How to Mix Drinks

Bartending is an artifact of the 1920's, when prohibition in America forced everyone who liked alcohol to figure out their own way to produce the libation. Although most folks could figure out a way to set up a still, the alcohol that came out of them wasn't desirable. To make their liquors more palatable, bartenders started mixing them with fruit juices, flavored syrups, spices, wine, eggs, sparkling soda and sugar.

When mixed drinks first hit the scene, the formula for building a drink was very simple. You began with the base alcohol and then added a flavoring agent like fruit juice or soda. Sometimes drinks also received a third flavoring agent such as bitters or grenadine. Accordingly, most classic cocktails, such as the martini, are only two or three ingredients with a simple garnish.

And, although modern drinks require more ingredients and are much sweeter, the equipment for preparing them hasn't changed. Instead, the equipment that is used to mix drinks is evocative of mixed drinks' illustrious past; the Boston Shaker is suave and sexy, and the martini glass has become the icon of the cocktail culture. Not including glassware, there are only two absolutely essential pieces of bar equipment: the cocktail shaker and the bar-spoon.

How to Mix Drinks