What is the different between a dry shake, a wet shake, and a reverse dry shake? Fin out in this essential guide to cocktail shaking.
Cocktail Shaking – Photo © Cocktails & Bars
Standard Shake
A standard shake is a cocktail technique used to combine spirits with modifiers such as syrups, juices, liqueurs, cream and fruit. Shaking a cocktail simultaneously chills and dilutes the drink faster than stirring. The ingredients are added to a cocktail shaker with ice cubes and shaken vigorously before being strained into a glass. Examples of cocktails where you would use a standard shake include the Margarita, the Daiquiri and the Gin Basil Smash.
Dry Shake
A dry shake is a cocktail technique that involves shaking the ingredients without adding ice to the shaker. It usually precedes a wet shake where the ingredients are shaken with ice.
A dry shake is usually performed when the drink contains egg white or aquafaba (chick pea brine), as in the case of a whiskey sour or the Clover Club cocktail. This technique doesn’t add dilution nor does it chill the drink. It delivers a good foam and a silky texture and mouthfeel to the cocktail as a result of better emulsification of the ingredients.
Wet Shake
A wet shake usually follows from a dry shake and as the name implies, consists of shaking the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker before straining into a glass. This has the effect of chilling the drink and adding dilution at the same time to a drink with ingredients that have been well incorporated with the spirit.
Reverse Dry Shake
Some bartenders perform a reverse dry shake where the drink is first shaken with ice but without the egg white or aquafaba. The ice is subsequently removed, egg white is added and the drink shaken again without ice. Since the reverse dry shake has ice taken out of it, the cocktail doesn’t need to be strained again though this comes down to personal preference.
One such example of a reverse dry shake is the Ramos Gin Fizz at Fortunate Son bar in Sydney’s Enmore. To make the classic cocktail, co-owner Jason Crawley adds sugar, citrus, gin and cream to a shaker with ice, shakes hard, discards the ice, then adds the egg white and shakes again for about a minute. He strains the liquid into a chilled glass and leaves it to rest for another minute. He slowly adds a little soda water which makes the foam rise. The result is a meringue-like foam which he describes as “sipping on a cloud”.
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