How to shake a cocktail…

 

So you’ve bought a shiny new cocktail shaker and you want to shake some drinks? Make sure you do it right, Jake Burger of swanky new cocktail emporium Portobello Star explains how:

‘I always tell my bartenders that they are shaking a drink to wake it up not put it to sleep! You need to do it with a certain amount of energy. The idea is to propel the ice cubes from one end of the shaker to the other, not to just have them swill around in the liquid.

‘So with two hands firmly grip the shaker and raise it parallel to your ears and then shake back and forth with as much effort as you can muster.  But also with rhythm and dignity. Like William Powell said in the movie The Thin Man: “The important thing is the rhythm. Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time.”

‘Not that I think you should be shaking your Martini - but we’ll not go into that here, and don’t get me started on Japanese cocktail shaking, they have a completely different technique which takes about three years to learn!’

To see Jake in action, visit Portobello Star, 171 Portobello Road W11 (020 7229 8016)