Stirring a Cocktail: Ice, Vessel, Temperature and the Negroni

Why stirring is hard to do consistently

Stirring looks simple, but Arnold calls it harder to make consistently than almost any other kind of cocktail. It is an inefficient way to chill: in the martini experiment it took over two minutes for temperature and dilution to level off, far longer than anyone should stir. The main variables are the size of the ice and how fast and how long you stir. Fine shaved ice reaches near equilibrium in a few seconds of lazy stirring, which is too cold and too diluted for most stirred drinks, while giant two-inch cubes chill and dilute so slowly that the drink stays warm and underdiluted. If he wants a cool, barely diluted drink, he orders a built drink instead.

The best ice

Medium-sized, relatively dry ice is best: large cubes that you freshly crack into smaller pieces with the back of the bar spoon, or ordinary machine ice from which you have shaken the excess water. The size is not critical, because you adjust the dilution and temperature by how long and how fast you stir. With larger ice, stir longer or faster to get the same result; with small ice, stir less or slower. You often cannot choose your ice, so keep your technique steady and change only the stirring time. Practise stirring two drinks at once, one in each hand, at the same rate, and taste the first drinks of the evening to calibrate for the ice you have.

Metal, and the right amount of ice

Arnold prefers stainless steel shaking tins, which have very low thermal mass, so little ice melts to chill them and they do not alter the drink’s temperature or dilution. Large glass mixing vessels are beautiful but have so much thermal mass that they can change the finished temperature by several degrees, enough to make drinks seem warm. Glass is fine only if you prechill it with ice and water every single time.

Many bartenders pile on ice. Ice that does not touch the liquid does nothing, and extra ice only adds surface water that overdilutes. Too little ice cannot chill fast enough. The ice should touch the drink from the bottom of the vessel to the top of the liquid; since ice floats, you need slightly more than the bare minimum to weigh the mass down, and no more than that.

Stirring adds no texture and no air, so stirred drinks stay clear, which Arnold loves, and they are relatively boozy: his Manhattan finished at 26 percent alcohol, which is why most stirred drinks are spirit-forward rather than light and refreshing.

Up or on the rocks: the Negroni

The classic Negroni is equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth. Modern bartenders raise the gin; some swap Aperol for Campari or add a splash of citrus or soda, and the drink survives all of it, with normal dilution, extra dilution or carbonation. Its structure can be bent into dozens of variants that keep their Negroni character.

The choice is whether to serve it up or on the rocks. Two reasons to serve up: it is elegant, and you may not want the drink to pick up dilution as ice melts. Martinis should always be up, but they get warm quickly, so serve smaller portions rather than drink faster. Four reasons to serve on the rocks: you want the drink to change as it waters down; it will otherwise linger and warm up; you find it too strong and want the instant extra water on freshly tempered ice (though you could stir longer instead); or you like how it looks. On the rocks, Arnold uses a single large cube, inefficient enough not to dilute the drink quickly and efficient enough to keep it cool.

How cold is too cold

Some drinks fall apart when chilled too much, including most drinks with aged, oaked spirits such as the Manhattan; others, like the Negroni, can be very cold but go out of balance when they warm. In the last stirring experiment you make two Manhattans (4 ounces of rye, a fat three-quarter ounce of sweet vermouth and 4 dashes of Angostura, for two drinks at 27 percent alcohol) and two Negronis (2 ounces each of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, for two drinks at 27 percent), stir one of each, strain them into covered containers and put them, with the coupe glasses, in the freezer for an hour so their temperature drops by 5 to 10 degrees C. Then stir the second pair fresh and taste all four as they warm up.

Both Negronis taste good at first. The fresh Manhattan is round and inviting, while the freezer one tastes flat and closed with too much oak, but as it warms over twenty minutes the freezer Manhattan becomes the favourite, and the fresh one stays merely decent. The freezer Negroni stays good, while the fresh one gets harder to drink. Almost all stirred drinks are at their best between minus 5 degrees C (23 F) and minus 1 degree C (30 F), though some tolerate warmer or colder.