muddler, also known as toddy stick

, is in its traditional form a five- to ten-inch (125 to 250 mm) hardwood pestle with a rounded handle on one end and a flat-bottomed knob on the other, used in mixing drinks to crush sugar and fruit (modern muddlers can take any number of forms, from severely plain to head-scratchingly fanciful, and they are often made of synthetic materials). Although “toddy stick” is the earlier term, first appearing in print in 1823, “muddler” followed three years later and by the 1850s had eclipsed its predecessor. Whatever it is called, it is one of the earliest uniquely American bar tools, and one of the oldest in the modern mixologist’s kit.

The muddler’s importance in the nascent American art of mixing drinks is testified to by the facts that one couldn’t make a Cock-Tail or a toddy without crushing the lumps in which sugar usually came or a Mint Julep without crushing the sugar or pressing the mint. See Cock-Tail, julep, and toddy. Indeed, in the early nineteenth century many muddlers had silver handles, while muddling ends made of ivory were also quite common.Eventually, lump sugar was replaced by sugar syrup, or at least finely granulated sugar, and the muddler was relegated to use for the occasional Old-Fashioned and, by the end of the twentieth century, Caipirinha. See Caipirinha, Old-Fashioned Cocktail.

Valerius Dukeheart (advertisement). York (PA) Gazette, August 1, 1826, 3.

Wondrich, David. Imbibe!, 2nd ed. New York: Perigee, 2015.

By: David Wondrich