Straining for Perfection

As we saw last week, my preference is to avoid the common three part shaker which includes a built-in strainer. Instead, I prefer a Boston Shaker, or other form of two-part shaker. And if you really have to use a three-part, you're probably better off removing the middle strainer section and just serving the drink from the mixing tin. That does however mean that there is another piece of important bar equipment that you are going to need: a bar strainer.

There are several different variations on bar strainers, but they can essentially be grouped into two separate camps, the common "Hawthorn" strainer, and the far less common "Julep" strainer.

It is the Hawthorn strainer that you almost always see used in a bar. These are the ones with the little springy thing that wraps around their edge to help hold the ice back, but still let the liquids flow extremely freely into the glass. You can find them with two or four prongs sticking out from them that will keep them solid on the lip of the mixing tin, or will also sometimes see them without any prongs at all.

The Julep strainer on the other hand does not have spring edges around it, and consists just of a concave bowl perforated with lots of holes. Supposedly this type of strainer originated to actually strain drinks such as a mint julep which are traditionally filled with finely crushed ice. But instead of straining them into the glass, they were used to strain as the customer was drinking their julep. They would hold the strainer over the top of the glass as they were sipping, which would hold the crushed ice back and prevent it from hitting their teeth. A lot of fuss and bother you might think for such a small little thing, but apparently oral hygiene back in those days wasn't quite as firmly entrenched as it is now. This meant that many customers suffered from various levels of tooth and gum infection, with exposed nerve endings which would react painfully upon contact with ice. With these tools already being on hand at the bar, it was only a matter of time before bartenders found that they worked well in straining drinks into cocktail glasses as well.

Strainers from an “Albert Pick Saloon Catalog” (1918)

Today, it is handy to have both types of strainers on hand, especially if you are using a Boston style of shaker. Remember, that the Boston shaker consists of a mixing tin, and a mixing glass. When constructing a cocktail it is best to start by adding the ingredients to the mixing glass instead of the mixing tin. This way you can better gauge if you are adding enough product, or by the color, if you perhaps forgot to add something. For a shaken cocktail, you then fill the mixing tin with ice, and dump the contents of the mixing glass into the tin, and in the same motion plop the mixing glass onto the tin and seal it. After shaking, you pop the glass off, and you now have the entire contents in the mixing tin.

A Hawthorn Strainer is designed to fit perfectly over the wider mouth of the standard mixing tin, and so that is your tool of choice. If the drink you are preparing is properly stirred instead of shaken, you start the same way by adding the products to the mixing glass, but you then fill the mixing glass with ice and stir. This means that when you are finished, all of the drink is in your mixing glass as opposed to the tin. A Hawthorne strainer doesn't quite fit the smaller mouth of the mixing glass, and unless the springs are well worn and loose, it will constantly try to pop off, this is where the Julep strainer comes in. It drops into the glass snuggle (concave down) and you can easily hold back the ice as you pour the drink.

Most currently available strainers, either Hawthorn or Julep, are relatively inexpensive, both in price and construction. There isn't anything wrong with picking up these cheaper models, but I find that with significant use the cheaper Hawthorn strainers just don't hold up well and the springs get loose, if not outright tangled, and they just don't work as well. While I haven't located a source for a quality Julep strainer yet, I do feel that the Oxo Hawthorn strainer is an excellent balance of cost and quality, and its solid construction will hold up to even professional use.