Making a good drink isn’t
always the easiest endeavor. ReJigger, a Kickstarter project turned
real product, aims to simplify the cocktail process for those of us
playing the boozy home game. The democratization of the craft
cocktail is a great idea, but here’s the thing: You gotta respect the
craft.
It’s
Friday afternoon, you’ve made it through the long week, and it’s time
for Happy
Hour,
Gizmodo’s weekly booze column. A cocktail shaker full of innovation,
science, and alcohol. Jigger what? Jigger who?
What
Is It?
The
ReJigger ($15) is basically a round plastic cup that’s divided into three
compartments: One large, one medium, and one small. You follow the
included recipe guide (or one from their website), pouring one
ingredient into each cup. For our review, we were also sent ReJigger’s Silipint ($10),
which is a soft, silicone pint glass, and ReJigger’s Advanced
Recipe Guide ($5).
Both of which are sold separately from the ReJigger itself.
Why
Does It Matter?
While lots of people enjoy a good cocktail at home, many folks are intimidated by the logistics of playing home mixologist. Not everybody has a bar spoon (or
knows how to use one), jigger cups, shakers, and the like. This idea
behind the ReJigger is a great one: Make it easier to make cocktails
at home. Not everybody has the time, or patience, or interest
for learning proper bartending techniques; that doesn’t mean they
should be deprived of a delicious potable in the comfort of their own kitchen.
Design
The
ReJigger is made of injection-molded, clear, Eastman Tritan
plastic, which is durable, BPA free, and dishwasher safe (it’s used
in a lot of sports and baby bottles). I did a couple drop-tests
onto hard tile and it survived unscathed. It’s wider at the
mouth and then tapers down slightly. The inner large, medium, and
small cups are supposed to be 2 ounces, 1 ounce, and
a half ounce, respectively.
The
Silipint looks just like a pint-glass, except it’s made of a thick
silicone. It’s rigid enough that you aren’t accidentally going to
squeeze out the contents, but it’s still nice and flexible. The
recipe guide (and Advanced Recipe Guide) are rigid and waterproof,
which is good, considering you’re probably going to spill your drinks
on them at some point. The basic guide has nine recipes, and the
Advanced guide has 25.
Using
It
According
to the directions that it comes with, there are just four steps:
Pour
your three ingredients into the proper compartments.
Add all ingredients into a pint glass filled with ice.
Place
the ReJigger on top and shake for 20-30 seconds.
Tilt
the ReJigger, strain your cocktail into a glass and enjoy.
Sounds
easy, yeah? Well, the devil is in the details.
For starters, it’s
actually pretty tricky to pour straight from a bottle into the oddly
shaped cups, especially the smallest one. Once you’ve filled the little cups, transferring it to a pint glass is a
relatively smooth operation, and I didn’t have any problems with
spillage. But then it gets a little trickier.
You’re supposed to invert the ReJigger, clamp it
down into the pint glass, and use it as a lid while you shake it.
This is a total disaster. Despite using a perfectly standard pint
glass, it was nearly impossible to maintain a proper seal while
shaking. You have to press it down with so much force that it feels
like the glass may slip out of your hands, and if the ReJigger shifts
even a little bit (which it constantly wants to do) you will spray your cocktail all over.
That said, when I used the ReJigger
with the Silipint, I did not have any spillage issues, as it made a
much better seal with the soft rubber walls. It kinda makes you
wonder, though, why didn’t they just make the ReJigger out of
silicone in the first place? That may have worked a whole lot better.
Once
the shaking debacle has subsided, you tilt the ReJigger within the
pint glass to use it as a strainer, assuming you’re just trying to
strain out large ice cubes. This, too, unfortunately doesn’t work
very well. It’s awkward to hold and keep in the right position. Even
when you succeed in doing that, it makes for a clumsy pour, with
liquid often running down the side of the pint glass you’re pouring
from.
Like
I
like the idea of it. Cocktails made easier? What’s
not to love. Materials and build-quality are excellent on the
ReJigger and it feels like it will last quite well. I actually really
like the Silipint a lot! Not only does it seal with the ReJigger much
better than a standard (glass) pint glass, but it’s grippier to hold,
it’s totally unbreakable, and if you use very hot or very cold
ingredients it insulates nicely, protecting your hand. I am pro
Silipint!
No
Like
Well,
first off, re-read the Using It section above. That’s pretty much all
No Like, but it gets worse.
For starters, you’re supposed to be able
to experiment with standard cocktail recipes. That would necessitate
knowing how big each of the cups is. You can’t find that information
anywhere on the site, but after contacting the company I learned they
are supposed to be 2 fluid ounces, 1 fluid ounce, and a half fluid
ounce. Those would be great sizes for cocktail experimentation,
except here’s the thing: They aren’t those sizes at all. The
large one is 2.55 ounces instead of two, and the medium one is 1.3oz
instead one. That is way, way off.
According
to the instructions in the recipe guides, you are meant to shake all
of the cocktails. That’s just bad bartending. Any bartender worth
his/her salt knows that some drinks are meant to be stirred, and some
are meant to be shaken. Cocktails that are all spirits (for example a
negroni) should be stirred. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it
again, there’s a special place in hell for bartenders that shake
Manhattans.
Almost
all of the recipes in the recipe guides are very sweet and rely
heavily on juices. Some of them aren’t bad (like the Big Elle, which
uses gin, sweet vermouth, rhubarb shrub, and a dash of bitters), but
more often than not, it seems that these recipes are tweaked so that
they will fit into the three-cup paradigm. Also, frankly, some of
them are abominations. For example, Zac’s Smoky Ginger uses honey
syrup, lemon juice, ginger, and Lagavulin. LAGAVULIN! You do not use
a $90/bottle 16-year-old single malt Scotch whisky when you’re
goofing around with cocktails.
Ultimately, flipping through the Advanced Recipe Guide, you just don’t really see much that reflects the modern cocktail scene. The recipes seems thrown together and amateurish, and the idea of paying $5 for 25 recipes is absurd.
Should
You Buy It?
No. This is a hard pass, even for just $15. It’s a great idea with really poor execution. Maybe there will someday be a second incarnation that will work better (with correctly measured cups, and that won’t leak when you shake it), but today is not that day. The Silipint is awesome, though, and if you’ve got $10 burning a hole in your pocket, there are worse ways to spend it. [ReJigger]
