Mixed drinks are your classic cocktail-shaker drink -- the ingredients are mixed, usually with some ice to cool things down, by shaking them together in a metal or metal-and-glass container. The drink is then strained into a glass, usually a martini or shot glass. Because the ingredients are mixed before serving, the order in which the ingredients are added is unimportant except in the case of a Dry Martini?. However, as you become more experienced in pouring your own drinks you'll find that always adding ingredients in the order liquor-liqueur-juice-soda-cordial/syrup is an easy way to remember things.

When shaking to mix your ingredients, hold your shaker horizontally and shake back-and-forth, rather than up-and-down, to minimize noise. A slight tilt in the vertical plane and a vigorous shake will give you the small ice chips in the drink that are trendy these days.

There is, of course, one exception: in general, a Martini? should be stirred, not shaken -- the stirring minimizes the melting of the ice and therefore the amount of water added to the drink. Always stir a drink you don't want "bruised" by adding melted water.