This is the first post in a series dedicated to techniques that you need to know and perfect if you’re hoping to work in a cocktail bar.
Quick Recap on When to Stir vs. Shake:
When you shake a cocktail, it becomes murky – but stirring keeps it clear. That’s why drinks that are only spirit are best suited for stirring. For more on this, check out one of our very first posts! (Can you tell we’ve learned a thing or two about video since then? 
Tips and Techniques for Proper Stirring:
- Before you stir, ensure your mixing glass has been chilled. This chills the spirit more without adding dilution.
- Then, add your spirit to the mixing glass. (Note, if you don’t have a mixing glass you can use the bottom cup of your cocktail shaker.)
- Put your bar spoon in the mixing glass before you add the ice. This avoids the awkward “stabbing” move to get the spoon into the glass.
- While stirring, let your fingers do the work – not your wrist.
- Try to be as quiet as possible when stirring. Noise correlates with the possibility of chipping ice & over-diluting the cocktail.
- Some people recommend stirring 40 “stirs” (20 in each direction) but I usually just go by time – approximately 7-10 seconds in each direction. I’d recommend stirring higher-proofed spirits a little bit longer.
- When straining, use a julep strainer instead of a hawthorne to help keep your drink clear.
By the way – for my recommendations on bar spoons and mixing glasses, check out our Tools of the Trade page.
The Ultimate Guide to Bar Spoons:
Check out our ultimate guide to bar spoons for a lot more information about this humble bar tool – from the history to the different types available and a buyers’ guide to help you choose the best one for you!
Need Bar Spoons?
Check out our custom spoons for sale on Amazon!
Set of 2 Professional Bar Spoons
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In the next few weeks we’ll be talking about other bartending techniques like shaking and jigger pouring, so stay tuned!
Any stirring tips you can add? Let us know in the comments!
If using largish ice cubes, I like to break up a cube or two in the palm of my hand by striking it sharply with the back of a bar spoon using the other hand. I find this gives the benefit of filling in the spaces with smaller pieces of ice, creating more uniform cooling of the cocktail, and also adds just a bit of dilution. Cheers
Thanks for the comment sts2iver, and a great tip.
Old school, stirring isn’t with the spoon end. That’s for scooping cherries, olives, onions out of jars, and separating citrus skins from the meat and pith. Instead, the straight end is placed down into the drink making stirring easy, fast, and efficient. The spoon end is used face down when you want to use the blade to mix and churn the drink quickly by firmly pressing the long twisted shank between the two palms and moving the palms quickly back and forth in opposite directions, as if trying to start a fire with a wooden dowel. This creates a very fast blender-like action similar in violence to shaking, but on a controlled level. Since M.A.D.D. lobbied Congress in 1980 to cut all culinary schooling grants and funding to bar arts, the old arts have been lost and replaced by influences outside of what was then our craft.