Crafting Cocktails - Part 1: Learn to walk before you run

Craft cocktails have become increasingly popular over the past 10 years. With many pioneers reinventing the scene and modernizing the industry, the craft cocktail movement has produced some of the most delicious and creative libations one can imagine – it truly is a beautiful thing! But for a cocktail neophyte, it can be difficult to wrap your mind around – let alone know where to start. To help a beginner navigate the start-up process, this three part series was constructed to cover key points of learning how to not only correctly prepare cocktails, but begin crafting your own! This series will not cover everything and references will be given when necessary.

To move towards the ultimate goal of becoming a craft mixologist, one must first learn the key fundamentals of preparation before a cocktail can be conceived, prepared, and executed. While a lot of extraordinary people have revitalized the craft cocktail scene, plenty more have gotten wrapped up in fad liquors and trendy ingredients. This often results in drinks that, on paper, look amazing but fall short on delivery and taste. Bartenders and mixologists alike often fall into the perils of trying to run before they can walk. So take this piece of advice – start simple and learn the fundamentals of making craft cocktails.

Ingredients (non-alcohol)

Other than the alcohol, ice is one of the most important ingredients. A cocktail will often double its volume from the ice melting during preparation; thus, it is important to use ice that comes from a pure water source (reverse osmosis or distilled) and is not tainted with freezer odor ¹. Poor ice can contribute to off-flavors and imbalances that can ruin a good cocktail. Anyone who has had a drink made from ice trays that have been sitting in a smelly freezer can attest to this. Ice from clean water sources can be purchased from your local gas station/grocery store or even your friendly neighborhood cocktail bar. Be sure to keep it sealed when kept alongside of food in a freezer.

Another important point– use ingredients that are real (i.e. in their natural form). For fruit juices, avoid using concentrates. Lemon juice concentrate which, compared to squeezed lemon juice, is too tart to use in cocktails. On that subject, it’s also important to point out that some citrus fruit such as lemons and limes are actually better when they aren’t freshly squeezed. It’s actually better to use juice that has sit after squeezing². Freshly squeezed juice will often be too tart but over time the tartness will be counteracted by bitterness. The bitterness is attributed to limonin, a potent bitter compound that is formed after the juicing process. During juicing, enzymes released from disrupted tissues convert limonoate A-ring lactone (LARL), which occurs naturally in the tissue cells, into limonin². As the enzymatic conversion proceeds, an optimal balance between the tartness of citric acid and bitterness of limonin is reached after ~3-4 hours. Obviously the bitterness will continue to increase as the reaction proceeds leading to a juice that will be too bitter if it has been sitting for too long (e.g. more than a few days).

Other important ingredients that should be used in their natural state include milk, eggs, and spices/herbs. Again, if at all possible, try to use ingredients that exist in their natural form.

Preparation

Proper preparation is an area that often seems to be overlooked. One of the most common and frustrating aspects of purchasing cocktails from a restaurant/bar rather than making my own is receiving a drink that has been made incorrectly. I can’t tell you how many restaurants and bars I’ve been to that claim to serve craft cocktails with menus showcasing appetizing drinks only to be disappointed upon being served a drink that has been made improperly. Below are some key preparation fundamentals that cannot be overlooked:

Measuring – In the realm of craft cocktails, consistency is key. The easiest way to maintain consistency across cocktails is taking care to measure out ingredients (i.e. no free pouring!). A measuring device such as a jigger or a small measuring cup is often preferred by bartenders to maintain ingredient consistency³. Measuring cups offer graduated markings for different volumes; not all jiggers have markings which can make them less accurate. One can either seek out jiggers that already include markings or etch markings into existing ones once they have been calibrated.

Stirring vs shaking – This is one of the most overlooked techniques for correctly making a cocktail. I cringe every time I see someone mix a spirit dominant drink (e.g. a Manhattan, negroni, dry gin martini, etc) by shaking. Understanding when to shake versus stirring is essential for making a proper cocktail. The general rule-of-thumb is you stir a drink that contains spirits with light mixers while drinks that tend to be shaken include fruit juices, eggs (whole or whites), cream, or any other ingredient that may need additional energy to mix properly. Stirring tends to preserve more of the original essence of the liquor (whiskey, scotch, gin, mezcal, etc) in spirit dominated drinks while shaking is used to ensure that all ingredients have been properly married in drinks that include different ingredient types⁴. Again, this is a rule-of-thumb that most drinks will follow but a seasoned mixologist will know when the rule can be broken. One easily relatable example is the dry vodka martini. This drink is typically shaken even though it would be categorized as a spirit dominant drink. Since vodka has little flavor, the shaking does little to effect the spirit flavor and helps produce a colder drink which, in my opinion, people tend to prefer for their vodka martinis.

