Stirring the cocktail
will result in a translucent drink: no bubbles, no fog. Just a neat, crystal-clear,
smooth result.
Of course, the
stirring will usually be done with ice. This will result in cooling and a bit
of dilution (which is just as much part of the process). If you really want to
go out of your way, you can fill the bottom of your mixing glass with smaller
cracked ice, adding larger ice cubes on top. However, just using the ice that’s
on hand will not make the drink suffer much.
Stirring can be done
with the normal end, but if there’s little room to manoeuvre the spoon around
there’s nothing wrong with turning the bar spoon around and stirring with the
handle.
Just make sure the
ice and the liquid are moving around nicely, until the drink is properly mixed
and chilled.
Other uses for the
bar spoon are layering and measuring.
The back of the
spoon can be used to carefully pour layers of liquor (that would actually be
the opposite of mixing).
A bar spoon holds
approximately the same amount as a conventional tea spoon, so if a recipe ever
calls for that volume, your bar spoon will suffice.
I specifically only
add the bar spoon here, not the mixing glass and/or the strainer. I have done
about 20 years without a ‘proper’ mixing glass and that hasn’t been any problem
so far. Any tall, wide tumbler glass will do nicely as a mixing glass. We’re soon
going to add a shaker as well, and stirring in the tin of the shaker is also
possible.
As for straining,
there are all kinds of ways to get the desired result. A julep strainer would
be the classic way to strain your stirred cocktail, but I’m also without that
particular tool. If you have a hawthorn strainer (with the metal spiral) that
fits in your glass, you’re all set. Other options are using the built-in
strainer of your shaker, using a properly sized spoon to hold back the ice,
using your hand (if the ice cubes are large enough) and using a hand sieve.
This video of
Charlotte Voisey will show an excellent example of how to stir a drink.
It also happens to
be a nice example of a Martini. It conforms to my Martini definition, because
Lillet Blanc could certainly be regarded as a special variant of vermouth.
Just be careful in
choosing the order of adding ice and liquid. If you add the ice last, you have
to be careful not to cause large splashes when the ice hits the liquid (tilting
the glass might help here). If you start off with ice, don’t fill your ice to
the brim (you can always add some extra ice after taking care of the liquid):
when the liquid lands on the ice it will splash a bit and could land outside
the glass.
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