Cocktail shaker

When thinking cocktails, nothing is more iconic than preparing your drink by shaking. Not all cocktails are done with this method: some are built, layered or stirred. There are even less common methods like blending, throwing and rolling. But as already explained in the bar spoon post: when you want to mix and there are opaque ingredients, the correct method would be shaking. Ice is used again of course, for chilling and dilution purposes.

Shaking will usually make your drink misty, with a froth of fine bubbles on top. That’s because by shaking you are causing aeration: you are forcing air into the drink. Furthermore, small shards of ice will break off the ice you are using in the shaker. All this has a visible effect, especially just after serving. Over a few minutes time this mist will clear up (probably still leaving your drink opaque, because of the ingredients used).

How much ice to use could depend on your ice stock. If you don’t have much to spare, you could get by with as little as three small ice cubes. But if you have more to spare, don’t hold back: chilling and preparation time will improve. You can fill your shaker half or 2/3 with ice. Just make sure that there is still room to move around: you don’t want to over dilute and you can’t aerate the drink if there’s little air to begin with. I prefer to add the ice first, because it will pre-chill the shaker and prevents splashing incidents when you add the ice last. The ice will also make comforting crackly sounds when you add the liquids. However, if you prefer to add the ice last (because this counteracts dilution), that’s perfectly acceptable as well.

There’s a baseline for the time you need to shake: 10 seconds for normal cocktails, at least 20 seconds for cocktails with ingredients that are harder to blend. But I would not advise counting out the time. The most important clue comes from your senses: you will feel the shaker get colder. The shaker should frost over on the outside before you stop. Yes, that means that your hands will get very chilly: there’s some suffering involved in making a good cocktail.

So what kind of shaker to use? Well, there are several possibilities. There’s the Boston shaker (glass and tin), two tin shaker, pitcher shaker (a relic from the past for making several cocktails at once) and the Parisian - or French - shaker (a two part shaker without a built-in strainer).

However, I would suggest to start off with a Cobbler shaker.

That would be the well-known three piece shaker that has a cap and built-in strainer. Obviously, one of the advantages would be that you don’t need a separate strainer, because you can pour directly from the shaker.

 It’s easy to use, which means you can also let guests make their own cocktail, if they wish. From an aesthetic viewpoint, I also prefer this one (although that’s very personal, of course).

Most bartenders in the UK and US will use a Boston shaker. It has the added bonus of gaining a mixing glass with your shaker. It is also faster in opening, pouring and cleaning. However, I assume you’re not very hard-pressed for time when making cocktails at home. And a separate strainer will also need cleaning, so that’s not where you get much of an advantage.

Does it matter how you shake your cocktail? Well, it certainly does. Cocktail experts agree on one thing: you should definitely put some effort in it. Going back to Harry Craddock’s pointers in The Savoy Cocktail Book we will find this, which is often quoted:

4.      Shake the shaker as hard as you can: don’t just rock it: you are trying to wake it up, not send it to sleep!

But apart from putting enough energy into the shaking, is there a certain style, technique or pattern which gives better results? Well, there’s no general consensus there. I seem to get the best results when I shake diagonally (by holding the shaker at an angle to the actual shaking motion). But maybe I’m imagining things. Just find a technique which works for you: part of the fun of shaking is that there are so many ways in which people do it.

I like to end here with one of the most influential cocktail experts: Kazuo Uyeda. He has perfected his method of shaking for decades, which is called the hard shake.

He certainly believes that the way you prepare your cocktails has a profound impact on the result. And he’s also a stern supporter of the Cobbler. In his own words: ‘If you realize how important shaking and mixing are, you will naturally notice that only the three-piece shaker could work out.’