No Cocktail Shaker? Your Milk Frother Is Here To Save The Day

What is the difference between a good host and a great one? The ability to whip up a delicious cocktail at a moment's notice. You can generally rely on experienced entertainers to have the know-how and ingredients on hand to mix up a few basic drinks. Typically, anyone with a well-stocked bar will also have the standard tools of the trade, especially a cocktail shaker.

But if you're still building up your hosting armory and don't have a cocktail shaker, good news: There's another kitchen device that can help you make impressive drinks for your friends. A milk frother is a bartender's secret weapon; if you have one, it can also be yours.

Shaking a cocktail serves a few different purposes, the chief among them being to mix the drink's ingredients. It also introduces air to the beverage, which, with some ingredients, will produce a frothy, foamy effect. A milk frother — basically a tiny immersion blender — covers both bases, helping you make professional-quality cocktails for even the most low-key guests.

This is one of those hacks that might be better than the standard way of doing things. Typically, when mixing cocktails, you have to put the two sides of the canister together to form an airtight seal that keeps the drink from spilling, and then you shake it hard for several seconds. It's dangerously easy, however, to not get a proper seal before shaking (especially if you've already had a couple of drinks). And sometimes, you'll accidentally end up sealing it a little too well and then have to wrestle to separate the two halves — which can also result in spillage. Using a milk frother eliminates these possibilities, not to mention saving your biceps a little work.

When using a milk frother to mix a cocktail, turn it on only once the end is submerged in the liquid to avoid any messy splashes. Stick the frother in deep enough and at an angle that causes all of the liquid to spin together; otherwise, you risk mixing the drink unevenly and, depending on what ingredients you're using, leaving sediment at the bottom.

Besides thoroughly mixing your drinks, a milk frother can come in handy in a few other ways. Batch cocktails are great for at-home parties, letting you do the mixology work beforehand so that all you have to do is pour it come serving time. The drawback of pre-mixed drinks is that the ingredients may separate as the drink sits. A milk frother lets you re-mix your concoction more thoroughly than a basic spoon would be able to, and it does a much better job at introducing air to the mixture, resulting in a cocktail so light and fluffy your guests will assume you shook each serving by hand.

Perhaps the trickiest part of making drinks at home for guests is managing the mess. If you're making more than one kind of drink, you'll ideally clean your tools in between to avoid any cross-contamination (no one wants traces of a White Russian in their Tom Collins). Constantly running to the kitchen to wash out a shaker and strainer will quickly become a pain, but using a milk frother instead can save you a little labor (and water). Mixing drinks in the glass they're to be served in means one less tool to clean, and when you do need to head to the sink, a milk frother takes just seconds to wash. And, of course, less time cleaning means more time enjoying great drinks with good company, all thanks to the humble, surprisingly versatile milk frother.