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copyright ©1999-2005
DigsMagazine.com.
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in the
mix
a guide to
cocktail techniques
by Yee-Fan Sun
| 1 2
3
continued from page 1
shake
Fill a cocktail shaker about 2/3 full of ice. Add your ingredients over
the ice, then pop on the lid -- securely, unless you want to make a
great big mess -- and get ready to shake that baby up. With the lid end aiming away
from you (so you don't shower yourself in alcohol if the lid happens to
come loose), get a good hold on both ends of the shaker. Shake firmly
and quickly, moving the shaker in and away from your body. Ten or so
vigorous shakes should do the drink -- at this point, if you're using a
metal shaker, you'll generally find that the mixing vessel is frosting
on the outside, and just about too cold to continue to hold. Strain the
mixed drink (your shaker might have a built-in strainer, or you can buy
a separate cocktail strainer) into your glassware of choice.
Use this technique for:
cocktails that contain ingredients that don't mix readily with alcohol,
such as juice, egg, cream and milk
blend
The trickiest part of blending drinks is getting the right proportions
of ice to solids to liquids. The whole point of blending a drink is to
get it to that perfect, slushy consistency that's thick enough that a
straw popped in will stand up on its own, but not so solid that it's
impossible to suck up the concoction through the aforementioned straw.
You'll probably have to do a little trial and error to get to this
point; fortunately, blended drinks tend to be fairly forgiving.
Start with a scoopful of ice.
Crushed or cracked ice is better than cubed if you can swing it, as
it'll put a lot less strain on your poor blender. Add any solid
ingredients -- fresh fruit, ice cream, whatever -- then pour in your
liquids. Give it a good zizz, until the chunks are well pureed and the
mixture is relatively smooth. Test the flavor and consistency. If it's
so thick as to resemble a solid, add a little more liquor or juice. If
it's thin as water, thicken things up with a bit more ice (as long as
the drink can hold up to more dilution) or solids (if the drink needs
more flavor punch).
Use this technique for:
frosty frou-frou cocktails
don't
stop: more this way!
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