How important is "bruising" alcohol?

Cafe Society
1

So, I’m about 6 shots worth of alcohol in, so I’m a little toasted, but I’m using spellcheck, so I think this OP will make sense.

I’ve heard a lot about how shaking a cocktail to mix the ingredients too much will “bruise” the alcohol, making it unpalatable to drink and revealing yourself as a mixology rube. I wondered how much of an effect this has, as my house has a bar built in so I’ve been trying out a few different cocktails (since if I have a bar, I might as well be an amateur bartender).

So tonight, I decided to make a couple of Manhattans. 2 shots of whiskey (Jack Daniel’s), 1 shot of sweet vermouth, 1 dash of angostura bitters, one maraschino cherry (added at the end), each. One was mixed in a glass that already had ice, swirled around, and then poured into another glass to keep the ice out, using a strainer, cherry added afterwards. The other was mixed in a cocktail shaker that had ice, and shaken vigorously for a minute (damn, it got cold), before being strained into a glass and having it’s cherry added.

I won’t say they tasted exactly the same, but I also don’t think the shaken one was terrible. In fact, I sorta thought it was better :eek:, but I liked both of them. So is bruising really a thing, or is it one of those things aficionados talk about to make themselves sound important?

Now, I freely admit this was not a scientific experiment. I mixed them myself, so it wasn’t double blind. I sipped them each in turn, without rinsing my mouth out in between (but I did try them in both orders). I made a Manhattan with Jack instead of Bulleit (i.e., I used Tennessee whiskey instead of a rye). And I’ve only done this once, instead of a statistically significant number of times. And I realize that shaking waters down the drink more than stirring.

But is bruising really a thing to care about? Or is that something people talk about to sound fancy more than a real concern? Or am I maybe drinking the wrong kind of booze to see the effect? Or should I just shut up, realize drinking is personal, and sip whatever it is I like?

2

I usually hear it in reference to gin Martinis, not any other liquor. I suspect it is part truth, and a whole lot of hearsay and urban legend. You should have done your test double blind, though. Guess you’ll have to drink two more!

Jack Daniels Manhattan sounds wrong to me.

3

As thelurkinghorror says, I’ve only heard it in reference to gin martinis.

A “gin martini” consists of gin, by the way. People who drink them pretend to be drinking mixed drinks. The element that one would be mixing with the gin is known as “vermouth”. Ever been around [del]gin[/del] classic martini drinkers when they order from the bar? Conversation goes like this:

I want the dryest of dry martinis. Tell you what: open that vermouth bottle and just kind of wave it in the general vicinity of my glass and pretend like you’re going to let some spill out, but don’t really

There is no vermouth in a gin martini. Hasn’t been in eons. An olive, or a pearl onion, perhaps. (I think they call them something different if it’s a pearl onion… gimlet?) (are you fucking serious, it becomes a different mixed drink if the garnish is different?) (well it’s the only other ingredient left, aside from the gin at this point. so yeah…)

So… these people, who pretend to be drinking a cocktail, but who are drinking straight gin with an olive in it, say that if you shake the [del]cocktail[/del] gin you’ll bruise it? Hello, credibility gap???

I’ve tasted gin :eek: . I’ve accidentally tasted PineSol. I don’t think you can bruise either one, but if you could I can’t imagine but that doing so could only improve the taste thereof, it having no other direction it could possibly go.

4

Woo, more drinking! I like this plan. Not tonight though, I am wobbling when I walk.

But I do like martinis. I will try with a couple of those tomorrow.

I know you’re supposed to use rye, but I am not a big whiskey drinker, so all I had was Jack. Maybe if I am feeling flush, I will stop by the packy and get some bulleit and try again.

5

I actually really hate that conversation. If you want a couple shots of gin in a martini glass, ask for that, but don’t be a douche about ordering martinis. (That said, most of my martini experience was at $5 martini mondays, so I may not be the best source).

A gimlet is gin and lime juice. It’s also one of my favorite drinks, and I always use fresh limes.

Fair point.

Pistols at Dawn sir! For the sin of impugning gin as PineSol!

My wife shares your opinion on gin ever since I gave a double shot after she said “give me something strong, I’ve had a bad day”. Apparently coming out of your nose does not improve the taste.

But I will try with a gin martini tomorrow and see what happens.

6

A martini with an onion is a Gibson.

I often enjoy an extra-dry martini. That means a little bit of vermouth, not no vermouth.

As for bruising liquor in general, given that every craft cocktail bar I’ve ever been to shakes many of their cocktails vigorously, it’s pretty clearly not a thing.

7

I like my martinis extra dry as well. 16 parts gin to one part vermouth. It’s essentially gin in a fancy glass. Don’t put it in a plain glass, I’m not an animal in the fucking jungle.

I’ve heard about bruising the vermouth, but not the gin. I think it’s an affectation, but so are my fancy glasses, so I really don’t spend a lot of time throwing stones at the bruising types. I do shake mine, because they get colder in a hurry, and that’s the way I like my martinis best, right now.

8

Stir a cocktail that is a mix of only spirits, shake a cocktail that is spirits plus mixer. Bruising is nonsense though, it’s a matter of too much ice in a drink, but there is no such thing as bruising. A martini without vermouth isn’t a martini and is the way old guys order martinis after reading an airport biography of Churchille.

