How to shake a cocktail properly

When to shake instead of stir, how long and how hard, and why double straining and a cold glass matter.

Shaking does three things at once: it chills the drink, dilutes it with melting ice, and beats in tiny air bubbles that give a lively, frothy texture. That texture is what you want in anything with citrus juice, cream, egg or fruit purée. Drinks made only of spirits, vermouth and bitters are usually stirred instead (see stirring).

Step by step

1. Chill the glass first: a few minutes in the freezer, or filled with ice and water while you work.
2. Measure everything into the smaller half of the shaker, cheapest ingredients first, so a mistake costs you lime, not spirit.
3. Fill the large tin with ice, not a few cubes. More ice chills faster and, counter-intuitively, does not make the drink more watery: dilution follows the temperature the drink reaches, not the number of cubes.
4. Seal the tins with a firm tap, then shake hard, with the ice travelling the full length of the tin, for 10 to 15 seconds. The outside of a metal tin should be painfully cold and frosted.
5. Strain at once through a Hawthorne strainer, and also through a fine tea strainer ("double straining") for drinks served without ice, to catch ice chips and pulp.

Shakers

A two-piece metal "tin on tin" shaker is the easiest to seal and open and chills fastest. The three-piece cobbler shaker with its built-in strainer is fine at home but can stick when cold. A tin with a mixing glass (the Boston shaker) works the same as tin on tin.

Variations

• Dry shake: shaking without ice first, to whip egg white into foam. See egg white.
• Whip shake: a short shake with a few pieces of crushed ice, for drinks then poured over crushed ice, such as the Mai Tai.
• Short shake: a few seconds only, for drinks served long over ice that will dilute further.