Two guests order at once: a Martini and a Whisky Sour with egg white. If you shake the Martini you have ruined it, and if you stir the sour you have served a thin, greasy drink with no head. Choosing the method is not a stylistic preference — each one exists because it solves a specific physical problem.
The Decision Rule
The classic rule: stir drinks made only of spirits and other clear, spirituous ingredients; shake anything containing citrus, juice, dairy, egg or cream. The reason is aeration and texture, not tradition — shaking whips air into the liquid, which is exactly what a silky sour needs and exactly what would wreck the glassy clarity of a Martini.
The Methods
| Method | What it does | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Build | Ingredients assembled in the serving glass over ice; stirred briefly | Highballs, G&T, Mojito, Spritz |
| Stir | Chills and dilutes with minimal aeration; keeps the drink clear and dense | Martini, Manhattan, Negroni, Old Fashioned |
| Shake | Chills fast, dilutes fast, aerates heavily; creates texture and a light body | Sours, anything with citrus, juice, dairy or egg |
| Dry shake | Shake without ice first, then shake again with ice | Egg white or aquafaba drinks — builds a stable foam |
| Reverse dry shake | Shake with ice first, strain the ice out, then shake the liquid again without ice | Egg-white drinks; often gives a denser, glossier head |
| Throw | Pour repeatedly between two tins from a height, ice held back in one | Bloody Mary; aerates and chills with controlled dilution |
| Blend | Electric blender with crushed ice | Frozen Daiquiris, frozen Margaritas, piña colada |
| Swizzle | Agitate with a swizzle stick in crushed ice, in the glass, until it frosts | Tiki drinks, Queen's Park Swizzle |
Getting Each One Right
- Stir — combine, add good ice to the top of the mixing glass, stir smoothly with the barspoon riding the wall of the glass for roughly 20–30 seconds until the glass frosts. Do not clatter.
- Shake — fill the tin properly; a half-empty tin gives a weak, over-diluted shake. Shake hard, 10–15 seconds, until the tin is painfully cold.
- Dry shake — the egg protein needs to be whipped before ice makes it too cold and viscous to foam. Skipping it gives you a flat, watery head.
- Throw — the long pour aerates and integrates a Bloody Mary without the violent shake that would break the tomato juice into a froth.
- Swizzle — the swizzle stick chills the drink through the crushed ice, so dilution and chill happen together. Look for the frost line up the outside of the glass.
Double Straining
Shaking with cubed ice creates ice shards. For any drink served up (no ice in the glass), pour through the Hawthorne strainer and a fine mesh strainer. Shards left in a coupe melt fast and dilute the drink in the guest's hand.
Onboard Notes
- Shaking is loud. On a quiet night at anchor, with guests asleep below the sky-lounge bar, stir where you can and shake with a soft grip, or move the shake below.
- Blenders are the loudest object on any yacht. Never run one after guests have retired without checking.
- Egg white carries real risk. Use pasteurised egg white or aquafaba wherever the vessel's food-safety system requires it — and if in doubt, it requires it.
- A shaker tin that has not been properly cleaned will taint the next drink. Rinse between builds, always.