When to Shake, When to Stir, and Why It Matters

Unless you order your drink in a casino between high-speed chases in a tricked-out luxury car to save the world from villains with well-articulated evil schemes, there are rules for when to shake or stir a cocktail. The standard rule: Stir spirit-forward cocktails like Martinis and Manhattans, and shake anything with fresh juice and/or egg white, like Daiquiris, Margaritas, and most sours. 

To shake fruit juice with a spirit and ice emulsifies the components, which creates a chilled, frothy, more cohesive finish than if stirred. Conversely, spirit-dominant drinks get rattled and unnecessarily clouded by aggressive agitation with the ice and shaker tin, which results in excessive dilution.

Let’s take a closer look at the reasons for that cocktail-making protocol, as well as sensible exceptions to those rules. 

Balancing temperature, flavor, and finish

It’s a good rule of thumb to stir all-spirit, no-juice cocktails with ice in a mixing glass until cold, then strain before serving. However, the reason isn’t because the base spirit would take too much of a beating. Rather, it’s the desired amount of dilution that the spirits will pick up from the ice. It’s about the “mouthfeel” of the drink. 

In his cocktail guide, This is a Cocktail Book, Southern California-based bartender and consultant Branden von Fugate says that shaking “disrupts the silky-smooth texture of an aromatic cocktail, which affects the appearance.” 

If you’ve ever been served a frothy Manhattan, then you’ve unfortunately experienced this distinction. It’s cold and easy to drink, but the subtle essences from the combination of whiskey and vermouth become muted, not to mention that the drink takes on a foggier appearance. Instead of a clear, garnet-stone dazzle, it takes on a swampy mauve/purple hue. 

In a recent Zoom chat, von Fugate produces two Manhattans, one shaken, the other stirred. As he tastes the shaken one, he notes that “the bass notes” of the whiskey are quiet, while it highlights the “woody character from the whiskey, and more of the bitter notes from the vermouth,” he says.“You don’t get the fruit from the vermouth at all. And there’s something just off about them.” Though the drink is well-chilled, the fruitiness that should emanate from the vermouth is missing, as is the vanilla/caramel midpalate of the whiskey. 

“Look, these aren’t lab conditions, this is a suggestive outcome,” says von Fugate. But he’s onto something. 

As for the age-old question about Martinis, the argument to shake or stir amounts to personal preference. How cold do you want it? How much do you want to taste what’s in it? For instance, if you want to savor a good gin in a Martini, stirring it will allow you to appreciate the full effect of its botanical structure. Gin is more robust than many give it credit for. It won’t disappear in a shaken Martini, but it will taste more lively if stirred. 

“For me, many of the exceptions of shaking a stirred drink are when I want it really cold,” says Patty Dennison, head bartender at Grand Army in Brooklyn, New York. “For instance, I think a Dirty Vodka Martini should be as cold as possible, and it really benefits from being shaken and not stirred.”

Von Fugate says that context also plays a key role. For instance, if you enjoy a Martini at a steakhouse, somehow a shaken one seems to hit differently. Since the early 20th century, shaking has been the norm at most restaurant bars, largely because it’s a faster way to chill drinks and keep up with service volume. 

The drinks come out colder and more refreshing, but shaking simply looks cooler, too. There’s more pageantry — the iconic percussion and infectious rhythm of ice against the tin, wrapped within a dramatic visual presentation. 

Over the years, shaking became the de facto method for cocktail prep, whether or not the drink benefited from it. It wasn’t until the past couple of decades that most restaurant bar programs bothered to even ask customers their preference. Most just served Martinis with bits of ice shards floating in them. If they want it that way, no harm done.  

“If you look at almost any movie from a certain time [mid-20th century], no cocktails were ever stirred,” says von Fugate. “If somebody was getting a Martini, they were always shaken. They called them ‘Martini shakers’ for a reason. You didn’t even know you could make them another way.” 

The exceptions to the rules

Take the Espresso Martini. There’s typically no juice in it, yet it insists on being shaken. That’s how you achieve its signature frothy top. Stir it, and you’re left with something flat and forgettable, despite the pep from the coffee.

Drinks with cordials (syrup flavored with fruit), particularly fresh citrus cordials like those in some Gimlets, tend to shine more if they are stirred. “In the Fare Evasion, on our current menu [dedicated to the New York City subway], there is already such a nice texture from the cordial that you almost lose it with the aeration,” says Dennison. 

The Stinger, a mix of Cognac and crème de menthe, is one of those cocktails that shouldn’t work, but it does. However, it works only when served a particular way, and that’s often with pebble or crushed ice, like a Julep. This helps the all-booze structure of it, not to mention the weirdness of mint mixed with fruit, to achieve optimal balance of flavor. 

“I am not going to be wet-shaking [shaking with ice] for something that is on pebble ice,” says Dennison. “We would do a whip shake [no ice] to combine the ingredients and aerate without chilling and diluting, as we know the crushed ice can do that very effectively.” 

Have a, not-so, guilty craving for cream liqueur cocktails like White Russians? Stirring works in a pinch, but as The Dude reminds us in The Big Lebowski, “Careful, man, there’s a beverage here.” If you’re going to treat yourself, go all in. Dennison says that shaking transforms it into a rich, velvety indulgence that really ties the drink together.