Have you ever been sitting at a bar, watching the bartender make a drink with a martini shaker and wonder, how do they do that? Well, the truth is that it is somewhat of an art form, but it is not impossible to learn to do it. The martini shaker is an extremely old invention and dates all the way back to several thousand years BC somewhere in South America.



Although it has been around for a long time, it was not until the late 1800s that it became as standard of a thing as it is today. There was an innkeeper who was working at the time and was making drinks for guests. At the time, he was just pouring the mixture back and forth in order to mix it up, until he realized that using another container with a smaller mouth would fit into the other one and make for a better drink shaking tool. And this was the discovery of what we now affectionately know as the martini shaker.

In the early 1920s the martini shaker was a commodity that was only used by those who were part of the high society. Those who were less wealthy used devices to mix drinks that they designed and invented by themselves. One thing that had a large influence on mixed drinks and the martini shaker was the Prohibition movement.

This movement fueled the art and desire of the mixed drink and it caused people who had never had a cocktail before to knock down the doors of speakeasies. While the Prohibition movement had a large impact on the outlaw culture, it was afterwards that really changed the world of mixed drinks.

The repeal Prohibition, which took place in 1933, was the true catalyst for the widespread popularity that occurred. When alcohol became legal again it was pretty much everywhere and constantly on display. It was featured prominently on the silver screen as a part of absolutely every movie set. If they were not lighting one anothers cigarettes movie stars were sipping on cocktails. These things were viewed as a symbol of sophistication which made them the type of thing that everyone wanted to do.

Things like martinis and mixed drinks were always the most popular, which is how the martini shaker really took off. The martini shaker was popular in the early 1900s, but its widespread appeal has only gotten bigger with time.