Use These Bartender Techniques to Make Better Cocktails | Techniquely With Lan Lam

When I'm at a bar that's new to me, there are four things I look for to help me decide what to order. If I see these things, then I'll probably ask for a cocktail. And if I don't, I'll have a beer. When I started working on this video, I ran my list by the bartenders at the restaurant downstairs from the office. Besides signing off on my list, they also gave me, us, some pro tips. So thank you to the Chickadee team. All the cocktails I'll be making today come from this gem of a book. Cocktails Illustrated. Now, whether you want just recipes or the science and techniques for making great cocktails, this is the book to get. First up on my list, are the drinks stirred properly? Stirring transforms a collection of spirits, juices, liquors, bitters, et cetera, into a cocktail. The simple act, swirling the bar spoon around the glass, does a whole lot more than mixing. Let me show you. I'm gonna make a Little Bologna, a cocktail developed by Joe Gitter. It's one of my favorite drinks in Cocktails Illustrated. So it starts with rye, one and a half ounces. This drink is actually a riff on a classic cocktail, the Little Italy, and I really like what Joe's done with it. Next up, we have an Amaro. This is Montenegro, and it's just half an ounce of this. And last up is half an ounce of Cocchi Americano. So I wanna see bartenders using a generous amount of ice. It's got a couple of jobs. It's gonna keep the bar spoon pressed up against the sides of the glass, and that in turn lets you move that spoon around smoothly, which means you won't be chipping ice or working in air bubbles. Good stirring looks smooth and is very quiet. That's the key to getting a cocktail that's free of chunks of ice or cloudy with bubbles. Beyond looks, it also chills and dilutes the cocktail. So this drink gets a little cherry for a garnish. I'm not normally a rye person, but I really love rye in here. That spice paired with the floral notes from the Amaro and the hint of bitterness, it's fantastic. So why is chilling good? Well, for one, it makes the alcohol less burny. If you've ever sipped a spirit at room temp, you can feel the alcohol release into your mouth, and those fumes hit your nose. It's not pleasant. The intensity of the alcohol burn is correlated with temperature. The lower the temp, the fewer alcohol molecules being released, and the smoother the sip. It also plays with our ability to perceive sweetness and acidity. Cold things taste less sweet and brighter. Here's a thing you can try. So I poured this wine about an hour ago, and I'm going to pour myself another glass from this chilled bottle, and let's have a taste. So this is really well-balanced. It's crisp, it's cool, and tastes delicious. That is not great. This is a Chardonnay, and the fact that this wine is now closer to room temp means that the residual sugars in there, they're really dominating, and the acidity is kind of lost. That's why it doesn't taste refreshing. It doesn't taste as it should. Besides chilling a drink, stirring also dilutes it. You've probably noticed how the amount of liquid in the glass increased after I finished stirring. In fact, for ice to cool a drink, it has to melt. So chilling and dilution go hand-in-hand. Why is dilution good? When we sip, our tongues pick up the five basic tastes. Our mouths detect temperature and textures like the fizz of a gin and tonic or the extra body that an egg gives a flip, but it's our noses that pick up aroma. Many of the appealing flavors that spirits bring to cocktails, they're only detectable by our noses. Those flavors are also hard to pick up on because they like hanging out with the alcohol molecules. Don't we all? Adding water means there are overall fewer alcohol molecules for those flavors to bond to, and so they can waft into the air for us to enjoy. You can use the fact that chilling and dilution go hand-in-hand to make super consistent cocktails. Next time you're making a drink, note the temperature of the drink after you're done stirring or shaking. If you like the results, you'll know exactly how to recreate it again and again because you have a temp to guide you. If you don't like it, think about how it tastes. Too watery, stir to a slightly higher temperature next time. Too stiff, stir to a lower temp. Knowing that temperature lets you make any drink, shaken or stirred, consistently, even when factors like the ice, the shaker, or the yield change. For more on cocktails, check out the Cocktail Lab with Joe Gitter. There's a link in the description below. The second thing on my list is admittedly a variant of the first. Are the drinks shaken properly? Shaking is at the opposite end of the spectrum from stirring. Let's make two sidecars to see what's going on. Three ounces of brandy into this glass. I'm adding two ounces of orange liqueur. One and a half ounces of lemon juice. And last up, two teaspoons of sipple. And now I'm adding a generous amount of ice and I'll give it a good shake. So I wanna strain the first one and double strain the second. Good shaking is aggressive. If a bartender isn't using their upper body, then I'm not interested in whatever they're shaking. The goal is to use the shaker to push the ice cubes through the liquid. As those cubes slosh back and forth, they do more than mix. Shaking causes tiny chunks of ice to chip off. Sometimes they're strained out, but some folks really like the texture of those ice chips. Next time you shake something, try straining half and double straining the rest. Keep in mind, if your drink has ice chips, those chips are gonna eventually melt and the flavor of your cocktail is gonna change over time, though it won't warm as