Reference
Cocktail glossary
63 terms that recipes use without explaining. Where the site covers a term in depth, the entry links there.
Technique
- Batch
- Mix a drink in quantity ahead of time. Stirred drinks batch well with their dilution added as water; citrus drinks are best juiced on the day.See: Batching →Batching and make-ahead →
- Buildalso built
- Make the drink in the glass it is served in, adding ingredients over ice in order. No shaker, no mixing glass.See: Building →
- Dilution
- The water melted ice adds while a drink is chilled — typically around a fifth to a third of the finished drink. It is an ingredient, not a flaw.See: Dilution and temperature →Dilution calculator →
- Double strainalso fine strain
- Strain through a Hawthorne strainer and a fine sieve together, to catch ice shards and fruit or herb fragments.See: Fine strainer →
- Dry shake
- Shake without ice first, so egg white or aquafaba can foam before ice starts chilling and diluting, then shake again with ice.See: Foam and texture →Egg white →
- Expressalso expressed peel
- Squeeze a piece of citrus peel skin-side down over a drink so its oil sprays across the surface. Most of a twist's flavour is in this oil.See: Garnish techniques →
- Layer
- Pour a liquid slowly over the back of a spoon so it sits on top of a denser one. Sugar content, not alcohol, mostly decides which floats.See: Layering →
- Muddle
- Press fruit, herbs or sugar in the glass or shaker to release juice and oil. Herbs want pressing, not shredding — torn mint turns bitter.See: Muddling →Mojito →
- Reverse dry shake
- Shake with ice first, strain out the ice, then shake again without it. Many bartenders find it gives a denser, longer-lasting foam.See: Foam and texture →Clover Club →
- Rinsealso wash
- Coat the inside of a glass with a small amount of a strong-flavoured spirit, usually absinthe, and discard the excess.See: Sazerac →Absinthe →
- Rollalso rolling
- Pour a drink gently from one tin to another and back, a few times, with the ice held back. It mixes with little dilution and no foam, which is why tomato drinks are rolled: shaken, they turn frothy.See: Bloody Mary →Bartender techniques →
- Shake
- Shake hard with ice to chill, dilute and aerate at once. Used whenever a drink contains citrus, egg, cream or anything that needs to be emulsified.See: Shaking →
- Stir
- Stir with ice in a mixing glass to chill and dilute without aerating. Used for drinks made only of spirits, wines and bitters, which should stay clear and silky.See: Stirring →
- Swizzle
- Spin a swizzle stick or bar spoon between the palms in a glass of crushed ice until the outside frosts. Chills and mixes a drink in the glass.See: Swizzling →Queen's Park Swizzle →
- Throwalso throwing
- Pour a drink back and forth between two vessels held apart, to chill and aerate it gently. A Spanish tradition, and a showpiece more than a necessity.See: Advanced techniques →
- Whip shake
- A brief shake with a few pieces of crushed or pebble ice, to chill and dilute a drink that will be poured over more crushed ice.See: Ice guide →
Preparation
- Cordial
- In British usage, a sweet, often acidulated fruit concentrate, such as lime or elderflower cordial. In the US the word often means a liqueur, so check which a recipe means.See: Syrup, cordial, shrub or tincture? →
- Fat washingalso fat-washed
- Mixing a melted fat such as browned butter into a spirit, then freezing and lifting the fat off. The flavour stays; the fat goes. A butter-washed spirit still contains milk.See: Fat washing →
- Infusionalso infuse, infused
- Steeping something solid — tea, spice, fruit, chilli — in a spirit, syrup or water until the liquid tastes of it, then straining it out. Stopped by taste, not by a fixed time.See: Infusions →
- Milk clarificationalso clarified, milk punch
- Pouring an acidic punch into milk so it curdles, then filtering it through the curds until it runs clear. The result is silky and keeps for days, and still contains milk.See: Clarifying with milk →Clarified Milk Punch →
- Oleo saccharumalso oleo
- Citrus peel left in sugar until the sugar draws out the oil into a fragrant syrup. The traditional sweetener for punch.See: Oleo saccharum →
- Shrubalso drinking vinegar
- Fruit, sugar and vinegar steeped together into a sweet-sour syrup that keeps for months. Especially useful in alcohol-free drinks.See: Syrup, cordial, shrub or tincture? →Raspberry Shrub Soda →
- Tincture
- A concentrated infusion in strong alcohol, added by the drop. Bitters are a kind of tincture. Not for alcohol-free drinks.See: Syrup, cordial, shrub or tincture? →
Measure
- Barspoon
- A long bar spoon's bowl. Spoons vary; most hold somewhere around 3–5ml.See: Bar spoon →
- Dash
- A shake from a dasher bottle. Its volume depends on the bottle's top and how full it is, so there is no single exact figure; recipes use it for bitters precisely because a small variation does not matter.See: Angostura bitters →
- Float
- A small measure poured onto the top of a finished drink so it stays there, at least for the first sip.See: Layering →
- Jigger
- A double-ended measure. UK jiggers are commonly 25/50ml; US ones 1oz/2oz (about 30/60ml).See: Jigger →
- Part
- A ratio rather than a volume. One part can be any size, as long as every ingredient uses the same one.
