Bar technique
Ice and dilution: why water is an ingredient
Every shaken or stirred drink picks up water from the ice, and that water is part of the recipe. It is often a fifth or more of the finished drink. Without it, a drink tastes hot and the flavours stay closed.
The ice in the glass keeps working after the drink is served, which is why the size and quality of the ice matter as much as the spec.
How to do it
- 1Use cold, hard, dry ice. Ice that is wet or melting dilutes before you start.
- 2Strain shaken drinks over fresh ice in the glass, never the ice you shook with.
- 3Serve spirit-forward drinks over one large cube, which melts slowly.
- 4Keep crushed ice for the drinks written for it, such as juleps and swizzles.
- 5Scoop with a proper ice scoop, never a glass, and never with your hands.
Common mistakes
- Scooping ice with a glass. If it chips, there is glass in the ice well, and the whole well has to be emptied.
- Reusing shaking ice in the serving glass. It is already broken and melting.
- Storing food or bottles in the ice well.
Related: shaking, stirring, crushed ice, swizzle and churn, glassware.