

Here is the relevant thread, not eGullet, but DrinkBoy.
http://groups.msn.com/DrinkBoy/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=13262&LastModified=4675590579909967993&all_topics=1
As for when to deploy the julep vs. Hawthorn strainer, I'm solidly with Angus.
Which leads us to the question of when do you pour from the tin and when do
you pour from the glass?
Tradition would have us routinely pour FROM the glass for the same reason we
mix first IN the glass. The guiding principle there is simply
"transparency"--the customer can see what's going "in" to his drink and can be
certain that he's getting all of it back out, as well. (And it's funny how a
lot of the rituals surrounding drink have at their root a suspicion that all
may not be as it appears.)The julep strainer is also a more thorough
contraption and will catch most of the shards of ice caused by shaking etc.
The current practice of (primarily UK bartender,it seems,)double straining
through a sieve is unnecessary with the judicious use of the julep strainer.
So why pour from the tin at all? Egg whites tend to make a drink more
voluminous than when it started to the point where it can't be poured
comfortably (to say nothing of deftly)from the glass. Same goes for Pineapple
juice. Cocktails with chunky bits (scraps of muddled fruit, herbs etc) get the
tin treatment from me. The Hawthorn does a handy job of keeping the spent
garbage from clogging the holes of the strainer. And with an adjustment of the
index finger you can compress the coils on the pouring side to allow as much
or as little of the trash into the drink. Sometimes little flecks of herb can
be attractive; big chunks, not so much.
And then there's the weird practice, and I see this a lot from Boston area
bartenders, of the "cracked egg" pour. Basically the tin and the glass are
slightly separated, like a cracked egg, and the drink pours into the glass
through this crack. It is a consternation and a befuddlement to me on so many
levels. It's not efficient--it requires both hands to execute and takes longer
as the bartender has to slosh the drink back and forth across the divide to
get it all out. The resulting cocktail has veritable icebergs on the surface
and if herbs are deployed you're soon picking spinach out of your teeth.
Makes me wanna grab my old julep strainer and use it the way it may have
originally been intended!
myers
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How do I pour? What is 'cl', 'oz' and 'pt'? How should I handle glassware?.
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