- Topalso top up
- Fill to the glass's working level with the lengthener — soda, tonic, sparkling wine. The volume depends on the glass, which is why it is not given.
Ingredient
- Agricolealso rhum agricole
- Rum distilled from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses. Grassy and dry.See: How rum is made →
- Amaro
- An Italian bitter herbal liqueur. The word covers a huge range, from light and orange-led to intensely bitter and mentholated.See: Fernet →
- Aperitivo bitteralso red bitter
- Bitter-sweet Italian liqueurs such as Campari and Aperol. They differ mostly in strength, sweetness and bitterness.See: Campari →Aperol →
- Aquafaba
- Chickpea cooking water, used in place of egg white for foam. It is a legume product.See: Aquafaba →
- Bitters
- Concentrated, high-strength botanical extracts used by the dash. A seasoning, not a sweetener — and not alcohol-free.See: Angostura bitters →Orange bitters →
- Falernum
- A Caribbean lime, ginger and clove sweetener. Sold both as a non-alcoholic syrup and as a low-strength liqueur.See: Falernum →
- Grenadine
- Properly, a pomegranate syrup. Much commercial grenadine is red-coloured sugar syrup with little or no pomegranate.See: Grenadine →
- Mezcal
- Agave spirit whose hearts are usually roasted in earth pits, the source of its smoke. Tequila began as one regional mezcal; today the two are regulated separately.See: Mezcal →How agave spirits are made →
- Old Tom
- A softer, often lightly sweetened gin style older than London Dry, and the gin many nineteenth-century recipes assume.See: Old Tom gin →How gin is made →
- Orgeat
- An almond syrup, often with orange-flower water. It contains nuts; nut-free versions exist but are a different product.See: Orgeat syrup →
- Pisco
- Grape brandy from Peru and Chile. Peruvian pisco is unaged and distilled once to strength.See: Pisco →Pisco Sour →
- Proofalso ABV
- ABV is the percentage of alcohol by volume. US proof is twice the ABV; 'overproof' means bottled well above the usual 37.5–43%.
- Saline
- A salt solution added by the drop. Below the point where it tastes salty, it suppresses bitterness and makes flavours read rounder.See: Saline solution →
- Simple syrupalso sugar syrup, 1:1 syrup
- Sugar dissolved in an equal weight of water. 'Rich' syrup is two parts sugar to one of water and is noticeably sweeter per millilitre.See: Simple syrup →
- Triple secalso curaçao
- Orange liqueur. Triple sec is usually clear and drier; curaçao is often richer and may be brandy-based.See: Triple sec →Orange curaçao →
- Vermouth
- Wine fortified with spirit and flavoured with botanicals, traditionally wormwood. A wine: once opened it fades within weeks, faster out of the fridge.See: Sweet vermouth →Dry vermouth →
Style and family
- Collins
- A sour served long over ice and topped with more soda than a fizz.See: Tom Collins →
- Dry / wetalso dry Martini, wet Martini
- In a Martini, how little (dry) or how much (wet) vermouth there is. Nothing to do with sweetness.See: Martini →
- Fizz
- A sour lengthened with a little soda and served without ice, in a small glass.See: Fizz family →Gin Fizz →
- Flip
- A spirit or fortified wine shaken with a whole egg and sugar. Originally a hot drink.See: Porto Flip →
- Highball
- A spirit lengthened with a mixer over ice, in a tall glass. The simplest family and one of the most precise about ratio.See: Highball family →
- Julep
- Spirit, sugar and mint over crushed ice, built in the cup. Bourbon is the default today.See: Mint Julep →
- Old Fashioned
- Spirit, sugar, bitters and water — the original meaning of 'cocktail'.See: Old Fashioned family →
- Perfect
- In a Manhattan or Martini, the vermouth split equally between sweet and dry.See: Manhattan →
- Smash
- Spirit, sugar and muddled herb — usually mint — sometimes with citrus, over crushed ice.See: Smash family →
- Sour
- Spirit, citrus and sugar, usually shaken — often with egg white. The template behind the Daiquiri, Margarita and Whiskey Sour.See: Sour family →
- Spritz
- Wine — usually sparkling — with a bitter or aperitivo liqueur and soda. Lower in strength than most families.See: Spritz family →
- Tiki
- The mid-century American take on tropical drinks: layered rums, spice syrups and citrus, often on crushed ice.See: Tiki family →Tiki and tropical drinks →
Service
- Coupe
- A shallow, broad stemmed glass for drinks served up, especially shaken ones.See: Coupe glass →
- Neat
- A spirit served alone at room temperature, with no ice and no mixer.
- Nick & Nora
- A small, deep, stemmed glass for drinks served up; it spills less than a coupe or a V-shaped Martini glass.See: Glassware guide →
- On the rocksalso rocks
- Served over ice, usually in a rocks glass.See: Rocks glass →
- Twist
- A strip of citrus peel, expressed over the drink and then dropped in or discarded.See: Garnish techniques →
- Upalso straight up
- Chilled with ice, then strained into a stemmed glass with no ice in it.
For how much a dash, a barspoon or a part actually is, see bar measures and conversions.