Double Strain

What is a double strain?

With a double strain, exactly what the name promises happens: filtering twice, just in a single pour. As the drink is poured out of the shaker or mixing glass, a standard bar strainer does the rough work, while a fine mesh strainer held right below it handles the fine work.

What gets filtered out this way:

• Shards of ice that break off while shaking and would otherwise end up in the glass
• Pulp and fibres from freshly squeezed juices
• Seeds, for example from raspberries or passion fruit
• Herb remnants and small bits of spice

You can see the result immediately: the drink turns glass clear instead of hazy or speckled.

What does double straining do to the texture?

Here lies the second, often underestimated effect. Tiny ice shards and pulp particles are noticeable on the tongue, they make a drink slightly grainy or scratchy. A double-strained drink, by contrast, flows silky and unified across the tongue, almost like a liquid with a velvety surface.

There is also a practical point: shards of ice in the glass keep melting and diluting the drink after the fact, uncontrolled. If you want precision in taste, that is not what you want.

When do bartenders double strain?

• After shaking: the standard. Shaken drinks with juice, egg or herbs almost always need the second filter
• For drinks served without ice: everything served straight up benefits from the clean look
• After stirring: optional, since hardly any coarse particles form in a mixing glass, but a fine strainer adds extra clarity

In short: everything that gets shaken and should land clearly in the glass gets double strained.

No contradiction to clarified

At first glance, double straining sounds like the little sister of clarification, and in a way it is. The difference lies in the effort and the goal:

• Double straining filters coarse particles in seconds, for glass-clear looks and a silky texture
• Clarifying removes even the finest haze through milk, agar or long filtering, for absolute water clarity

The double strain is the quick everyday classic, clarification is the big art. If a drink has been clarified, it still gets finely strained at the end, so the techniques complement each other.

At our lounge

If you ever notice how smooth and clear one of our shaken drinks looks in the glass, a fine strainer was very likely involved. It is one of those invisible steps where you as a guest only see the result: shining optics, silky texture, clean taste down to the last sip. Feel free to ask our team if you want to see the strainers live, watching a double strain is a satisfying little moment at the bar.