My advice would be: Every cocktail has an unlisted ingredient that makes or breaks the drink - ice water.

Shaking or stirring a cocktail doesn’t just make it colder, it dilutes it as well. Getting this right is very often the difference between a good and bad drink.

I demonstrated this once when a friend complained that it was so hard to get a good cocktail, especially getting good ingredients. All they had in their kitchen was some gin and some other slightly floral novelty liqueur. I just took a spoon and a glass and stirred them something based on the ratios for a martini and they said it was one of the best cocktails they have had!

Balancing chill and dilution, even in more complex drinks, is essential.

A good way to experiment is to make batch chilled cocktails in which case you need to explicitly measure out the water you’re adding.

▲

avanai 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

The other magic ingredient is salt. A tiny pinch of salt can balance out sour and bitter flavors in surprising ways, and be otherwise undetectable. I’ve “fixed” a lot of cocktails that way.

	▲	lawik 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This reminds me of when a student pub hosted a wedding party. As we got to the dance floor there were drinks on offer. I grabbed a Cuba Libre and essentially went "oh, that's the roughest on I've had, must be cheap cola on truly awful booze". Kept on sipping. Someone else complained. Then another one. We go back to investigate. Bartender has a taste. Grimacing. Like bad and maybe salty? Takes a minute before they track it down. They'd mixed up the salted ice cubes they used to keep champagne cold with the ones they use for drinks. That one was rough. I had politely worked through my drink before we launched the investigation. Good party though and I did get a new drink which tasted fine. I'm sure a tiny pinch can do wonders. Salted cubes, not recommended.
	▲	codyb 2 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		A little pinch of salt in the water is recommended for drip coffee as well to add a pop to the flavors and reduce bitterness.
	▲	FuriouslyAdrift 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		weirdly, a few drops of maraschino liqueur (I go for Lazzaroni) can "stretch" out the flavors of a lot of "brown" liquors. I have no idea why. It kind of adds a strange almond-ish flavor on the finish, though.

▲

hattmall 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah one thing that makes a huge difference is that you mix your ingredients in the shaker with ice. Then strain and serve over fresh ice if it's called for.