Dry shaking – this is a technique that is often used for drinks containing eggs or egg whites. Dry shaking is done to properly mix the egg/egg whites with the other components and incorporate air to illicit the formation of foam. First the ingredients are shaken without ice then the ice is added and shaken normally. Drinks prepared this way will have a nice frothy texture and pleasant mouthfeel.

While stirring and shaking are often the chosen mixing method, other mixing techniques can be used, although less frequently. Briefly, other techniques include rolling⁵ which includes pouring a drink from one glass to another to gently mix a drink (e.g. bloody mary); swizzling⁶ includes the use a swizzle stick, bois lele, which is rubbed between palms of the hands to create a rotating action that mixes a drink; and building in the glass in which the drink is simply just made in the glass that it will be served in (e.g. gin and tonic).

Straining – This tends to go hand-in-hand with shaking and stirring. Typically drinks that are stirred are single strained often with a julep⁷ or hawthorne strainer⁸. Double straining is used to prepare drinks that are shaken, served up (without ice) and don’t include dairy or eggs; this is often achieved by fine strainer or sieve. The addition of a fine strainer removes any small ice particles resulting in a nice, clear drink such as a dry vodka martini.

Crushed ice – Some drinks including the infamous mint julep require the use of crushed ice. The proper way to prepare crushed ice is using a mallet to smash the ice inside of a canvas bag better known as a lewis bag. The canvas bag helps soak up water generated during the smashing step. The end result is a ‘dry’ crushed ice which prevents the drink from becoming too dilute.

Now that you’ve learned the preparation, it’s time to learn the techniques

Stirring – 30 seconds with a smooth stir around the outside of the glass. The ice should not rub against itself but should remain as one solid unit. It may be hard to visualize this so I have referenced a video showing what it should (and shouldn’t) look like⁹. Having the proper spoon and holding it appropriately is important to stir properly. It may take some practice to perfect this technique but once you get the hang of it you can work towards the ultimate goal of being able to stir and shake drinks at the same time!

Shaking – shaking sounds obvious enough but often bartenders will not shake the drink nearly long or hard enough. To completely marry all the ingredients and impart the proper amount of dilution to a drink, I often say the drink needs to be shaken until the shaker gets very cold to the touch. See the link¹⁰ below for a good visual demonstration.

Lining a glass – Salt and other granular ingredients/powders/spices that are lined on the rim of a glass need to remain on the outside of the glass. Too often bartenders will get sloppy and rim the glass on both the inside and outside; this is almost always the case with frozen margaritas. Remember the salt and other rim-lined garnishes are not supposed to be in the cocktail. It may take a little more time to ensure correctly lining the glass but a customer who appreciates a proper margarita, salty dog, bloody mary or other garnish rimmed drink will appreciate not having garnish in their drink.

Lining a glass with spirits or other liquid ingredients is often used to impart subtle flavors to the drink. This technique is often used for making an extra dry martini where a small portion of vermouth is added, enough to coat the glass, to provide subtle vermouth flavor in this spirit dominated drink. Another example is the Sazerac, a small amount of herbsainte or another anise-heavy spirit such as absinthe is added to coat the glass, any remaining beyond the coated layer is discarded. Since herbsainte has a potent anise (liquorice) flavor, lining helps impart some additional complexity without causing the drink to be off-balance.

Garnish prep – this is mostly targeted towards prepping citrus garnishes (peels/twists) since they are often used in cocktails. One key thing to remember with citrus peels is that no fruit should come along with the garnish, only skin and pith. The goal here is to get the aromatic citrus oils out of the skin and into the drink. After sectioning a peel, squeeze the outside of the peel in a twisting motion, with the skin facing the drink to rupture the oil sacs in the skin and release the pleasant aromas into the drink. The twist can either be added to the drink (this will impart additional aroma), discarded (no additional aroma), or presented on the lip of the glass which gives the imbiber the choice of adding or discarding.

References

Crafting Cocktails – Part 1: Learn to walk before you run

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Crafting Cocktails – Part 1: Learn to walk before you run

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