9

The “Bruising” of gin, as I’ve heard it, is just a joke…don’t shake it because you’ll bruise the juniper berries. What they really mean is that they don’t want it too cold or watered down (which is what shaking does). The old timey drunks I used to serve just wanted gin with one or two ice cubes in it.

10

Agreed, I definitely want vermouth when I order a martini.

11

A friend of mine is a bartender. We feed each other straight lines just to mess with the other drinkers.

A favorite is for me to order a vodka martini. When he is about to serve it, I ask if he can make it dirty. He loudly clears his throat and feigns to spit into the shaker. I then act upset and he tries to get onlookers to agree/disagree that he has made the martini dirty. We have fun, anyway.

(I guess you kind of have to be there)

12

  1. As mentioned, what you made wasn’t a Manhattan.

  2. Shaking is contra-indicated not because of “bruising,” but because of looks. A shaken Manhattan will pour cloudy while a well-stirred one pours nice and clear.

  3. A Martini has vermouth in it, by definition. All that “extra-dry” nonsense is just that. You can vary the proportions to taste, but this isn’t homeopathy.
    Now go back and do it right, young man!

13

(**Silenus **already covered this, but I’ll expand on it a bit)

WTF are you talking about? That’s so absolutely wrong that it boggles the mind.

A martini is gin, dry (French) vermouth and (classically) orange bitters. Over time, the proportion of gin to vermouth has changed, and the bitters have become optional, but the definition a “real” martini is gin and dry vermouth, and always has been.

The main reason you don’t shake a martini is because they look ugly as shit in the glass if you do. Since they’re classically crystal clear and served in a cocktail glass, shaking them would make them a little bit cloudy and bubbly (esp. at first), and would also leave a bunch of tiny ice crystals floating near the surface. None of which is a big deal in something like a daiquiri, which is naturally cloudy, but it makes a martini look ugly.

Stirring avoids that. Otherwise, it’s equivalent to shaking in that both cool and mix the drink and dilute it due to ice melt. They’ll even dilute it the same amount- the ice melted and the temp come to an equilibrium pretty fast by both methods, according to Dave Arnold in his book “Liquid Intelligence”.

And… what you made was a Manhattan for all intents and purposes. Your proportions are a little bit off(more bitters are usually used) , and you used bourbon instead of rye, but neither of those are cardinal sins.

14

I will also jump in on the martini contains vermouth bandwagon.

As a man who make Martinis for him self 2 to 3 times a week, I find this whole bruising stuff to be nonsense. I also think that bump is making way to big a deal the cloudy bubbles. The bubbles are gone in at most 15 seconds. The ice crystals will hang around longer and I can see why if you are at a nice bar paying $10 or $15 for a drink you would hold the bar tender to a higher standard than what you would hold your self to when unwinding at home from a day at the office.

Every once and in a while I will make my martini by stirring instead of shaking. It make no difference to how the drink tastes and very little difference to how it looks.

15

Speak for yourself. IMO if a bar doesn’t use rye it isn’t making a Manhattan, it’s making more of a Queens. Almost a Hicksville. :stuck_out_tongue:

16

My go-to after work quick relaxation drink is the Putin.

Putin
[ul]
[li]remove vodka from freezer (briefly)[/li][li]pour three to four shots worth into a chilled juice glass[/li][li]drink as a shot[/li][/ul]

17

Well, the literature is fairly vague on the point. Dale DeGroff’s “Craft of the Cocktail” calls for “2 oz blended or straight whiskey” and then goes on to mention that in the South, bourbon is more prevalent, and in Minnesota, they like brandy.

David Wondrich in “Imbibe” comments that only 4 out of 20 pre-Prohibition recipes actually specifies anything more specific than “whiskey”, and 2 of those specified bourbon. His hypothesis is that in NYC and the northeast, the generic whiskey was rye, but elsewhere it was bourbon. He goes on to comment that bourbon vs. rye is ultimately less important than the choice of 80 or 100 proof spirits, and that 100 proof rye is better than 100 proof bourbon, but if you can only get 80 proof rye and 100 proof bourbon, use the bourbon.

Of course, if you use Scotch, it’s pretty close to a Rob Roy, depending on the proportions.

18

My youngest sis is a bartender and I can so see her doing this! I will be sharing it with her! :smiley:

19

I am quite sure that Ahunter3 is well aware of the recipe for a martini and he is railing against a culture that has besmirched the reputation of vermouth so totally that many novice drinkers and wannabe playboys believe it is unmanly or provincial to actually have vermouth in one’s martini.

Personally, I don’t give a shit and I order only perfect martinis.

20

+1. Even the driest of martinis I’ve had have at least a bit of vermouth in it. (The classic being the “swirl the vermouth in the martini glass and spill it out” method, so you still have a light coating of vermouth.) The trend, as I’ve seen it, is for martinis to get wetter. We’re long past the “wave the vermouth in the vicinity of the gin” type of martinis. Even a normal “dry martini” is something like 5:1 or 6:1 gin:vermouth in my experience.