Quick Strain Tin

[jongchen]

After playing around with the tin for a few days I've reached a few conclusions. It works as advertised. You really don't need to use a separate strainer. But then again if you have a little talent you shouldn't need a strainer if your using a boston shaker. In theory you can just strain the ice out by leaving a small gap between the tin and the glass when pouring the drink out. That never worked well for me. I could never get the gap just right to let my drink out without splashing and not letting ice chunks out. I always had to use a separate strainer.

My concern with the quick strain is that it does not work well with standard pint glasses, it leaks. The seal is fine when you begin shaking the drink but once it gets slightly cold the drink begins to leak out. This is not a problem with the other boston shakers that I own (one made by rosle which came with its own pint glass, a cheapo $6 tin from a restaurant supply store and a generic pint glass). For the other shaker I always get a very tight seal and there is never any leakage. In fact you need a very significant "tap" on the shaker to break the vacuum to separate the tin from the pint glass. I have not figured out where the leak is coming from. The lip of the glass is well below any of the straining holes.

So far I've found two ways to make the tin work. The first (tiring) way is to very tightly hold the pint glass to the quick tin when shaking. You must maintain constant firm pressure or you're going to have a leak. The other way is to use a metal mixing tin. I used a generic 15oz from a restaurant supply store. The 15oz tins are what you see a lot of pro-bartenders use. The down side to using the 15oz tin is that it get cold much faster than the pint glass. For drinks that need a lot of shaking I need to use a towel to hold the tins.

At the end of the day I like the quick strain tin because it is one less item to wash. But I'd like it even more if it would work well with a standard pint glass like ever other tin that I've tried.

Here is the quick strain tin with the "small tin." The small tin fits much deeper in the quick strain tin. This may be why it doesn't leak. But I think that it is because the softer metal of the tin allows more "flex" to get a better seal.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/gallery/image/146721-quick-strain-with-15oz-small-tin/

This is a standard pint glass with the quick strain. It sits much higher than the "small tin."

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/gallery/image/146722-quick-strain-with-pint-glass/

As you can see the pint glass lips are well below the level of the straining holes

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/gallery/image/146723-quick-strain-pint-glass-gap/

Edited March 9, 2011 by jongchen (log)