To Muddle or Not to Muddle

It may not be the age old question Shakespeare posed, but you will need to muddle ingredients to properly make certain cocktails. For instance, for the classic Old-fashioned saturating a sugar cube with bitters and mashing them with a muddler ensures that they will add the sweet bitter taste that is essential for the finished drink. In the case of a Caipirinha lime juice is extracted and absorbed by the sugar syrup or for a Mojito mint leaves are muddle with sugar and club soda to extract the oils from the fresh leaves. Muddling is almost always the first step for making these cocktails as the flavors released and combined by the process are the foundation for the drink and it is easier to mix these "drier" ingredients before all the liquids are added. There are many styles of muddlers available, the most common being a long wooden pestle shaped like a baseball bat with a larger, rounded end for mashing and a skinnier, flat end for mixing. Barware manufacturers are also making sleek stainless steel muddlers with colorful plastic mashing tips that are easy to use and clean. A muddler is a good, cheap investment that will allow you to add more drinks to your home bartending experience. So Muddle Away!