When you start out making cocktails, you’ll find that many cocktail recipes are quite minimal. They tell you what ingredients you need, in what quantity, and give you basic instructions — and that’s it. They tend to assume you know all the key skills of cocktail making, and unlike many food recipes, they don’t explain the necessary techniques. That can be frustrating if you’re new to the hobby! But don’t worry. The skills are generally pretty easy to learn as long as you have some guidance.
One instruction you’ll often see in cocktail recipes is to strain the drink once you have shaken or stirred it. If you’re not sure what that means or how to do it then this guide should help.
How to strain a cocktail
One of the key pieces of equipment you need to make cocktails is a hawthorne strainer. This is a round, flat piece of metal with a handle and a large spring curved around its edge. It should be just the right size to fit on top of your shaker tin.
To use a hawthorne strainer, once you are done shaking your ingredients, place the strainer on top of the tin with the spring facing downwards. Place your hand around the tin with one or two fingers on the strainer, then pour the liquid from the tin into a glass. The liquid will pass through the strainer which will catch any large chunks of ice, fruit, or other material that you don’t want in your drink.
The spring means there is a little bit of give in the strainer, so you can push down toward the rim of the tin to filter out more of the chunks if needed. You can also twist the strainer around to let more of the liquid flow out if it is particularly thick. This isn’t hard to do once you get the hang of it, but you might want to practice with some ice and water a few times so you don’t lose any of your precious cocktail.
If you are using a mixing glass for a stirred drink, you’ll want a tool called a julep strainer. This is a larger, slightly rounded piece of metal with holes in and a long handle but no spring. To use a julep strainer, place it into your mixing glass at an angle and hold it in place with one finger while you pick up the glass with your hand and pour.
How to double strain a cocktail
You’ll sometimes see instructions to double strain a cocktail. This requires uses two types of strainer to catch even more particles, and is often called for when the finished drink should be particularly smooth.
For double straining, you will need both a hawthorne or julep strainer and a mesh strainer. The mesh strainer needn’t be anything fancy — I just use a kitchen strainer — but it should be an appropriate size. You don’t want to be struggling with a huge sieve, so pick something no larger than a few inches across. You’ll often see professional bartenders using mesh strainers which are triangular shaped and come down to a point, which makes them even more accurate at funneling liquid into the glass.
To double strain, hold the shaker tin and hawthorne strainer or mixing glass and julep strainer in one hand and the mesh strainer in the other. Pour from the tin and the hawthorne strainer through the mesh strainer and into the glass. This requires a bit of juggling but once you’re used to it it’s very easy to do.
Why straining is important
Straining is particularly important for recipes where you have muddled fruit, herbs, or other ingredients at the bottom of the shaker such as the basil for a Gin Basil Smash or the mint for a Mojito. You don’t want chunks of basil or mint in your drinks as they look ugly, get stuck in the drinker’s teeth, and ruin the smoothness of the drink.
You also want to remove shards of ice from the final cocktail. When you shake a cocktail with ice, you’ll melt some of that ice into water which will mix with your other ingredients — that’s what you want to achieve, as it both cools and dilutes the drink. However, the violent shaking motion with also cause some chunks of ice to splinter off, and if they are large enough then they won’t fully melt into the liquid. These ice shards won’t ruin the taste of your drink, but they will give it a strange crunchy texture. So by straining or double straining, you’ll make sure that these shards stay in the shaker tin and don’t find their way into your drink.
This technique is used for both shaken and stirred drinks, and is especially important for drinks which should be perfectly clear such as a classic stirred martini. By keeping tiny pieces of ice out of the final drink, you’ll help elevate the crystal clear look of the finished product.
