Transcript: Muddling (Alberta Essential)

Cocktails on the Fly
Episode: “Muddling”

Alberta Straub: Two, uhh. Hi, welcome to cocktails on the fly, I am your flighty hostess Alberta Straub. Muddling is I would have to say muddling is… I have been bartending for ten years. And I have to tell you that muddling is the favorite, my favorite part of my job. You know sometimes people will come up and be like, they will say, they will be so sweet and they will say, Oh can you please make me a Mojitos? And you know what I say? I say Hell yea I will make you a Mojitos, you know why, because I get to muddle.
I love muddling. You know, Muddling is key. Sometimes, there is a new trend today; I mean I would say I have to be the trend setter in this wave. But whatever, if using fresh ingredients in your cocktails. And making everything fresh and sometimes you will go to a place and they will put things in a blender and they have like… Say they make a fresh mango drink or whatever and they have a mango puree. No! That’s no good, yuck!
Or they make a strawberry puree! No! We don’t do that, un uh. We don’t use syrups and that kind of stuff. We muddle. You know why? Because I have discovered in my many years of trial and error, the muddling brings out the best flavors in the drinks. Now sometime people feel a little bit odd about having the pieces of the fruit or the vegetable in there cocktails.
But I am telling you please try it, this is the best way to do it. Like, for example. I am going to throw in this glass right here; I am going to throw in some cucumber, and I am going to put some mint in there and in this one I am going to put some fresh apple in there. There we go so fresh apple. You know what I am going to do after that?
I am going to top off this fresh apple with some fresh pomegranate seeds. I don’t want to use pomegranate juice; I want to use fresh pomegranate seeds. I don’t want to use a pomegranate reduction like they might use at somewhere else. The fresh pomegranate seeds, when you muddle them they add a brightness a freshness to your cocktail that is unbeatable and incomparable to other ways and other styles of doing this.
So this is not really the excepted way, you would really read this in books, but this is the way I like to do it and I am telling you there is the highway or there’s the fly way, and that’s the way I do things right here is the fly way ok? So we are going to toss that in there, ba bam, du duh. Put some citrus.
And in the final one, what I am going to do is something, I am going to show you how to do this, but I don’t want everyone to ever do this at home ok. Because at home if you’re going to try this I want you to use a mixing tin, because this is kind of dangerous but I want you to see. I want you to see the muddling and the crushing ok? So first of all, were going to muddle here ok? Your jut trying to muddle, not pulverize, you’re just trying to bring out the flavors you’re trying to… You have some mint in there, you want to get in there, you know what I have just been doing this for few moments, you just want to see this, that I can smell the flavors coming out, that I can smell the oils coming out of the mint. I can small the cucumber coming out of there.
You just muddle a little bit, you bruise you don’t pulverize. You don’t, I am not going to go, urgh, ergh, ergh, this is just a little bit of this, and then say you’re mixing a mojito or some kind of cocktail; I am going to add some ice I am going to add some spirits, is best to muddle with some spirits in there.

So what I am going to do is I am going to put a little bit of gin, or no you know what, I am going to out some vodka in here. Put some vodka in here because you know what, it’s nice you do some muddling with some vodka or some gin. You know what happens, it’s the spirits, or the alcohol draws the flavor out as well, or if you have some citrus, whatever. You can put some citrus in there.
I am going to add some of this lime juice that I have; I am going to put that in this one. You don’t have to do this; you don’t have to do it. You can start by just muddling with just the ingredients’ that you put into the glass. But it’s helpful both ways. But you just, the point is you don’t want to throw things in a blender; you don’t want to pulverize it. You just want to use muddling to bring out the flavor in things, and it’s worth the extra time and the effort this way.
Like this, you’re bringing out the flavors, and you’re just leaving everything in the glass. Don’t take it out, don’t throw it away, and don’t strain it. Because all these things they add the flavor to your drink, they add dynamism to your drink. You wouldn’t want to o this if you were cooking would you, no. So you don’t want to do this to your drink, you don’t want to throw this stuff away, its all goodness.
And look at that, now I am going to add some spirits to this drink, and I am going to have a fabulous apple drink here. I am going to have a lovely delicious fresh tasting minty drink here. And the final thing I am going to show you right here is crushing ice with your muddler. Like this ready?
You know people think that a big muddler is going to crush ice the best, but that is not true. You have a nice small one, and remember never do it in a glass like this, in ten years of bartending I have broke two glasses. Want to know the first time I broke a glass? Guys asked me, hey have you ever broken a glass? And I said, no I have never broken a glass, and at that moment the glass broke.
So that’s how I know it’s dangerous, don’t do it, but I am just going to show you. So this, you need a small muddler like this size, like this. So do this in a metal tin, if you’re making a drink like a mojito or mint julep, which should have crushed ice. Crushed ice works for many drinks its just easy. Like this, there ya go, muddling. It’s a fabulous way, fabulous technique to add fresh goodness to your cocktails. I am going to add spirits to all of these and I am going to make some beverages. I hope you do that at home to.
In flight announcements:
1. Use fresh ingredients
2. Don’t pulverize, just bruise
3. Muddle with sprits or citrus juice
4. Always crush ice in a tin
5. Best way to add fresh flavors