Shakers

Everyone is familiar with the cocktail shaker. They come in a broad range of shapes, sizes, and colors. Some are designed specifically for serious bartenders, while others appear to be more appropriate for decorative purposes then actually being used.

When you get right down to it, there are two different kinds of cocktail shakers. The most common of which is the "Three Part" or sometimes referred to as the "Cobbler" shaker. This is the type of shaker where there is a middle section that has a built-in strainer. The other type of shaker is the "Two Part" or also commonly referred to as a "Boston Shaker".

Boston vs. Cobbler: There is actually some confusion as to which is which. There are old references in the late 1800's which refer to the two part shaker as a Cobbler, and the three part as the Boston, and others that call them both Cobblers. See the image below from "Recipes of American and other Iced Drinks" (circa. 1900) as an indication.

The Boston (Two Part) Shaker is the type of cocktail shaker that you will usually see being used by professional bartenders. It consists of a paired mixing tin and mixing glass. They are of such a size that the mixing tin will fit snuggly over top of the mixing glass and form an watertight seal so you can shake the drink without making a mess. These shakers are simplistic in their design, and work very efficiently. There is however a slight downside. An inexperienced user may have trouble properly forming a seal on the shaker, which will cause it to suddenly separate and release its contents over anybody in the vicinity, and likewise it can be difficult for a novice to unseal the shaker when they are ready to serve the drink.

The trick to sealing the shaker is to make sure that you place the mixing glass over the mixing tin fairly straight, and give it a firm slap on the bottom of the glass to form a tight seal. To unseal the shaker, you hold it by the tin, with the glass above, and then slap the shaker with the base of your palm right where the glass edge seals against the metal shaker. You also want to make sure that where you choose to slap the shaker is on the side which the glass is already leaning toward. This last step can be a little tricky and take some time to master. Whatever you do however, avoid the impulse to tap the shaker against a counter edge or other solid object, this will often break the glass, and thus ruin the drink.

The Three Part (Cobbler) Shaker is far more commonly found in homes then it is in professional bars. They are relatively straight-forward to use, and don't present the user with the same problem of "sealing" as the Boston Shaker does. This doesn't mean that they aren't without their problems, and frankly I find that the problems that they present usually make them an inferior choice for serious cocktail making.

The first problem that you'll find in using this style of shaker is that the strainer in the middle section just really doesn't work very well. The design lends itself to forming a bit of a vacuum as you try pouring the cocktail out, and so you have to shake and roll it around as you are pouring to get the drink to come out nicely. It's frankly easier to just remove the top two parts of the shaker and use a cocktail strainer just as you would with a Boston Shaker. And that's where you encounter the second major flaw with this style of shaker.

I'm not sure if it is just something inherit with the mechanics of the design, or shoddy workmanship, but the majority of three-part shakers get "stuck", and it's difficult removing the middle part from the base part. One of the most common questions I get via e-mail (after how long can I safely keep a bottle of booze on the shelf) is "how do I get my cocktail shaker unstuck?" The problem here is that this style of shaker usually seals itself with a friction seal. This means that it is relying on one sleeve of metal tightly inserting itself inside of another (A Boston Shaker is using a contact/pressure seal). In many cases, this seal is hard to loosen when the cocktail shaker is dry, much less after shaking some sugary/sticky ingredients that essentially glue the two parts together. And there are of course three parts which have exactly the opposite problem, and they don't seal at all well, dry or wet.

My recommendation is to jump on the learning curve and get a Boston Shaker and avoid the Three Part Shaker entirely. If you must get a three part shaker, be sure to test-fit the parts in the store before you buy it! If you have difficulty opening the shaker when it is dry, it won't get any easier when you actually use it for making a cocktail.

There are of course a variety of novelty shakers available. Fire Extinguishers, Rocket Ships, Penguins, and Blimps just to name a few. In closing I thought I'd point out one that I just ran into on the Pottery Barn website which is a reproduction of one that first came out around 1937. I've got one of the originals, and this one appears to be a faithful reproduction. It's not very practical in actual use, but fun to have none-the-less.