Cocktail aficionados will likely have their preferences for stirred or shaken martinis, manhattans or other cocktails. But many might wonder: what’s the big deal? when should you shake and when should you stir?

Sometimes the ingredients themselves dictate what to do. Drinks with cream or heavy liquids needs shaking to fully mix them. (I should note the exception of those which are meant to be served not fully mixed, like the White Russian or the Mudslide. Just pour these directly into an old-fashioned glass.) Even cocktails with fruit juice components, like the cosmopolitan or the daiquiri, can use with a good shake.

But the choice is also a matter of preference. Shaking has an impact beyond mixing the ingredients, after all: it chills the drink and waters it down more than stirring. If you want drinks especially cold (as I generally do with cosmos), be sure to shake vigorously. Do it enough and little ice crystals will float in your glass as your pour.

Alternately, if you don’t want your liquor watered down, stir your cocktails then strain into the glass. That’s the idea behind stirred-not-shaken martinis and the like. Asking for them is a macho statement of sorts to take the spirits at full-strength, since cocktails are simply (or at least mostly) booze. Since I’m not a macho guy and since I prefer gin to be quite cold, I take my martinis shaken. Then again, for vodka martinis, stirring is probably the way to go, since it keeps whatever subtle flavor the expensive vodka has from being watered away.