How to Make a Cocktail Without Special Equipment

Four basic tools—a cocktail shaker, a jigger, a strainer, and a muddler—make it a lot easier to make cocktails, once you get the hang of using them. But you can also get by without them.

Here’s how to make your favorite drink when you’re short on tools.

Contrary to what many bartenders will have you believe, you don’t even need a shaker to make a cocktail. Almost every cocktail (except egg white–based ones) can simply be stirred in order to chill and dilute the ingredients properly; it will just take longer with drinks that you’d ordinarily shake. You don’t even need to use a dedicated barspoon to stir—any longish utensil will work. Legendary bartender Gaz Regan used to stir Negronis with his finger, but if your fingers aren’t as cold-resistant, a chopstick or butter knife will do just fine. Stirring won’t get you the frothy texture of many shaken drinks, which is why it doesn’t work for egg whites, but the drink itself will still taste good.

Here’s how to make your drinks: Add as much ice as you can spare to any relatively tall vessel, such as a liquid measuring cup or pint glass; ideally, you’d have enough ice to fill it about two-thirds full. Pour in your drink ingredients and then stir.

For spirit-only drinks like Manhattans, stir for about 30 seconds. For drinks with spirits and acids, such as margaritas, which are typically shaken, you’ll want to stir a bit longer—about a minute, and possibly more. It’s OK to taste as you go. You’re among friends. You’ll know your drink is properly diluted when it’s boozy but not harsh or rough-feeling.

Don’t have a jigger? No problem. If you really want to be precise when mixing a drink, use a measuring spoon—1 tablespoon holds half an ounce. For larger volumes (2 or more ounces), use a 1-cup measuring cup—our favorites also have ounce measures.

But really, as long as you keep the ratios of the drink the same, you can use any small vessel—a shot glass, a juice glass, etc.—to measure volumes; your drink might be bigger or smaller than ideal, but the balance will remain the same. (And if you decide you’d rather just buy a jigger, our favorite is the OXO Good Grips Mini Angled Measuring Cup.)

Pour your drink through a sieve or fine-mesh strainer. Alternatively, use another glass, a saucer, or even a small plate to carefully hold back the ice as you decant the drink. Or don’t strain at all. Pour both drink and ice into another glass, or sip directly from the mixing vessel. I won’t tell. Now your drink is on the rocks! (If you do want to invest in a strainer, our favorite is the Cocktail Kingdom Koriko Hawthorne Strainer.)

Want a mojito but don’t have a muddler? Use a wooden spoon to muddle the mint and limes in your mixing vessel. A mortar and pestle can also work if you have it—just don’t turn your muddled materials into a paste. With either tool, press and turn your muddling implement firmly to express all the aromatic oils; this should take about 30 seconds.

Ice is an essential ingredient of almost all cocktails. It helps chill and dilute your cocktail ingredients. Water softens alcohol, and acids such as lime or lemon juice generally make your drink more balanced and palatable. (This is why you’ll often see folks add a splash of water to their bourbon or Scotch.)

If you’ve got ice, great! Even the regular ice-tray kind is fine for both making and serving cocktails. If you want to get fancy, ice from a dedicated ice mold for cocktails can improve your presentation.

But what if your freezer is so full that there’s no room for you to make or keep ice? No problem there, either. You can simulate the effects of mixing and chilling your drink with ice by simply diluting and chilling the ingredients ahead of time. Make a drink, adding half its volume in water, then refrigerate for at least 8 hours and preferably longer.

Refrigerating the drink won’t get it as cold as it would be if you shook or stirred it, though. For the coldest, most cocktail-like results, follow the advice of our science research editor, Paul Adams: Measure only the alcoholic ingredients into a plastic storage bag (water and juice will freeze, but spirits won’t). Press out any air, then put the bag in the freezer. Because it’s flexible, it should fit in the smallest nooks and crannies you might have. When you want a drink, just mix the alcoholic ingredients with the nonalcoholic ingredients (preferably all chilled) plus half the recipe’s volume of water.