Saved By A Boston Shaker: A Perfect Lime Leaf Daiquiri

One of the best things about starting this blog again is the help that I get from you, my loyal readers.

A commenter with a wonderful name, Adam, chimed in on my last post about cocktail-making (see: “The Time I Made A Lime-Leaf Infused Daiquiri But Couldn’t Open The Cocktail Shaker”) and suggested I try a Boston shaker. I read up on it, and the concept made sense to me: instead of a vertical, tightly-sealed bullet, the Boston shaker works at an angle. At least that’s how it seemed. Then I got confirmation of that yesterday when I popped into Barkeep in Silverlake to ask all about it…

And sure enough, Boston shakers are what they sell there (along with lots of other cool cocktail-stuff):

One of the men who worked there demonstrated the idea: you shove the top piece in at an angle and listen for it to make a seal. I suppose the angle creates a greater risk that you’ll slosh liquor all over yourself if you don’t close it correctly, so I practiced a few times, and then paid the bill, and headed home to try it out.

Actually, first I did work: this happened at 3 o’clock. I’m sure some of you drink cocktails at 3 o’clock, but I’m a respectable member of society, thank you very much.

So at 3:30, I headed home to make the cocktail. (Just kidding: this happened at 6:30, right before Jeopardy.)

Everything from the previous cocktail post still pertains, except for the shaker. Though this time I doubled the recipe: 4 ounces clear rum, 2 ounces fresh lime juice, 1 1/2 ounces lime leaf-infused simple syrup.

Into the Boston shaker everything went, along with some ice…

Then I wedged the top piece in aggressively at an angle, listening for the WHOOSH of the seal. Well it’s not really a WHOOSH. More like the sound a vacuum cleaner might make if you jammed it against your forehead.

And then I SHOOK SHOOK SHOOK, like Tom Cruise in Cocktail, and I knew my seal was good because I didn’t get any liquid anywhere.

(Tom Cruise seems so creepy in that new movie trailer, don’t you think?)

At last, the moment of truth: the strain into the coupe.

Worked like a dream. I love my new Boston Shaker! Thanks Other Adam.

I sliced a little lime garnish and put it onto the edge to make it pretty:

As for the taste, it was nice and cold and icy in the way a shaken drink should be. Apparently, a daiquiri tests the mettle of any great bartender (I think I said that in the other post), so now that I have a Boston shaker, my mettle is off-the-charts.