The Spirit World

Over the last several months I’ve focused on exposing a selection of cocktails that represent some of the best “classic” cocktails and how to make them properly. But this section is “Mixology 101″, and there is a lot more about Mixology then just cocktail recipes. Technique, tools, products, and knowledge are all involved in understanding how to wield that cocktail shaker with skill and craftsmanship.

One of the topics that is rarely dealt with properly is also one of the most fundamental, measuring. Yeah, you might think that this is so basic as to not need any further discussion. After all, virtually every cocktail recipe you read lists the measures of the different constituents of the drink, and so you naturally have to measure the ingredients out. But it’s not quite as easy as that. Let’s start out with the standard measuring device, the bartender’s jigger.

If you are making cocktails at home, you probably picked up one of those little stainless steel jiggers, and have been using it to make your drinks. Most of the jiggers that you see in kitchen stores suffer from two gigantic flaws. First, they usually don’t indicate anywhere on them what the actual measures are that they provide. Traditionally, the big end (referred to as the “Jigger”) is 1 1/2 ounces, and the small end (referred to as the “Pony”) is 1 ounce, but this is not always the case. Secondly, is that regardless of if they do or don’t list their measure, they are often inaccurate. If you have a jigger that lists its measure AND is accurate , you should consider yourself lucky.

Another problem with virtually all jiggers is that if you need to measure something that is a “fraction” of what the jigger measures, because jiggers have angled, or even curved, sides, you can’t just eyeball it with any accuracy.

My jigger of choice is the relatively new “Oxo mini angled measure“. It’s available in most kitchen stores, but usually in the measuring cup section and not the bartending/cocktail section. It works great on several levels. First it’s the most accurate jigger I know; second, it has well marked graduations so you can measure from 1/4 ounce to 2 full ounces (just wish they had a 3/4 ounce mark), and lastly is lists the measures in several different scales - ounces, tablespoon, and milliliter to make it easier to use almost any recipe you encounter.

So that covers the jigger itself, but the next question that many people have is “why use a jigger at all?” After all, if you watch most bartenders mixing drinks, they use what is known as “speed-pours” and by silently counting out as the alcohol pours in a fairly steady stream, then can usually get “pretty close” to the right measure. There are also plenty of bartenders out there who free-pour from the bottle directly, and just eye-ball it. Ask a bartender to use a jigger, and they’ll feel that you’ve insulted their abilities.

The problem is that since a cocktail is such a “small” thing to begin with, and since it can often be made with ingredients of fairly potent flavor, such as lemon juice, crème de menthe, crème de cacao, Campari, or Chartreuse, even a slight 1/4 ounce inaccuracy in the measure can throw the flavor of the drink totally off. This is why there is a new trend amongst the high-end bartenders to measure virtually every drink.

Another reason why many folks prefer not to use a jigger is because customers like to get “more for their money”. When the bartender is using a jigger that means their drink is going to have the requisite amount of booze, and no more. Even if a jiggered and non-jiggered drink comes out exactly the same, the customer’s perception is that the unjiggered one has a little more booze in it. For this reason I usually recommend that bartenders speed-pour or free-pour the base spirit, but then measure all of the other ingredients. Since spirits are usually the lowest flavor ingredient in the cocktail, you can be off by quite a bit without damaging the flavor of the drink.

The last thing I’ll say about measuring is that I abhor the use of “non-measures” in a recipe. A dash is acceptable, just as a “pinch of salt” is acceptable when you cook. But terms like “splash” should be avoided at all costs because it can be interpreted in so many different ways. Using the Oxo measure as mentioned above, you can get as low as 1/4 ounce with relative accuracy, so there is no reason why recipes shouldn’t properly list out accurate measures for all of their ingredients.

So take the time to accurately measure your cocktails and you’ll find that you’ll get far better drinks, with far more consistency.