Types of Stirrers

Creating a stir

Stirrers come in many forms, most often used in culinary and scientific applications. The most common types, drink stirrers, magnetic stirrers, and electric stirrers, serve vital but completely disparate functions.

Cocktail chemistry

Since the time of the Jazz Age, bartenders have added colorful stirrers to drinks. Originally made from glass, Jay Sindler patented a thin, spear-like stick with a flat paddle-shaped handle fabricated from plastic at the end of Prohibition Era in 1933. Placed in cocktails to hold fruit, or simply to stir the drink, various forms of the device had long been in use, but Sindler’s plastic design and company took off. The Swizzle Stick proved the most popular, but other knockoffs soon proliferated.

And all I got was this lousy plastic stick…

A swizzle stick or drink stirrer can serve as a sentimental keepsake, commemorating a trip to particular destination, but other designs illustrate popular themes: hula girls, black cats, flamingoes, tropical fish, or flowers. Collectors buy and trade vintage stirrers of all kinds, paying top dollar for old or obscure stirrers. A market in replicas exists, recreating popular designs of the past to lend and air of whimsy to cocktail parties or informal gatherings.

Simple stirrers

A cocktail stick is a short cylindrical stick, made of wood that has points on both ends. It is used as a skewer for holding decorations (such as cherries) in cocktails and also for serving hors d’oeuvres, such as small cocktail sausages or diced cheese cubes.

Small plastic or wood devices may also be referred to as stirrers, especially for coffee. Lacking the decorated end of a swizzle stick, this kind of stirrer comes in bulk.

In the lab

A magnetic stirrer consists of a small bar magnet (or stir bar), which is normally wrapped in a hygienic, modern plastic. The other half of the unit consists of a stand or plate containing a rotating magnet or stationary electromagnets creating a rotating magnetic field. The plate may also contain a heating element. During operation of a typical magnetic stirrer, the bar magnet (flea) is placed in a vessel containing a liquid to be stirred. The vessel is set on top of the stand, where the rapidly rotating magnetic field causes the bar magnet to rotate. As a result, a steady constant stirring motion mixes the ingredients. Certain chemical reactions only occur if the ingredients inside the beaker or vessel are stirred at constant speed.

Food service

Used in certain industrial cooking applications, a mechanical or electric stirrer clamps onto the lip of an open pot, suspending a whisk or spatula-like attachment into the center of the liquid inside. Controls set the speed at which the device mixes, continuously blending the contents of the pot as they cook. Ideal for bakers or in cases where ingredients must be added in a set procession, the unit keeps liquids evenly distributed.

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