There are four basic ways to describe what's going on in your cocktail:
Strong: refers to the main alcohol in your drink. That's your vodka, gin, or whatever your preferred liqour might be.
Weak: refers to the lesser alcohol part of your drink. This might be a liqueur (St. Germain for example) or fortified wines.
Sour: Means that there's a citrus note — lemon, lime, or orange.
Sweet: This one's pretty obvious, but that means there's sugar or syrup involved.
Cocktails that are made of only spirits should be stirred in order to get the rich, crystal clear look of the drink. This includes the likes of Manhattans, Negronis, and — you guessed it — Martinis.
Cocktails that made with citrus, eggs, dairy, or cream liqueurs need to be shaken in order to properly emulsify the non-alcoholic ingredients. This includes drinks like the Pisco Sour or the White Russian.
For the most part, muddling should be lightly done. If you pound the mint or citrus fruit too hard, then you're release unwanted, bitter chemicals into the drink. Just push down and twist — this isn't a piece of meat.
When working with egg white, you'll need to 'dry shake' the ingredients in order to fully emulsify and bind the egg white to the drink. Plus, that gives the cocktail better foam.
To do this, shake the drink for 15-ish seconds. If the directions say to add ice, then do so — and shake again.
When you're making a cocktail with berries with small seeds or herbs (for example, basil), you're going to need to double strain it in order to avoid bits and flecks floating around in your drink.
Bonus Pro-Tip: You can also double strain your egg whites. That'll capture extra foam that you can layer on top of the drink.
Measuring sugar by volume doesn't work for cocktails because sugar and water have different densities. If you're making your sugar syrup 2:1, and you measure by volume, it'll only end up being around 1.75:1 — which could seriously change up the cocktail's taste.
Source: Food Republic
Here's a helpful hint: citrus juices taste different as they age. Lemon and lime juices taste the best after they've been left to sit for 4 hours. (You can keep them bottled, sealed, or refrigerated.)
Source: Food Republic
On the other hand, oranges need to be used fresh. Once the orange is squeezed, there's an enzyme that makes the juice start to go bitter — so the longer you wait, the worse it will taste. Freshly squeezed, only.
Source: Food Republic
When you blend drinks, you dilute the flavor with all the ice. In other words, your drink will taste watery and flat. So add some extra sugar to add more flavor to your frozen concoctions.
Source: Food Republic
Please don't plop a mountain of whipped cream on top of a coffee drink — you're not four years old anymore. The whipped cream if 50% visual garnish, and 50% a protection against the hot drink. Don't go overboard.
Source: Food Republic
Keep the ice as dry as possible in your drink. Otherwise, the melting ice will dilute your drink.
Bonus Pro-Tip: Try and find deminieralized water (or low level mineral water) to make the clearest ice cubes. This will also keep your drink from looking 'dirty' as the ice melts.
Source: Cocktails
However, if you're making a long drink (the less strong, potentially-daytime cocktails like a Caipirinhas) use crushed ice.
Source: Cocktails
When making your cocktail, start with the 'cheapest' ingredient and work your way up: citrus, then fruit juice, then alcohol. And if your cocktail needs ice, make sure that's the last thing added so less of the drink is diluted.
Source: Food Network
If you don't have any sugar syrup, here's a cocktail-hack: mix up brown sugar with lime juice. It's a great substitute that won't change the taste significantly.
Source: Food Network
Avoid using the extremely high-end stuff in cocktails. Chances are, it'll just be a waste.
And if you're making a cocktail for a business associate who happens to be scotch expert — well he may be straight up offended that you aren't drinking it neat.
We hope this is intuitive, but just in case: if your date doesn't like whiskey, don't make a whiskey cocktail. And that goes for any liquors and flavors. Everyone has their own cocktail preferences — so play the role of an attentive host.
Instead of buying fancy cocktail equipment, you can use all of these household items to make your cocktails.
Source: The Guardian
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