Stirring

What is stirring?

Stirring is the quiet discipline of the bar: the drink gets moved with ice in a gentle spiral until it is cold and properly diluted, all without a shaker and without air. The result is silk instead of foam and clarity instead of cloud, and the difference to the shaken competition is audible: the built drink stays quiet, and so does the stirred one.

Why drinks get stirred

• Clarity: stirring whips in no air, the martini stays crystal clear instead of turning milky
• Silk: the texture becomes dense and soft instead of airy and foamy
• The territory: everything made only of spirits, vermouth and liqueur gets stirred, and everything with citrus, cream or egg belongs in the shaker
• Cold stays the boss: stirring is dilution with manners, and why the ingredient created along the way matters is in our dilution entry: dilution is the ingredient, over-diluting is the mistake

The technique

• The spiral: the bar spoon with its twisted shaft leads the motion, more on that in our bar spoon entry
• The tempo: calm and without clinking, the ice is supposed to chill and dilute, not get smashed
• The target temperature: often around thirty rotations, and in the end experience decides
• The straining: classically with the julep strainer, more on the sieves in our strainer entry

Distinction: tool, technique and James Bond

The mixing glass is the tool, stirring is the technique behind it, and why most professionals stir and what James Bond has to do with it is in our mixing glass entry. The bar's trio holds true here as well: the shaker makes texture, the mixing glass makes silk, the built drink stays quiet.

Remember: stirring makes silk, batching makes stock, flash blending makes fluff, the whip shake does half the work, the reverse dry shake makes the foam.

At our lounge

When the spirit round is running at our place, you hear exactly this: nothing. That is stirring at work, the quietest discipline of the bar, and for many the most beautiful.