What is the difference between neat and on the rocks

The longer you let your drink sit with the ice, the more diluted the drink will be. This is why many people do not agree with serving spirits with ice.

Tell us what you want to see in future blog posts. You can do that by sending your feedback to Josh at jvandenberg eightoaksdistillery.

Cart 0. All articles of Features. Keep Exploring - Stories we think you will enjoy reading. Dining In 1 minute. People 5 minutes. Dining In 2 minutes. Dining Out 6 minutes. Ask the Expert bar. Boulud Sud mixologist Samy Berdai shares his take on this iconic cocktail.

Cheers to love. This term typically describes an alcoholic beverage that is iced and is shaken or stirred. Before being served, the drink is strained, removed of its ice, and normally poured into a cocktail glass. Although this can get a bit confusing, we have it straightened up for you ba dum tss! Classic examples of drinks served straight up are a martini, manhattans, sidecars, sazeracs, pisco sours, and grasshoppers.

Up usually describes a drink that is chilled with ice—either shaken or stirred —and strained into a glass without ice. Typically, these drinks are associated with a cocktail glass , and this makes it easy to remember. Just think of it as being served in a glass that is elevated up by a stem. Up and straight up are often used interchangeably. Straight up can bring the most confusion because drinkers use it to refer to both neat and up drinks.

Some of this confusion goes back to the multiple meanings of straight in the bar, which circles back to those orders like a straight shot of tequila. For the most part, however, you can think of martinis as good examples of straight up drinks.

Straight is where things get really confusing because drinkers use it in a few different ways:. In this debate, it's also important to remember that we are talking about the bar here. Given the nature of an environment that involves liquor and fuzzy memories, there often is no real right and wrong answer. Although many people accept the definitions above, the correct answer can be ambiguous. While there are bartending books that act as guides through the basics of mixing drinks, there really is not a definitive or authoritative dictionary for the bar.

It's a lot like trying to define what a martini is and what it isn't or differentiating cocktails from mixed drinks. Some drinkers also get into the habit of calling one type of drink by a certain name.