Muddling The Right Way
July 3, 2022 2022-07-03 15:50
Muddling The Right Way
Muddling is the act of lightly mashing fruits, herbs and spices in the process of making a cocktail (such as the Mojito, Caipirinha, etc.)
What you actually want out of muddling is not to smash all those ingredients all together. Instead, you want to lightly extract their essential oils or juices. You’ll find that most cocktails will have some simple syrup or other liquid mixer poured into those herbs/fruits before muddling them in order to form the base flavor foundation of the cocktail.
What’s the right way to do it ?
- Chose a sturdy glass / mixing cup : If you’re going to be muddling inside a cup, you should be careful not to break it. If it is made of weak material or plastic we’d suggest you avoid that type of cup and instead opt in for a metal/glass one.
- Pick the right muddler : There are different types of muddlers ( Wooden, Metal, Flat head, Spiky heads, etc.) and different types are used for different ingredients.
To make it simple and easy, if you’re looking to muddle fruits and hard ingredients you should always go for a metal muddler with spiky or hard teeth. Instead if you’re muddling mint or basil you should opt for a softer somewhat flat headed muddler or you could just be gentle, just to make sure you don’t destroy the herbs and unleash their bitterness.
( Tip : when muddling mint you only want to twist two to three times to extract their essential flavor, if you keep going at it they will release bitterness into your drink ) - Prepare the ingredients : Place those herbs/fruits or whichever ingredients you are going for inside the glass/cup. Make sure to cut them into small pieces beforehand to make the process smoother.
- Muddle away : Insert the muddler into the glass and hit those ingredients with a few twists if they are soft herbs and spices & if they are hard fruits make sure to go even harder on them until you extract their flavors/juices ( The trick is to get it just right and not to overdo it )
Proceed with making your cocktail and once it is ready… Sköl
ElGringo
Thank you so much for these amazing tips ! I always used to just keep going at the mints and sometimes I would get that bitterness that you mentioned but never noticed why.