Post #723499 by Chip and Andy on Wed, Jul 23, 2014 8:16 AM

so how do you measure your dashes (of bitters etc)?

Carefully and with practice.

Step One:

Get over your fear of bitters. You are probably mixing two drinks at a time (or a double if you are like me) so for almost all of the bitters you would using the difference between two and three dashes is not going to make or break the drink.

Step Two:

For really strong flavors, or flavors that you don't generally like except in the smallest of measures like Pernod, pour the measure over your cutting board, not over the shaker. If you over pour and spill on the bar you simply have made a mess. If you over pour and spill into the shaker you have (potentially) ruined a drink.

Step Three:

Practice. Save your next empty bitters bottle. Fill it with water. Dash it into a measuring vessel and see how much you are actually dashing. I dash my bottles harder than some so I am getting, generally, a measure twice that of a more casual dasher. Which is fine for me because like I said I am mixing two at a time. When you figure out your dashing 'style' be consistent in how you dash your bitters. If you dash lightly you will need two dashes to get the 'full effect.' If you dash hard you will need to dash once for two drinks. Practice your dashes until you get them reasonably consistent. And then have faith in your dashing abilities and add that dash of bitters to the drink with confidence. If you don't get it quite right this time you will just to make another drink for more practice.

Lather, rinse, repeat.