quickly. Shaking also forces tiny air bubbles into the drink. Remember how the flavors of any cocktail are provided by aroma molecules dissolved in the alcohol and that when we add water, those molecules can more easily drift off into the air? Well, bubbles suspended in the drink are just tiny air pockets where some of those aroma molecules hang out. When you sip, those aromas are released and you get this amazing flavor. So that's mixing. Let's move on to how the spirits get into the shaker or mixing glass. Ever see a bartender do one of these? I used to think, ooh, they're making it extra stiff. Awesome. These days, I'm only okay with that if I really trust the bartender to know exactly what they're doing. If the bartender's new to me, I wanna see careful measurement. Getting the ratio of ingredients right is another key to a great cocktail. Most cocktails only contain a few ingredients, so it's really easy for them to be unbalanced. And it's not just the spirits that I wanna see measured carefully. Same deal with things like citrus juice, simple syrup, and most importantly, bitters. A dash is really imprecise. How much bitters you get with each dash is gonna depend on the design of the bottle. So let's say you're following a recipe and it calls for two dashes of aromatic bitters. Depending on the brand, your two dashes could be radically different than someone else's. When I asked my bartender friends how they managed to get this part right, they pointed me to the row of dropper bottles lining their bar. It's not a perfect system, but it does allow their cocktails to be consistent no matter who's making the drink. Your other option is to just use a measuring spoon. In our cocktail recipes, that's how we make sure we're communicating to you exactly what we did during testing. Just as important as what goes in the glass is the glass itself. When I sit down at a bar before I even look at the menu, I'm looking at what's going on back there. Is it neat and organized, clean, and most importantly, how are they taking care of their glassware? I appreciate perfectly polished glasses. I love sipping from delicate stemware, and I want a tumbler to have good heft. But the thing I pay the most attention to is the temperature. If a drink isn't going into a chilled glass, then I probably just want a bottle of beer. Cocktails are meant to be served cold. Pour them into something room temp or worse, still warm from the dishwasher, and they rapidly heat up. Let me show you what I mean. I've got three glasses here. This one was in the freezer for 30 minutes. This one's at room temp, and that is warm. We've all been served something in a glass that's still warm from the dishwasher, right? And this is a bottle of Manhattans. We call them fridge door cocktails because they can be made in advance and stored in the fridge. These Manhattans are perfectly chilled and perfectly diluted, and I'm gonna pour the same amount into each glass. And we're gonna give these 30 seconds just to equilibrate. So it's been 30 seconds. Let's check the temperatures. What do we got here? 25, 24, 25, ooh. 42, ooh, a balmy 51. That sounds gross. 42 is fridge temperature. It doesn't feel that different, but for a cocktail, that's a huge difference. You don't want all of that booziness that is gonna happen because this is too warm. Great cocktails are made by shaking and stirring to get them to the proper temperature and dilution. To really appreciate that work, you wanna serve the drink at the proper temperature. It's an easy way to show off your work. Now, you don't need to store your glasses in the freezer. The fridge works well too, though it does take a little bit more time to chill your glassware. Or if you need to quickly chill a glass, fill it with ice and water before you start building your cocktail. By the time you're done making it, you can discard the ice water. Remember to shake well to get rid of excess water. And you've got an on-demand chilled glass. Finally, we're down to the last item on my list, the ice. Great bars all have a great ice game. They all have ice for mixing and many have ice for specific drinks. I'm talking about pebble ice for juleps or smashes, clear ice that's been cut to fit specific glassware, even orbs or stamped ice. It's the ice they use for shaking and stirring that's most important to me, though. It's gotta be dry. And I don't mean dry ice like you use to keep things extra cold. I mean, the cubes can't have water on their surfaces. The ice you take out of the freezer, like this stuff, it's dry. Leave that ice on the counter for 15 minutes and it's gonna start to melt. And now your ice is wet. Why does this matter? The water clinging to the wet cubes is gonna dilute a drink without chilling it. So a cocktail you make with wet ice is gonna be thinner and weaker than it should be. Very few bars fail my ice test. But let's say you're at a party where the host sets up a bar. Chances are their ice is wet. If you wanna show off your cocktail skills, drain off the melt and choose the largest cubes for stirring or shaking. This way, you're gonna introduce the least amount of water to whatever it is you're making. So that's everything I look for before I order a drink. If you're at a new place and thinking about a cocktail, feel free to borrow my list. And if you're making cocktails at home, remember, these are the things that the pros do. You should be doing them too. Measure your ingredients carefully, chill your glassware, shake or stir properly, and make sure your ice is dry. Whether you're looking for classic cocktails or fun variations, dozens of which are zero-proof, you're gonna wanna grab a copy of Cocktails Illustrated. You'll find a link to purchase it in the description below.