cubes to the tin and shake briefly until it has melted. The drink is mixed and aerated with little dilution, because the crushed ice in the glass will add the rest.
Stir with lots of ice
Fill the mixing glass to the top with cold, dry ice, well above the liquid. More ice means faster chilling and, oddly, less excess water, because each cube melts less. Slide the spoon down the inside of the glass, keep the back of the bowl against the glass, and turn it smoothly so the ice and liquid spin round together as one mass. Stir for 20–40 seconds.
Tip: Hold the stem lightly between thumb and first two fingers, like a pencil, and let your fingers push and pull it round. If the ice is clattering, you are churning, not stirring.
Taste for dilution
After about 20 seconds, take a drop on the back of your hand or a straw. The drink should taste cold, bright and balanced, with the alcohol present but no longer burning. If it still bites, stir on for another 10 seconds and taste again. Large, very cold ice needs longer; wet, small ice needs less.
Strain, and double strain shaken drinks
Pull the tins apart, set the Hawthorne over the large tin and pour through it into the chilled glass. For drinks served up, hold a fine strainer over the glass and pour through both; this double strain catches ice chips and pulp that would otherwise float on the surface and keep melting. For a stirred drink, a julep or Hawthorne alone is enough.
Tip: Do not double strain an egg-white sour too slowly. Pour in one steady stream so the foam goes in rather than staying stuck in the sieve.
Which classics are shaken, stirred or built
| Drink | Method | Why |
|---|
| Martini | Stirred | Gin and vermouth only; should be crystal clear and silky. |
| Manhattan | Stirred | Whisky, sweet vermouth and bitters; shaking makes it cloudy and frothy. |
| Negroni | Stirred | Gin, Campari and vermouth; stirred over ice, often served on a large cube. |
| Old Fashioned | Stirred | Spirit, sugar and bitters; stirred in the glass or a mixing glass. |
| Daiquiri | Shaken | Lime juice needs aeration and hard chilling to taste bright. |
| Margarita | Shaken | Lime juice and orange liqueur; shaking binds them with the tequila. |
| Whiskey Sour | Shaken, dry shake with egg | Citrus, plus egg white that must be whipped to a foam. |
| Espresso Martini | Shaken | Coffee oils and hard shaking create the creamy head. |
| Aperol or Campari Spritz | Built | Poured over ice in the glass; prosecco and soda would go flat if shaken. |
| Highball (whisky and soda, gin and tonic) | Built | Spirit and ice in the glass, topped with mixer, one gentle lift with a spoon. |
Five core drinks
| Drink | Spec | Method and glass | Garnish |
|---|
| Martini | 60 ml gin, 10 ml dry vermouth, 1 dash orange bitters | Stir 30–40 s, strain into a chilled coupe or Nick and Nora | Lemon twist or an olive |
| Manhattan | 50 ml rye whiskey, 25 ml sweet vermouth, 2 dashes Angostura bitters | Stir 30 s, strain into a chilled coupe | Cocktail cherry |
| Negroni | 30 ml gin, 30 ml Campari, 30 ml sweet vermouth | Stir 20–30 s, strain over a large cube in a rocks glass | Orange slice or twist |
| Daiquiri | 60 ml white rum, 25 ml fresh lime juice, 15 ml sugar syrup (1:1) | Shake 10–15 s, double strain into a chilled coupe | None, or a thin lime wheel |
| Whiskey Sour | 50 ml bourbon, 25 ml fresh lemon juice, 20 ml sugar syrup (1:1), 20 ml egg white (optional) | Dry shake, then shake with ice; strain into a rocks glass over ice or a coupe without | A few drops of Angostura on the foam |
Troubleshooting
The drink tastes thin and watery
Too much meltwater, usually from wet, small or half-melted ice, or from stirring and shaking too long. Use fresh ice straight from the freezer, fill the tin or glass properly, and taste as you stir. A drink served up also gets watery if it sits in a warm glass, so chill the glass.
The drink is too strong and hot
Not enough dilution. The alcohol burn means the drink needed more time on ice, more ice, or a harder shake. Stir 10 seconds longer and taste again. Very cold freezer ice, or one big cube, melts slowly, so it needs extra time.
My Martini came out cloudy
It was shaken, or stirred so roughly that it churned. The haze is fine air bubbles and ice chips. Stir smoothly with the spoon back against the glass and strain through a julep or Hawthorne. A slight haze can also come from old or poorly stored vermouth.
My sour has no foam
The egg white was not whipped enough, or the drink was shaken with ice from the start. Dry shake for a full 10–15 seconds, or use the reverse dry shake. Old egg whites and any trace of oil or fat in the tin, including citrus oil from twists, stop the foam forming.
The tins are stuck together
As the air inside cools it contracts and the tins vacuum-seal. Hold the shaker with the large tin in your weaker hand and strike its rim firmly with the heel of your other hand, where the two tins meet at the gap in the seal. Next time, seat the small tin with a light tap rather than a hard thump.
Raw egg, glass and alcohol
Shaking raw egg white does not cook it, and shaking puts real force on whatever you are holding. Both are easy risks to manage.
- Raw egg white carries a small risk of salmonella. Use very fresh eggs, or pasteurised egg white from a carton; for pregnant, elderly or immunocompromised guests, use pasteurised white or aquafaba.
- Aquafaba, the liquid from a tin of chickpeas, foams like egg white; use about 20–30 ml per drink. Tell guests if there is egg or chickpea in a drink, as both are allergens for some people.
- Shake tin on tin, not with a glass inside a tin. Glass can crack or shatter in a hard shake, and a cold glass under hot water can crack too.
- Inspect the glass for chips before serving, and never scoop ice with a glass; use a scoop, so broken shards do not end up in the ice bucket.
- A well-made cocktail is strong. Serve one or two, offer water and food alongside, and never to anyone who is pregnant or driving.
