Basic Cocktail Serving Musts

Ah, cocktail hour. Having a few friends over for after-work drinks or hosting a swanky cocktail party? Either way, check out these tips and tools for serving the perfect cocktails.

Chilled glass
The best way to chill a glass is to pop a dry one in the freezer overnight. Savvy Cocktail Tip: If you forgot to plan ahead, fill a glass with ice and set aside on the counter for several minutes. Dump out the melted ice when ready and pour in your ingredients.

Crushed ice
This type of ice is used for drinks created in a blender. Many new fridges have a “crushed” option on the door’s ice machine. If you don’t have a fridge that crushes for you, crush ice by using a meat tenderizer or other mallet-type object to slam against ice covered in a towel. Just be careful of your precious fingers!

Dash
It’s roughly an eighth of an ounce in reality but instead of measuring such a teeny amount, just hold the bottle in your hand and quickly flick your wrist over the glass for the “unscientific” equivalent.

Frosted rim
If you have a chocolate beverage it may call for cinnamon or cocoa on the rim. But most of the time, drinks call for a rim frosted with salt or sugar. To frost a rim, dip your glass upside down in liquid—or circle the rim with a lemon or lime wedge—and dip it into a small plateful of the granulated substance your recipe calls for. Voilà, you have a tasty rim!

Jigger
Sometimes called a pony-jigger, this bartending tool is used for more precise measuring of your drink’s ingredients. It has two different sized cups on either end. One cup measures 1 oz. of alcohol, the other 2 oz. Savvy Tip: If you don’t have a jigger and don’t have time to rush to the store, use a tablespoon. One tablespoon equals a half-ounce.