So far in our Basics for the Home Bar series, we’ve covered many of the tools that you need to successfully shake and stir a drink. But once you’ve either shaken or stirred a drink, you need to transfer that drink, minus the ice (unless you are making something like a caipirinha or traditional margarita), into your glass. To do this, you need to use one of two major types of strainers:

The Hawthorne Strainer

This strainer is the kind you use for drinks that are shaken.  The Hawthorne Strainer goes over the glass top of your Boston Shaker, using your index finger to press on the metal tab of the strainer to control the “gate.” The gate is the area which allows the liquid to flow out of the shaker, and by loosening or pressing on this gate, you can control how much or little of the tiny ice shards that resulted from shaking the cocktail to get into your glass. Most craft cocktail bars will keep a fairly tight grip on this strainer and even double strain a cocktail through a small standard strainer. Double straining eliminates all the tiny ice shards and catches any stray bits of citrus that may have made their way past the Hawthorne Strainer. It’s how I make all my shaken drinks.  The spring on the Hawthorne Strainer can also be removed and used when you dry shake ingredients (like the egg whites for a Ramous Gin Fizz).

The Julep Strainer

As its name suggests, this strainer has its roots with the mint julep. The strainer was given along with the classic drink to keep the ice from shifting and rushing into your mouth. Now the Julep Strainer is mostly used for stirred drinks. It’s inserted at an angle with the round side up. Hold it against the glass with your index finger over the base of the stem.  A Julep Strainer does a great job holding back the ice while letting the cocktail flow through. Since there are no little shards of ice to worry about, you don’t need to double strain.  While you can use a Hawthorne Strainer for stirred drinks, it’s not really the best choice, as it’s possible for the ice to crash against the spring and the gate of a Hawthorne Strainer, messing up your beautiful, silky smooth stirred drink.

Next up in our Basics for the Home Bar Series: The Muddler