hand sketched logo of electrons orbiting a nucleus

Why We Shake

To chill, dilute, and aerate

Notes from Anders Erickson's: How to Mix a Drink.

Why?

  • To chill
  • To dilute
  • To aerate (add oxygen)

How?

  • Start with a Boston shaker
  • Make drink in tall tin
  • Fill short tin with ice
  • Flip short tin over tall tin
  • Hit the back of the short tin to create a seal
  • Shake
  • Knock the tins against your palm to release the seal
  • Double strain into a chilled glass

How long?

This depends on how it is going to be served. And also if you got an egg white in there.

When serving:

with crushed ice → shake ~2 seconds

on the rocks → shake ~5 seconds

straight up → shake ~10 seconds

with an egg whitedry shake (no ice) for ~20 seconds → then with ice for ~5 seconds

Further Reading

The Science of Shaking by Dave Arnold.

References

🐎 Brown Derby

Bourbon, grapefruit, lemon, and honey

🍹 Cocktails

🍹 Cocktails

Sip consciously, play with your senses

Daiquiri

🍹 Cocktails

🖐 High Five

Gin, Aperol, Grapefruit

🍹 Cocktails,

Daiquiri Family

How to Batch Cocktails

Weigh, dilute and fresh citrus

Cocktail Techniques

In Why We Stir and Why We Shake, we learned that these techinques dilute the drink with right amount of water. When making a batch of cocktails, we need to be more intentional in our dilution.

😶 The Last Word

Boozy, balanced, and so easy to drink

🍹 Cocktails,

Daiquiri Family

Let's make your first cocktail right now!

You probably have everything you need in your kitchen right now

🍹 Cocktails,

✒️ Posts

We shake to dilute and chill. Yea, dont store your booze in the freezor or fridge. We need it literally melt part of the ice to dilute the drink.

🥵 Naked and Famous

Dry, boozy and incredible riff on "The Last Word"

🍹 Cocktails

Short Shake

Cocktail Techniques

The goal here is to reduce the amount dilution yet cooling the drink some. Shake for ~5 seconds with ~1in size ice cubes. Even shorter with crushed ice.

🍃 Southside

Gin, lime, mint

🍹 Cocktails,

Daiquiri Family

Add remaining ingredients and shake with ice