Shaken or Stirred

When to Shake, When to Stir, Rikasa Bar Team Says

“Martini, shaken, not stirred, which do you prefer?”

This often-repeated quote has confused cocktail enthusiasts ever since. Do you understand when to shake, and when to stir?

Whether you shake or you stir boils down to tradition and logic, It is a misconception that you should just shake everything.

“We get this all the time – Why are there no ice shards in my martini?” says Rikasa Bar Leads.

The Drinks to Stir

Martinis, Manhattans, Old-Fashions, basically any booze-forward drink should be stirred. Stirring these drinks produces a silky feel on the palate with precise dilution and crystal clarity.

Shaking adds texture and aeration which changes the feel and binds ingredients that would easily separate with just stirring.

But James Bond and even Tom Cruise – the handsome bartender in the movie “Cocktail” have influenced people to shake drinks that should be stirred.

How to stir a drink: When you properly stir a drink – twisting the bar spoon from the top so that that back of the spoon goes around the glass evenly – the ingredients come together, the temperature of the cocktail chills exactly, but the drink’s components aren’t diluted with melting ice, and the drink doesn’t get cloudy. The result is a clear, spirit-strong cocktail.

The Drinks to Shake

While shaking drinks that should be stirred taunt the purists, but stirring cocktails that require shaking ruins them. If you don’t shake ingredients that need to bind together, all the flavors are there, but the drink tastes incomplete. You need to shake drinks that contain cream, egg whites, juices – especially citrus. Drinks with herbs can also be shaken, and double straining with a bar strainer after shaking is recommended. How to shake a drink.

Still, customers are growing more educated. Here at Rikasa whether it’s at our Main Bar or up on our Roof Top, we are seeing a lot more stirring because it’s the new cool!

So next time you order your cocktail at Rikasa will you get it “shaken or stirred”?