The Cement Mixer Is A Punishment In Shot Form

Some boozy beverages are designed to be sipped and savored. Others are designed with the sole objective of reaching inebriation as efficiently as possible. The cement mixer shot is designed to torment. It is composed of one part Irish cream and one part lime juice. The pairing of sour citrus with chocolatey Irish cream sounds pretty strange as is, but many people do like it. But what really makes the cement mixer so infamous is its texture; the lime juice causes the cream to curdle and turn the whole drink into a thick sludge, which does have a disturbing resemblance to cement.

The cement mixer is regularly named one of the most disgusting shots in existence. Despite its notoriety, or rather, because of it, the cement mixer is also one of the most popular shots at bars. People don't drink it for pleasure though; they drink it for a laugh.

Most people who order a cement mixer shot aren't doing so for themselves. Anyone who deigns to drink this stuff typically does so as part of a prank or dare set by their friends. It tends to elicit a strong reaction from the drinker (wincing, gagging, and hopefully nothing more), much to the amusement of their audience. There's no way to avoid the unpleasantness altogether, but there are ways to make it a little more palatable.

The key to drinking a cement mixer without immediately regurgitating it is all about timing. Once you mix the lime and Irish cream, you need to drink fast because the mixture will curdle more the longer you let it sit.

The most common way to drink a cement mixer starts with pouring a shot of Irish cream. Then, gently pour the lime juice over the top, so that it floats over the cream — it helps to pour it over the back of a spoon to keep the layers separated. The drinker is then challenged to take the whole shot in their mouth and shake their head vigorously to trigger the curdling. Other people prefer to pour the Irish cream and lime juice into separate shot glasses and combine them in their mouth, which gives the mixture less time to clump up.

There's a neat bit of science behind the cement mixer's infamous texture, one that we actually use in a number of (more enjoyable) foods. It's a chemical reaction called protein denaturing, and it happens when acids are mixed with dairy proteins. Milk contains two main proteins: whey and casein. They are made of tightly wound strings of molecules, but when you introduce an acid, lowering the pH level, the casein proteins unravel and clump together, forming what we know as curds. Agitating the mixture accelerates the reaction, which is why shaking your head is an essential part of drinking cement mixers.

Protein denaturing might sound unpleasant in the context of a cement mixer shot, but it's an essential part of culinary chemistry. Separating curds and whey is the first step in cheesemaking. Both ricotta and cottage cheese are made by adding acid to milk or cream, which is essentially the same process as making a cement mixer. You can also use protein denaturing to create a buttermilk substitute from milk and lemon juice.

The reason the drink stands out so much is that the chemical reaction happens in your mouth, meaning you feel the proteins clumping into curds on your tongue. For many, it's a text of endurance: How long can you tolerate the curdling sensation before finally swallowing the drink and, inevitably, contemplating your life choices?