Freezing fresh juices for cocktails

[turkoftheplains]

I love making cocktails at home but juicing citrus every time I want one is a pain. My girlfriend cooks like a fiend, and makes heavy use of her freezer. I've stolen a page out of her book recently and started freezing my lemon and lime juice. I measured the ice cube trays and found that one held almost exactly 0.5oz and the other nearly 1oz of unfrozen liquid.

In order to address the melting/chilling/dilution issue, I stir the frozen juice into room-temperature spirits before making the rest of the drink as usual.

Does anyone else do this? Are there any problems with using fresh-frozen juices in this way for drinks?

[weinoo]

Does anyone else do this? Are there any problems with using fresh-frozen juices in this way for drinks?

How many drinks do you and your girlfriend have in a night? 10? 20? I just don't see how squeezing fresh juice for 4 or maybe even 6 cocktails is that much of a pain.

It's sorta like saying that cracking an egg every time you want an omelet, scrambled eggs or a fried egg sandwich is a pain.

[KD1191]

I started doing this when my wife started bringing home giant bags of citrus from Costco that I couldn't put a dent in before they would start to rot. I have bags of 1oz lime and lemon cubes in my freezer. I'll drop one in a shaker and throw in the spirits and stir to dissolve, then go about making my drink. I haven't really noticed any issues except that I need to use 1 oz frozen to get the same effect as about 3/4 oz fresh. All things being equal, I would still prefer to juice fresh, but some nights I don't have it on hand or just want something quick.

[Shalmanese]

Does anyone else do this? Are there any problems with using fresh-frozen juices in this way for drinks?

How many drinks do you and your girlfriend have in a night? 10? 20? I just don't see how squeezing fresh juice for 4 or maybe even 6 cocktails is that much of a pain.

It's sorta like saying that cracking an egg every time you want an omelet, scrambled eggs or a fried egg sandwich is a pain.

Getting sticky juice everywhere and cleaning out the juicer is mildly annoying. Also, variation in juiciness often means I'm left with 3/4 of a lime.

[EvergreenDan]

My home procedure is to cut the lime into the desired size. I'm pretty good at guessing how big to cut, based on size and juiciness. I used a green or yellow enameled pliers-style squeezer like you see now-a-days. I place my small OXO measuring cup into the sink or on a strainer over the sink, then squeeze into it. In this way, the stray spray goes into the sink and doesn't make a sticky mess. I sometimes cut the fruit in half over the sink to keep the cutting board clean. I then keep the halves in a tuperware container in the fridge. If a grapefruit half hangs around threatening to go bad, I search for Grapefruit in my cocktail database.

That said, it is a pain to make 2 rounds of drinks for 6 people if each drink calls for an ounce of juice.

[kathryn]

1. Warm up lime in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.

2. Cut lime in half.

3. Put 1/2 lime face down in Mexican juicer.

4. Squeeze directly into the jigger the amount required.

5. Place leftover halves in a "Lime Saver" in the fridge.

[nikkib]

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why not buy the kind of juicer used in bars - we juice for every cocktail as we make it,using this type of juicer (which im sure is readily availble in kitchenware shops)which has the added bonus of not getting your hands sticky and needs only a quick rinse under the tap to clean it...

[Kohai]

Only issue I have with squeezing directly into the jigger is that I like to strain out the pulp first.

[Kent Wang]

Prop a fine mesh strainer over the jigger. This doesn't work well with smaller jiggers, but better with e.g. the OXO 2 oz jigger with markings for each increment. I use the OXO for all my jiggering but find it especially useful for juicing, because you never know how much juice you're going to get.

Or you could juice into a jigger then strain it as you're pouring it into your shaker.

[kathryn]

We used to have a juice press but:

- it took up too much space (counter space is at a premium in a Manhattan kitchen)

- there wasn't enough clearance to use it (handle would bang up against the bottom of the kitchen cabinets)

- it failed miserably in extracting all of the juice from limes (the squeezing element was optimized for oranges making it way too big for limes)

- the suction cup feet eventually gave out