SCIENCE OF SHAKING:

Q: Does shaking style and type of ice really matter in chilling a cocktail?

A: No, shaking style and type of ice does not matter. Experiments have shown that if the bartender uses large “enough” ice, and shakes “hard enough”; then the drink will reach approximately the same temperature.

Q: What is large enough ice?

A: Obviously, if the shaker doesn’t have enough ice the drink will be over diluted. There is an equilibrium point where no matter how much ice you put in the shaker, the amount of dilution will start to become negligible. A good approximation is 5 Kold Draft Ice Cube is enough ice to keep the drink from becoming overly diluted. Kold Draft ice is approximately 1.25 inches cube. The ice doesn’t have to be Kold Draft. Using home made ice approximately 1.25 inches cubed will give you the same result as a Kold Draft ice cube. Both standard ice and Kold Draft ice at the same size had the liquid temperature plateauing to the same temperature and reaching an equilibrium at about 12 seconds. The point to remember is that surface area and not mass determines the amount of water dilution. If you want less dilution, use a bigger ice to expose less surface area to the liquid. And use smaller ice cubes to expose more surface area for more dilution. A good bartender will know how much and how many small or big crack ice must be used to achieve the level of dilution needed for a particular cocktail. 

Q: What is considered a hard enough shake”

A: Experiments were performed on a normal bartender shake and a vigorous crazy hard shake. By normal bartender shake, I don’t mean 3-5 quick delicate bounces of the shaker up and down like you see in most bars. A hard enough shake should frost the metal shaker well within 10 seconds. Results showed that a normal hard shake and a crazy vigorous shake both chilled the drink equally. Temperature of both drinks reached the same temperature and reached the same equilibrium temperature at about 12 seconds of shaking. Results show a sufficient normal hard shake is more then enough to cool the liquid down. 

Q: Does chilling the shaker matter?

A: Chilling the shaker does matter a little. Pre-chilled metal tin shakers will chill slower then a pre-chilled glass shaker but the metal tin will reach a lower temperature in the end. This may be because glass is a poor conductor and is more readily to absorb heat then a metal tin. The temperature difference was found to be approximately 3 degrees celsius. There was no major difference between pre-chilling a metal shaker and a room temperature metal shaker. The pre-chilled metal shaker was only a couple of degree celsius lower then the room temperature at 12 seconds of shaking. Both room temperature and chilled metal tins became the same temp at about 17 seconds of shaking.

Q: Does the type of ice affect final ABV, final temperature, and final dilution?

A: No. Experiments with standard ice and Kold Draft ice showed that results were approximately the same and negligible. Remember, experiments performed were with same size ice cubes for both Kold Draft and Standard Ice. As mentioned earlier, exposing more surface area to the liquid by using smaller crack ice will dilute the drink more since more surface area is touching the liquid when shaken.

Please refer to TOTC: Science of Shaking for a more detailed explanation.

Photo courtesy of Justin Dunn