Plot Twist – You Don't Need A Muddler For Your Home Bar

When making cocktails, there are several tools that can elevate your home bar, such as a shaker, a long spoon for stirring, and perhaps a jigger or a strainer. However, one item that you don't need to worry about is a muddler. We got this advice from Brian Evans, Co-owner and Beverage Director at the Hotel Chelsea in New York and a participant in New York Bartender Week in 2024. "I'm of the opinion that muddlers for cocktail use are mostly a thing of the past — save your money!" he told Food Republic.

Muddling means to lightly crush ingredients such as fresh herbs, spices, or fruits to release their flavors and aromas. A muddler itself is a long thin stick, rather like a pestle, and can be made in different types depending on exactly what you want to crush. However, Evans says that a big risk is that "delicate herbs, such as shiso, basil, and mint, can become too bruised and tertiary in flavor if pulverized by muddling before shaking."

Muddling is usually fine for citrus fruits, which require a heavier touch to extract the oils. When making a simple mojito, on the other hand, you'd have to muddle the mint leaves very gently with a simple syrup to extract all the deliciously refreshing minty flavor — but press too hard, and the leaves will turn unpleasantly bitter. Luckily, there's another way to create flavorsome cocktails, and does the job just as well: a hard shake.

Drink expert Brian Evans told us, "As long as you're shaking a cocktail with cubed ice, there's no reason why a traditional 'hard-shake' method can't execute the heavy lift of muddling." Don't be fooled by the term — a hard shake doesn't actually mean shaking the drink hard; in fact, it's a much more gentle action than you might imagine. This particular technique is attributed to Japanese bartender Kazuo Uyeda.

To perform a hard shake, you follow a precise pattern where the shaker is brought back and forth around three points of your body — the face, around neck level, and then the chest — with a twisting action. This movement is especially good for adding extra air to beverages for a light texture, as well as being a substitute for muddling. But it takes a lot of practice, and if you find it tricky to master, then there are other options you can try to get some extra aromatic flavor into your drink.

Try "spanking" fresh herbs when making cocktails, which is much more gentle than muddling and won't damage the delicate leaves. Alternatively, infuse a simple syrup with herbs. A fragrant homemade blanched mint syrup will instantly elevate mojitos or mint juleps, for example. Or, to avoid muddling fruit-filled margaritas, make an infusion instead by adding fresh fruits to your base spirit.