"muddle" news and stories

Spring's here! Mix up a fresh, simple cocktail to ring in the season. Here are three to choose from.

When I was a kid, my mother always asked for a "Southern Comfort, old fashioned, with water instead of soda, muddle the fruit." It became a mantra I expected to hear any time we went out, and a muddler became this mythic tool for smushed, fruity goodness. I say mythic because I've rarely, if ever, seen them on the shelves. If you've ever hunted for muddlers before, you know what I mean -- most stores have every drink gizmo available, except for a simple muddler.

The only one I had ever seen on the shelves was the over-priced (in Canada) Williams Sonoma variety, with the green, jagged ball on the end. And then I went to the super-expensive restaurant supply store that I live near, and viola! A muddler. Not only a muddler, but a really nice wood one for $2. Now, just a few weeks later, the Kitchn has listed three basic muddlers you can buy -- but you can go even cheaper than their lowest at $6.99. (Unless, of course, you want stainless steel. Then you're looking around $10.)

There are a number of new, wood muddlers on eBay, starting at prices under a buck, or you could try websites like barproducts.com, which has light and dark wood ones under $5, plus other varieties for good prices. But first, you might want to see if you have a local restaurant supply store, and ask what they charge. Happy, cheap muddler hunting!

I've never been one for cocktails with a lot of fruit flavor. The sweetness of many of these drinks gets to me after a while.

But this one sounds both refreshing and strong (though not too strong) and seems like a perfect drink for spring. It's the Blueberry Smash. You have to muddle blueberries and mint leaves. I'm not sure I've ever muddled anything, but it's one of my favorite words. Muddle! Full recipe after the jump.

Today's Miami Herald features a story about what may soon be the peak of the mojito's popularity. The muddled mix of lime, mint, rum, sugar and soda was recently added to the menus at TGI Friday's and it'll soon show up in the new Miami Vice, the Herald reports. A huge marketing push from Bacardi is partially to thank. Sadly, another sign of the mojito's rise to stardom is the increase in pre-made mojito mixes. It seems to me that these sort of defeat the purpose of the drink, as the on-the-spot blending of its fresh ingredients are really what makes it so refreshing. Those of you already passing up mojitos for caipirinhas can give yourselves a pat on the back though, as the Herald reports that the similar Brazilian cocktail will be the next big thing. Somewhere, at a TGI Friday's, someone is probably ordering a mo-gee-to right now...

Muddle is a word with two meanings when it comes to food/drink preparation, which makes it a little confusing when you first hear it used. There is a tool used by bartenders, and anyone else who really likes to make drinks, called a muddler. It is a rod with a flattened end, like the one shown in the picture. It is used to crush ingredients together, usually at the bottom of a glass, which is a process known as muddling.

Most often, the drinks that are prepared with a muddle are those that involve herbs and citrus, because crushing them together with sugar releases their natural oils brings out their flavors of the ingredients more strongly. For example, a mint julep usually has mint and sugar muddled together at the bottom of the glass before adding the other ingredients. In a mojito, lime is added to the mint and sugar mixture, too.