Mixing Glass (Stirred Cocktails)
Mixing glasses are used to mix cocktails where shaking in a cocktail shaker is not an option. This can have various reasons:
- generally for ingredients that are easy to combine and do not require shaking
- if the shaking would cause turbidity due to the ingredients, but you want to mix a clear cocktail without bubbles
- when you mix a drink with carbonic acid
Cocktails without juice, cream or syrup are usually stirred rather than shaken. To do this, the ingredients are placed in a mixing glass filled to about ¾ with ice and stirred with a bar spoon before being strained into the (chilled) guest glass. This also has the great advantage that the ice cubes do not break and the cocktail is well cooled, but hardly watered down.
Mixing glasses are usually made of glass and have a small spout on the rim, but they can still differ in appearance as well as wall thickness and volume. Thus, on the one hand, stirring glasses come in different shapes - mainly cylindrical or conical.
Decorations are common. Japanese stirring glasses, for example, are often decorated with cut patterns. In addition, there are mixing glasses with a foot or without. In addition to a secure stand, this also serves to prevent the drink from heating up unnecessarily due to body heat when holding the glass. The wall thickness of the mixing glass also has an influence on the temperature - the thicker the glass, the better it can store the cold! However, it is essential to work with pre-cooled glasses, otherwise the glass will transfer its heat to the contents and the cocktail will be watered down. Thin-walled glasses cool faster, but they are not as stable and break more easily.
For the home bar, smaller mixing glasses are sufficient; professional bartenders often work with different sizes to be able to prepare 2 or 3 cocktails at once.
