Techniques & Guides
It's not about theatrics — it's about texture, dilution, and clarity. Here's the real rule, with classic examples of each.
The actual rule
The real dividing line isn't tradition, it's ingredients. If every ingredient in the glass is clear and alcoholic — spirits, liqueurs, vermouth — you stir. If there's anything cloudy or textured — citrus juice, egg white, dairy, syrup — you shake. Shaking does two things stirring can't: it chills and dilutes fast, and it aerates, which is what gives a shaken sour its pale, slightly foamy top.
Stirred: spirit-forward and clear
Stirring chills and dilutes gently, without adding air — so the drink stays silky and fully transparent. Two textbook examples:
Dry Martini — 60 ml Gin, 10 ml Dry vermouth. Stirred, served up. Nothing here is cloudy, so there's nothing to aerate.
Old Fashioned — 60 ml Bourbon, 10 ml Simple syrup, 2 dashes Angostura bitters. Stirred over ice in the glass it's served in — the original one-glass cocktail.
Shaken: anything with juice, egg, or dairy
Shaking chills faster and rougher, folding in tiny air bubbles and slightly more dilution — exactly what a tart, citrus-driven drink needs to soften.
Daiquiri — 60 ml White rum, 25 ml Lime juice, 20 ml Simple syrup. Shaken hard, strained up. The benchmark shaken sour: rum, lime, sugar, nothing else.
Whiskey Sour — 60 ml Bourbon, 30 ml Lemon juice, 20 ml Simple syrup, 1 egg white. Shaken twice if you're using egg white — once without ice (a "dry shake") to build foam, then again with ice to chill.
The third category: built and muddled
Some drinks skip both — built directly in the glass with no separate shaking or stirring vessel, sometimes with muddled fresh ingredients:
Mojito — 50 ml White rum, 25 ml Lime juice, 20 ml Simple syrup, 8 mint leaves, topped with 90 ml Soda water. The mint is muddled gently in the glass, then everything is built over ice.
Dark and Stormy — 60 ml Dark rum, 120 ml Ginger beer, 15 ml Lime juice. Built directly over ice, rum floated on top — no shaking, no stirring.
Practice on real recipes
Every recipe in Sakaba lists its method — Shaken, Stirred, Built, or Muddled — right alongside glass and serving temperature, so you always know which technique a drink actually calls for before you start guided mixing.
