One small habit that instantly improves your cocktails

We see a lot of recipes focus on ingredients, but one thing that quietly levels up drinks is intentional dilution. Most people think dilution is a mistake. In reality, it’s a key ingredient.

A few practical tips that help a lot:

• Stir longer than feels necessary for spirit forward drinks. That extra 10–15 seconds smooths ethanol burn and opens aromatics.

• Shake harder, not just longer for citrus drinks. You want rapid ice breakdown to integrate juice, sugar, and spirit evenly.

• Use big, cold ice whenever possible. Colder ice melts slower, giving you control instead of chaos.

• Taste before serving. If it feels sharp or disjointed, it often needs a touch more dilution, not more sweetener.

• Different drinks want different water levels. A Negroni and a Daiquiri should never finish with the same dilution.

Once you stop treating water as the enemy and started treating it like seasoning, everything gets better.

Curious if others noticed the same thing or if there are other dilution tricks you swear by?