Why We Stir
To chill and dilute
Table of Contents
Notes from Anders Erickson's: How to Mix a Drink.
Why?
- To chill
- To dilute
There's some discussion about not bruising the alcohol by shaking it. Idk 🤷♂️
How?
- Start with a large glass
- Add ingredients and add ice (any order)
- Stir fast with a chopstick for ~45 seconds
- Strain into glass
Claims
I've pulled out some of the learnings after reading thru experiements of Dave Arnold, Eben Kleem, and Thomas Waugh did for The Science of Stirring.
It doesn't matter if the ice or ingredients go in first
Blue line
- ice is added immediately
- the temp seems to drop cause the ice is sitting on the thermocouple
- as the stirring starts at ~1min the true temp is shown
Red line
- ice is added after ~1min
Ice size changes stirring time
Small ice (green) with a lot of surface area will melt faster than large (blue) ice with less surface area.
Stiring speed matters
Fast stiring (red) will chill faster, duh. 45s fast is equal to 105s slow (green).
And shaking (blue) is the fastest, in 10s the temp is colder than the fast stir gets to in 1min and 45s!
If the temps are the same, the dilution is the same
Notes:
- I do all this in a large drinking glass. Nothing fancy. If I ever upgrade to a mixing glass I'll let you know why.
- Erickson prefers to strain with a julip strainer to reduce the aegetation the hawthorne strainer can cause. Idk if my quality is to the point where I can tell the difference. But I dont do a lot of stirred drinks, yet!
References
🥃 Boulevardier
"A man about town"
🍹 Cocktails,
Martini Family
🍹 Cocktails
Sip consciously, play with your senses
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.
🥃 Improved Whiskey Cocktail
Simple to make, complex to taste
🍹 Cocktails,
Old Fashioned Family
🥃 Kingston Negroni
Rum variation on a classic
🍹 Cocktails,
🥃 Negroni