Water is an ingredient

Ice does two jobs: it makes the drink cold, and it leaves water behind. That water is part of the spec, the same as the gin or the lemon. Ignore it and the drink is either hot and mean, or thin and sad.

What changes the water

Three things move dilution: how hard you agitate, how much surface the ice has, and how long you stay on it.

• Stirred, large cube. Slow melt. Less water. Fine for a spirit-forward drink you want tight.
• Stirred, standard cubes. The everyday mixing-glass result. Plan for about a quarter of the spec in water.
• Shaken, standard cubes. More contact, more water, more air. Sours and daiquiris live here.
• Cracked or crushed. Lots of surface. The drink gets wet fast. Useful for swizzles and smashes; dangerous if you forget and keep going.

These are working ranges, not laboratory values. Your ice machine, tin size and shake will disagree slightly. Taste the drink, then look at the dilution calculator when you want a number to start from.

Target water

When you batch, you choose the water instead of waiting for ice to decide. A common approach:

1. Write the spec in millilitres.
2. Decide how the drink will be served — up, or over ice.
3. Add water to the batch so a serve tastes finished when it hits the glass.
4. If it will sit on ice in the glass, hold some water back. The cubes will finish the job.

A drink served up (martini, manhattan) needs its full water in the mix. A drink served over ice can leave a little room so the first sip is not already washed out.

Practical habit

Weigh or jigger the water when you are writing a new spec, the same way you jigger the spirit. Once the drink is locked, you can go back to shaking and stirring on muscle memory. Water is still in there. You just stopped pretending it was an accident.

All tools and technique notes