Mix Your Next Cocktail With Rice For The Smoothest Possible Sip

Here's a hot tip for improving the color and texture of your cocktails (well, at least some cocktails): Put rice in them. To be more precise, this doesn't mean just throwing some cooked rice into that martini glass. Rather, you want to use uncooked rice, stirred into the cocktail and then strained out.

According to pro bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, co-owner of Portland, Oregon cocktail hotspots The Sunset Room and Pacific Standard, and author of books like cocktail guide "Drinking Distilled," it's the starch in rice that you want in your cocktail.

"Starch from the outside of the rice grain comes off the rice and gives the cocktail a slick mouthfeel, making the whole drink seem 'smooth'," he says, speaking to Chowhound.

This technique is called "rice washing," and what happens is that the starch basically magnetizes certain compounds from alcohol like methanol and propanol that give spirits a boozy edge in their taste profile — so when they're removed with the starch, you get that smoothness. Small molecules of starch remain in the cocktail, giving it a hazy color tone that some people like, too.

Most advocates for using rice in their cocktail-making suggest that you should use it for stirred cocktails. It can work in shaken cocktails, but it's more complicated, as the advice is generally that you should toast the rice and soak it in a simple syrup, before straining that and shaking it without rice, for a frothy cocktail.

Within the realm of stirred cocktails, Morgenthaler suggests using the rice technique with boozier options for the best results. "Spirit driven cocktails like manhattans and Negronis benefit the most," he says. "Sours (drinks that contain citrus) mask the starch too easily and don't show the results as clearly."

Once you've settled on a recipe, you'll also want to use the right type of rice. "I opt for Arborio rice, the grain used in risotto, as it contains the most starch," advised Morgenthaler.

If you don't have arborio rice on hand and don't feel like a supermarket trip, don't worry: A lot of recipes also recommend sushi rice, a short-grain rice that's also known for its high starch content, which is also what makes sushi rice sticky. Long grain rice varieties like jasmine or basmati tend to release less starch. You can still use them (some guides don't actually get specific about rice types), but bear in mind that the effects might be less pronounced.

So, now it's time to make your Negroni (or the Negroni's bourbon-laced cousin, the Boulevardier, or an Old Fashioned — remember, it should work okay with any boozy, stirred cocktail). Jeffrey Morgenthaler firmly recommends giving that rice a rinse before you mix it in. "Not giving the rice a short rinse under cold water will impart undue flavors," he says. "Be sure to rinse your rice quickly in order to clean it without losing that valuable rice starch."

For cocktails like a Negroni, you can more or less mix all the ingredients together with the rinsed rice (including some ice — make sure you add ice to your Negroni the right way). The question of how much rice to use is a bit subjective: You won't need cups of it, by any means, but the most common amount recommended is from one to two tablespoons per cocktail. Unsurprisingly, more rice will have a stronger impact on the drink, so use less if you're nervous about your Negroni being too far out of the box. Finally, Morgenthaler stresses to not strain your drink too quickly.

"If the whole point is to imbue the cocktail with rice starch, then making certain the drink spends enough time in contact with the rice is crucial," he says. Again, there's no singular rule here, but something like 30 seconds might suffice, or else just stir the drink until it's cloudy. Naturally, don't forget to strain the rice out before you gulp the cocktail down.