Swizzle
TechniqueSwizzling mixes a drink by spinning a stick between your palms through crushed ice until the glass frosts.
Also called: swizzled · swizzling
- Swizzle time
- about 20 seconds, until the glass frosts
- Ice
- crushed
What Swizzle means
You will meet swizzles in tiki and tropical drinks, many of them built on rum. The Queen's Park Swizzle is the best-known one, named for the Queen's Park Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The Chartreuse Swizzle is a modern classic.
Crushed ice matters, because cubes leave no room for the stick to turn. Swizzling happens in the serving glass, so there is no need to pour the drink into a second tin afterwards. The stick moves through the ice, and the ice does the chilling.
A lot of home bartenders assume any plastic drink stirrer will do. A true swizzle stick has prongs at one end that churn the drink as you spin it. A plain stirrer has none, so it just moves the liquid around. Check the end of the stick before you buy one.
How to swizzle a cocktail
You need a swizzle stick and a glass packed with crushed ice, so the stick has room to turn.
- 1.Fill the glass with crushed ice, then add the other ingredients.
- 2.Hold the stick between your palms and roll it back and forth.
- 3.Move the stick up and down through the drink as you roll it.
- 4.Swizzle for about 20 seconds, until frost forms on the outside of the glass.
Swizzle compared
- StirStirring is done in a mixing glass. A swizzle is done in the serving glass, packed with crushed ice.
- Swizzle stickThe swizzle stick is the tool itself. The word swizzle covers both the method and the drinks made with it.
Related terms
Ingredients
Put it to use in your next drink
Garçon explains every step as you make the drink.