Pouring and Straining
Maybe you've shaken your ingredients, stirred them, or put them in a blender and pulsed everything up to a smooth, icy concoction. Do you just dump the contents into a glass and call it a drink, or do you strain out the remaining ice chunks?
Why strain
Depending on the drink you’re making sometimes you may want to be discriminating on what makes it into the serving vessel. If you want to make sure that mashed up pieces of muddled fruit don’t get stuck in your teeth, you’ll want to strain those out. If you want to serve a drink that is chilled and diluted, but doesn’t have ice in the service vessel, then you’ll want to strain out the ice. If you want to serve a drink with a big, fancy piece of ice carved to look like a gem, then you strain out the used ice to highlight the fancy new ice. You can also strain pieces of lime, lemon, or orange pulp out so the globs don’t float on the top of your drink.
You strain to remove stuff. It’s that simple.
When it comes to straining, there’s a common belief that the ice you mix with shouldn’t be served. This ice is “wet” as it has started to melt by diluting your drink as you’ve mixed it, and that melting effects the look of the ice: it becomes more rounded, smaller, etc. According to this belief, instead of using this ice to serve the drink with, it can be discarded and replaced with new ice. I do not abide by this belief unless I want to use a nice, new piece of ice because it’ll look awesome. For example, with an Old Fashioned, I’ll strain out the ice, then when I serve the drink, I’ll place a big chunk of ice in the glass. Most other times I will serve drinks with the mixing ice for three very important reasons: It keeps the drink colder, I don’t waste the ice, and I don’t waste my ingredients via holdback (ingredients you want to consume but that don’t make it into the drink).
There are a few terms related to straining and pouring I’d like to introduce you to.
- Open pour: You pour the liquid contents into a service vessel without any straining.
- Gated finish: You finish a pour by placing a larger strainer between your mixing and service vessels, to prevent ice from making it into the final drink. This is regularly combined with an open pour.
- Holdback: The liquid that remains in your mixing vessel after the drink is poured.
Often, an open pour without a gated finish or straining is referred to dismissively as a dirty dump. The detractors will point out that fresh ice should be the only ice that is in a service vessel, and that dirty dumps are just lazy and uncultured, as it allows for muddled leaves, ice shards and chunks, spice particulates, and whatever else to be served to the drinker. However, this technique isn’t to be frowned upon, as it minimizes holdback, keeps a drink colder, and reduces wasted ice.
What you’ll need
When straining you have a few equipment options depending on the size of what you want to strain out
Metal Straws or Chopsticks
If you just need to remove ice cubes, this works very well.
Julep Strainer
Prevents big and medium things from passing through, but will let muddled chunks and small pieces of ice through.
Hawthorne Strainer
Similar to the julep strainer, this is useful for straining big and medium things, but can be adjusted while in use to prevent smaller pieces from passing through as well.
Fine Mesh Strainer
Gets all the little stuff out, such as pulp.
How to strain & pour
After you’ve mixed your drink, you’re ready to strain. Again, depending on the size of what you want to strain out, you’ll use different techniques.
Metal Straw or Chopstick
Use a metal straw or chopstick, placed like a barricade across the top of your mixing vessel. When you pour the contents into your service vessel, the straw or chopstick should be positioned to let the liquid pass by while blocking the ice. When done right, this is equal to an open pour with gated finish, and is helpful in removing the big stuff.
Tin Strainer
After shaking a drink with tins or a Boston shaker, you can break the seal and pour the drink out through the opening. If you keep the opening small, this will allow you to strain out large pieces of ice, similar to an open pour and gated finish.
Julep Strainer
Admittedly, I don’t use a julep strainer. I’ve tried it and ditched it for the more functional, better designed Hawthorne strainer. But if this is the thing you want to do, do you. To use a julep strainer, insert it into your mixing vessel. Most bartenders do this with the concave surface (the bowl) facing the interior of the vessel. I preferred to have the concave surface facing outwards, so that the ice and strained ingredients accumulated closer to the middle of the strainer, not the edges, and so I can use more of the strainer’s surface area to achieve faster pouring. Regardless of which direction, you insert the strainer at an angle and hold it in place with your index finger as you pour. This is equal to an open pour and gated finish, and can strain out medium-sized chunks.
Hawthorne Strainer
A Hawthorne strainer is my most used straining device. It’s easy to use and versatile. Hawthorne strainers have a subtle functional design that allows you to control the size of solids that can pass through. You can do this by pushing on the straining plate (the “gate”), which collapses the spring that the liquid passes through. This allows you to start your pour with a larger, faster flowing opening, then finish with a tighter fit to strain out small-medium particulates.
Fine Mesh Strainer
To strain medium and small things
When you don't want any small bits of ice or whatever in your drink, use a fine mesh strainer. Often, you’ll use this in combination with other straining techniques - this is known as a “double strain.” The Hawthorne and julep strainer will keep the big chunks in the mixing vessel so they don’t overfill or clog the fine mesh strainer. It results in a nice, perfectly clear drink like a Martini or Toronto. As this is a two-handed process, with one hand controlling the mixing vessel and first strainer, and another hand holding the fine mesh strainer over the service vessel, you can’t use a straw, chopstick, or other tin for the first strainer.
How to minimize holdback
Holdback occurs when your ingredients cling to your mixing tin, your ice, and your strainer. According to Dave Arnold, this can be a significant amount, up to 25% of your drinks volume when using crushed ice and 9% with regular ice! I’d prefer to keep those ingredients in my drink, so I serve most drinks with the mixing ice.
But there are circumstances where you’ll want to use fresh ice. Use these methods to minimize holdback:
- Reduce the surface area that your ingredients touch. Some examples of how this can be done are by using smooth, less jagged ice, and by using a less fine strainer.
- Use equipment with more rounded edges. I’ve noticed that liquids like to cling to corners. I prefer mixing tins and jiggers with a more rounded base for this reason.
- Snap your pour. After pouring your contents through a strainer, make a quick snapping movement with your wrist and rotate your tin to an upright position, then pour again.
Now that you have your drink strained and poured into your service vessel, you’ll want to get on to drinking that! One last tip before you do:
Chill the glass, cup, or mug that you’ll be straining into. A cold service vessel keeps your drink cold and minimizes further dilution. I also find drinking to be a tactile experience. Being handed an icy cold coupe or tiki mug is a gentle reminder to let go of whatever I, or someone else is holding onto, and relax. Give into the drink and enjoy the moment - let the stress die, let it too become cold and silent.