The Mixology Talk Podcast, Episode Sixty Six
It’s another Listener Questions episode and we’re talking about decanters, Mojitos and building your drink in the “right” order.
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Listen Now:
In today’s Episode…
We’re answering listener questions! Press “play” above to listen in and hear our thoughts on the following questions:
“How can I break into the bartending career? Everyone wants experience!”
How should a Mojito be made?
Is there any concern about storing spirits other than scotch or bourbon in a decanter?
Can you make a sour mix with a juicer?
What’s the right order to adding things to your shaker?
Bonus Listener Feedback:
After this episode aired, I received a really helpful note from listener Sam Eilertsen. He kindly said I could share it here:
I just wanted to comment briefly on the debate in the last episode of Mixology Talk about whether ice should be added to a mixing glass before or after the alcohol. My instinct is that it makes little difference in terms of dilution. As David Arnold outlines in detail in Liquid Intelligence, when a drink is mixed ice will melt until it reaches a state of thermal equilibrium with the drink, after that it melt only very slowly as the air adds heat to the mixture, in other words if you stir a drink for 60 seconds you will get little dilution or chilling versus a drink stirred for 30 seconds.
So if you start with ice in a mixing tin, then add alcohol, you will have more dilution and thus a colder drink before you start stirring, but after 20-30 seconds of stirring or 10 seconds of shaking you are at the same point of temperature and dilution as if you had added the ice just before stirring. Unless you take an exceedingly long time to add the ingredients to the glass, or are making drinks outside on a hot summer day, the dilution won’t be noticeably different.
So there you have it – if you’re not taking forever to add your ingredients, maybe the order doesn’t matter so much after all. Thanks Sam!
Listen in to Learn:
- Why you may not want to store your spirits in decanters long term
- Chris’ favorite sweetener to use in Mojitos
- The one thing that bartenders just can’t agree upon: the order of making your drink!
Stuff we Mentioned:
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Did you catch my question in the show? Would you be interested in a live recording of the podcast? Let us know in the comments and we might just put it together!
Hey Folks,
I wanted to comment on the decanter question. I think that people frequently confuse a decanter for a storage vessel. The verb decant means: to draw off (a liquid) without disturbing the sediment or the lower liquid layers. There really is no need to “decant” spirits the way one would decant a hearty red wine off of the sediment in the bottom of he bottle. Ergo the whole idea of putting Scotch in a “decanter” is for presentation, not storage; otherwise why bother switching bottles? Having said that, high proof spirits will leech lead out of pure crystal. As beautiful as the rainbows it reflects are, pure leaded-crystal will poison your beverage. The plus side? There are a ton of food-grade crystal products that do not contain lead in a harmful state. Riedel is just one brand-name example.
Thanks for your comment Ayce, you’re absolutely right. I think we definitely fall into the trap of using “decanter” to use “storage vessel” when they aren’t necessarily the same thing. Thanks for the info about crystal, I wondered about that!