1. Chill: Glasses, Ice and Everything Nice
When a Moore House Cocktail arrives in your hands, you’re three steps away from the perfect cocktail.
We’ve handed you the shaker here, because these three steps are what cocktails are all about. It’s a sensory experience to savour, a ritual of fine tuning the perfect drink, and most importantly, good clean boozy fun.
Allow me to be your guide. These tips and suggestions are not intended to complicate the experience. Quite the opposite. I want you to enjoy your cocktails in the best way possible, with minimal fuss, all the while looking like quite the experienced bartender!
Chill is our first step, and glasses, our first consideration. They, like us, prefer to be chilled.
First and foremost, choose your vessel. There are no rules here, but certainly having cocktail-specific glassware adds precious luxury to the occasion. Consider the core family of cocktail glasses and let your taste guide you. My own personal favourite cocktail glass, suited to virtually every shaken and stirred drink served up, is the Nick & Nora. Think of it as a hybrid of the angular Martini glass and rounded Coupe. It’s timeless and drinks always look good in them. Throw in a nice tumbler and highball glass, and you’re pretty much set. Happy days.
Now to the all important ‘chill’. We always recommend chilling glassware in the freezer, ideally for at least thirty minutes, until ‘frozen’. This is particularly valuable for your Martini’s, Daquiri’s, Margarita’s; anything served ‘up’, without ice to keep it cold. If you’re tight on time, you can always fill your glasses with crushed ice and water for a few minutes, but this is less effective and you’ll need to shake off all that excess water.
On the subject of all things chilled, consider the ice you're using for shaking, stirring and serving. Supermarket ice is a mixed bag. Avoid small, hollow, broken-up ice, as it’ll over- dilute your drinks. Instead opt for larger pieces of solid ice with less surface area. Your best bet is often making your own, but just make sure you’re using filtered water with no discernible taste.
If you wanna leave ice to the pros, google around for local business delivering quality ice in your area. Often these ‘Ice Artisans’ have hand-cut crystal-clear ice in their arsenal; perfect for your Old Fashioned’s and Negroni’s. Clear ice might seem like an unnecessary extravagance, but it genuinely ticks all the boxes. It’s dense for slow melting and free of off-tasting impurities. Plus it looks really really good.
In summation: Plan ahead. Get everything cold. Use decent ice. Have a good time.
