Shaker

What is a shaker?

A shaker is the loudest tool of the bar and its beating heart: a vessel in which drink and ice are united with force. Shaking is the fastest way to make a cocktail cold, diluted and cohesive. Anything with citrus juice, cream or egg belongs inside, because those ingredients need power to bind.

The three shaker families

• Boston shaker: a two-parter of metal tin and glass, or two metal tins. No strainer, filtering happens separately. The professional bar standard
• Cobbler shaker: a three-parter of body, strainer lid and cap. The built-in strainer makes it beginner friendly, especially popular in Japan and home bars
• French shaker: a two-parter made entirely of metal, the lid without a strainer, elegant and plain, filtering still happens separately

What happens while shaking

Shaking is physics with a time limit, and everything happens at once:

• Cold and dilution at record speed: the ice shatters into fragments while shaking, the surface grows, the drink chills faster than with any other method
• Air: fine bubbles get whipped in, giving citrus drinks texture and a pretty foam crown
• Emulsion: acid, sugar and alcohol bond into a stable whole, with egg white the famous crown appears
• The frost signal: when the metal tin draws a layer of frost on the outside, the drink is properly cold, and experienced hands know: time to strain

Two professional details? The dry shake shakes drinks with egg white first without ice so the emulsion can build, only then comes the hard shake with ice. And: carbonation never belongs in a shaker, the pressure would blow the lid off.

History: from patent to Art Déco

The modern shaker was born in 19th century America: bars worked with two-part vessels, and in the decades that followed countless shaker patents emerged. The golden era of the shaker came in the 1920s and 1930s: silversmiths and designers turned the shaker into an Art Déco status object, magnificent penguin-shaped pieces stood in the bars of the world. Later, Japanese bartender Kazuo Uyeda delivered the finest variation: his hard shake, an exceptionally precise wrist technique, turned shaking itself into an art.

Distinction: shaken, stirred, built

The trio behind the bar already appeared in our build entry, and here it fits once more:

• Shaker: for everything with citrus juice, cream and egg, texture and emulsion live here
• Mixing glass: for spirit-driven drinks, cold and silk without cloudiness
• Built: for highballs and anything carbonated

And afterwards: the double strainer is the shaker's partner, filtering out the fine ice fragments before the drink is allowed into the glass.

Remember: the shaker makes texture, the mixing glass makes silk, the built drink stays quiet.

At our lounge

When a shaker rings at our place, a sour, a fizz or something with cream is being born. Feel free to ask our team, shaking is power, rhythm and timing in one, and the frost on the tin is our signal that everything went exactly right.