Richard Goodwin:
Only shake cocktails with fruit juice in them. It’s a simple but more or less binding rule. Certain international super spies occasionally break it cough James Bond with his ‘special Martini’ cough tosser. However, it will serve the rest of us well. When you break them down, there are essentially two kinds of cocktail. Aromatic cocktails contain only alcoholic ingredients. Sour cocktails that contain citrus fruit (or occasionally other fruits, cream, egg, coffee, etc).
The former kind (which are often dry, aromatic and occasionally bitter) should be stirred with ice, which results in even dilution and a smoother texture. The latter kind (which are often tangy, fruity and occasionally creamy) require shaking, which results in more amalgamation, more dilution and a slightly altered texture.
I am increasingly likely to ask for my cocktail made in a specific way because, despite the parsimony of the fundamentals, many bartenders don’t know them.
