What Terms Should I Know As A Home Mixologist?
You're bored and you need a drink. It's time to order a drink.
Wait...Everything is shut down.
You have had to take matters into your own hands.
You've looked up your favorite recipes and aren't sure what most of it means.
We have all been there. You just want a drink.
You didn't know you'd need to know this insider cocktail terminology.
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What Terms Should I Know As A Home Mixologist?
Not to worry. Here is your cocktail glossary
to ensure you can make your favorite classic cocktails.
ABV
ABV means alcohol by volume.
ABV refers to the percent of alcohol in liquor.
If the ABV is 50%, that means the liquor is 50% alcohol and 50% water.
ABV is typically on the label next to the proof (which we will address later).
Long story short, the higher the ABV, the better.
Bitters
Bitters are a highly concentrated alcoholic drink
made from a distilled combination of liquor and various herbal
and citrus fruit ingredients. Angostura and Peychaud's bitters are so
concentrated that they are out in drops. Some bitters, like Campari,
can be enjoyed over ice. Bitters are absolutely essential for mixed cocktails.
If you actually want quality cocktails, get great bitters.
Dash
You have probably seen you need to add 2 dashes to an
old-fashioned glass without ice cubes to properly make an old fashion.
You probably wonder, "What in the hell is a dash?"
A dash refers to either the shake of a bitters bottle or about 1/8
of a teaspoon. So take your bitters bottle, shake it a bit.
Those little drops are a dash. 🤯
Dry
How can you have a dry martini? It's literally liquid in a martini glass!
Well young mixologist, dry just means the drink isn't sweet.
Dry typically refers to an unsweet wine or unsweet cocktails that
use dry vermouth instead of sweet vermouth. The "dryness" comes
from the fermentation process when the yeast consumes all of the
sugar and converts it to alcohol.
Float
If you can create a floating cocktail, you're a magician mixologist.
For that, we applaud you. If you're just trying to pour a small amount of
liqueur or cream on the surface of your drink so that it doesn't mix,
you need to use the float technique. Most mixologists create the floating
effect by slowly pouring liquids over the back of a spoon.
Mixer
A mixer is any nonalcoholic liquid ingredient used in your
mixed drinks. Ingredients like soda water, fruit juice,
or cream are all examples of mixers.
On the Rocks
Any of your drinks that are served with ice cubes are served on
the rock, typically in a rocks glass. If you have made it this far in life
without knowing what On the Rocks means, you probably grew up
Amish or in a cult. Do yourself a favor and don't drink the Kool-Aid.
You can thank us later.
Perfect
A perfect drink is a drink that has equal parts dry and
sweet vermouth. It is no indication of your cocktail-making abilities.
There have been plenty of imperfect perfect cocktails.
Proof
If there's proof in the pudding, you're probably going to
want that pudding. Proof is the legal measurement for a liquor's
alcoholic content. One proof equals .05% alcohol by volume.
Why do we need proof if we already have ABV?
Because the government got involved and it got more complicated.
As per usual.
Splash
A splash is about as made up a measurement as you
would imagine. It's a small amount somewhere between a dash
and an ounce. So, your guess is about as good as ours.
Just add what you want.
Top Off
Well, your cocktail is almost finished. You just need to add
the last ingredient. So you are finishing the cocktail with the last
ingredient when you top it off.
Up
When you serve a drink up, you are serving your drink
without any ice in a cocktail glass. Usual the drink is shaken in a
Boston shaker and strained "up" into a chilled cocktail glass.
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Get Mixing
You know your terms. You can now follow a recipe.
Get down your top-shelf liquor, a highball glass,
and get your drinks shaken (or stirred)!
These recipes aren't going to follow themselves.
If you'd like some inspiration on cocktails you could make,
your favorite mixologists have created fresh bottled cocktails
you can easily recreate. Check out our line of cocktails today.