Shaking vs stirring a cocktail

Dave Arnold, the author of Liquid Intelligence (https://amzn.to/3QhTxOQ), has a Fundamental Law of Traditional Cocktails which states: "There is no chilling without dilution, and there is no dilution without chilling."

Chilling and dilution are directly related. In fact, if you make two Manhattans with different sized ice, that are stirred for different lengths of time and stirred at different speeds, they will be identical once served if stirring was stopped once they hit the same temperature (meaning that they also have the same amount of dilution).

Ice melts at its surface area. Therefore, increasing the surface area will increase the rate at which ice can melt. Increasing the rate at which it melts also increases the rate at which it chills.

Stirring or shaking a cocktail increases contact with both the liquid and ice, therefore chilling (and diluting) faster. The faster the drink moves, the faster the drink can chill.

A shaken cocktail will reach equilibrium once shaken for 15 seconds - meaning that it will have minimal further effect on both chilling and the dilution of a drink.

In regards to chilling and dilution, stirring is inefficient and it will take around two minutes to reach the same or a similar temperature (and dilution) as shaking.

No one stirs a cocktail for two minutes. So, by shaking a cocktail for 10-15 seconds it will over dilute your drink.

My point is. Don't shake a Manhattan ;)

Dave Arnold's Liquid Intelligence is a must have on your book shelf: https://amzn.to/3QhTxOQ