Cocktail Secrets

Mixology has its own language which can be confusing if you’re reading a recipe and it wants you to float a splash of this or add a dash of that. So here’s the skinny on these bartending terms.

Dash: This is the tiniest common recipe measurement. It’s generally considered to be equivalent to 1/32 oz. However most measuring devices don’t measure that small of a quantity. Basically just a few drops is all you need for a dash. Be sure not to confuse dash with its big brother, splash. A splash is over eight times as much!

Splash: A splash is an imprecise measurement left to the discretion of the mixologist (that’s you!). It is quite a bit more than a dash, but generally considered to be less than 1/2 oz. 1/4 oz. is a safe amount to splash.

Float: This is when you hold your breath and lie on your back in the water, this is opposed to a floatie, which is something floating in your drink that is not supposed to be there. All right, really, a float is a final ingredient poured carefully on top of the other ingredients of a drink. Usually the other ingredients will have been shaken or already stirred before you pour your float because floating is the last step before completing your cocktail with garnishment. Depending on the ingredient, and how carefully you want it floated, you can just pour the ingredient in slowly; or you can pour it over the back of a spoon, or down the handle of a barspoon.

Jigger & Pony: Maybe it’s the name of the pub you were at last night but got too drunk to remember - but more than likely it’s something of an old fashioned measuring device that looks like 2 different sized metal shot glasses with the bottoms sauldered together.

Jigger and Ponys are used to measure ingredients when mixing drinks. The larger capacity side is called the “Jigger” and the smaller capacity side is called the “Pony”. Sometimes these are called a double-ended jigger - but that sounds more like an overweight Irish dancer to me.

While they come in different sizes, the most useful Jigger and Pony is probably the 3/4 oz x 1 oz size. That combination allows you to quickly measure not only 3/4 oz and 1 oz, but 1-1/2 oz (which is two 3/4 oz shots) and 2 oz (two 1 oz shots).
You’ll need to be careful where you purchase this particular bar tool, I once bought one from a grocery store and couldn’t figure out what measurement they were using, but it sure wasn’t 3/4 oz or 1 oz or 1-1/2 oz. While completely and utterly biased, it’s hard to beat the Jigger & Ponys in the HomeBarSupplys.com store.

A substitute for a Jigger & Pony is a measuring shot glass that has the measurements etched into the glass, the nice thing with these is you know exactly where to stop pouring, they also have smaller measurements marked on the glass, going down to .5 ounces. I had four of these originally that now have no markings on them because they’ve been washed so much! You can find the precise measuring shot glasses here.

Jim Koch set out to discover which shape of glass would produce the best tasting beer CNNMoney.com reported in this article. The shape of the glass has a huge effect on the flavor of wines, so why not beer?

Koch resolutely sampled beer each day from different styles of glass - almost 100 different styles in all! His goal was to find the principles of glass design that led to the best flavor experience.

After much yummy tasting, Koch put his findings in a report that was given to glassmakers around the world. The result is the glass you see here. Notice the narrow bottom - that’s to minimize heat transfer from your hand. Also notice the unique angled lip - that’s to deliver the beer to the front of your tongue. And something you can’t see in the photo is a small laser etching on the bottom of the glass. This etching keeps the bubbles happily rising to the top!

I can think of a lot worse jobs than beer sampling! And the result of the all research looks like a very cool glass, but I’m sort of partial to our American-made Ultimate Beer Mug. It too has an incredible amount of American ingenuity designed into it. Check it out here.

The world record for the largest margarita was set on May 20, 2001 in Orlando Florida. “Big Rita” tipped the scales at an even 7,000 GALLONS! It was made with 5250 gallons of Margaritaville Margarita Mix, 1313 gallons of Margaritaville Tequila and 437 gallons of Rose’s Triple Sec at the 1st Annual Phloridays Parrothead Phestival.