Chilled glass
The best way to chill a glass is to pop a dry one in the freezer overnight. Savvy Tip: If you forgot to plan ahead, fill a glass with ice and set aside on the counter for several minutes. Dump out the melted ice when ready and pour in your ingredients.

Crushed ice
This type of ice is used for drinks created in a blender. Many new fridges have a "crushed" option on the door's ice machine. If you don't have a fridge that crushes for you, crush ice by using a meat tenderizer or other mallet-type object to slam against ice covered in a towel. Just be careful of your precious fingers!

Dash
It's roughly an eighth of an ounce in reality but instead of measuring such a teeny amount, just hold the bottle in your hand and quickly flick your wrist over the glass for the "unscientific" equivalent.

Frosted rim
If you have a chocolate beverage it may call for cinnamon or cocoa on the rim. But most of the time, drinks call for a rim frosted with salt or sugar. To frost a rim, dip your glass upside down in liquid-or circle the rim with a lemon or lime wedge-and dip it into a small plateful of the granulated substance your recipe calls for. Voilà, you have a tasty rim!

Jigger
Sometimes called a pony-jigger, this bartending tool is used for more precise measuring of your drink's ingredients. It has two different sized cups on either end. One cup measures 1 oz. of alcohol, the other 2 oz. Savvy Tip: If you don't have a jigger and don't have time to rush to the store, use a tablespoon. One tablespoon equals a half-ounce.

Neat
A synonym for a "straight," a drink made without ice, water or any tasty mixers. More your grandma's drink than yours, unless, you've had a very rough day.

On the Rocks
A drink poured over cubes of ice.

Poussé-café
A drink made of different alcohols arranged into colorful layers, like the American Flag.

Proof
A proof is the percentage of alcohol in the liquor-most spirits sold in American stores print the proof on the outside of the bottle. 100-proof equals 50% alcohol by volume. The higher the proof, the quicker you'll get tipsy, so be careful!

Shaken
All drinks that include juices, creams and liqueurs should be shaken in a shaker to distribute the flavor.

Simple syrup
You can buy this mixer in a store or make it at home. To make it yourself, combine one or two cups of granulated sugar (depending on how sugary you want it) with 1 cup of boiling water in a saucepan. Bring the mixture back to a boil. Leave it to cool and pour it into an airtight container to save for later.

Stirred
This refers to the preparation of a cocktail with clear ingredients (i.e. vodka tonic or a martini). You can use special glass or silver variations, or plastic ones you find at a grocery or liquor store and serve. Savvy Tip: If you weren't prepare to play bartender, use a spoon but take it out before serving!

Strain
You do this when you want to serve a drink without the ice or fruit you mixed it with. There are spoon strainers, but it's better to have a Hawthorne strainer on hand. A Hawthorne strainer has a short handle and a face that is large enough to cover the top of a shaker or a glass. Around the face is a wire coil that encircles the rim to keep the ice in, but allow a little bit of pulp through for texture.

Sweet and sour
This mix is used in a lot of liqueur-based drinks. It can be found pre-made at a liquor or grocery store. Savvy Tip: If you can't get to a store in time for a drink, or you just want a quick and easy project, mix together some simple syrup, fresh-squeezed lemon and lime juice and a little bit of fresh water (preferably not tap). Refrigerate the mix in an airtight container. Your self-made mix will last about 10 days.

Twist
A strip of a fruit's peel twisted in the middle and added to a drink as garnish.

Zest
Garnish made from the skin or peel of a lemon, orange or lime. To create zest, use a special tool called a zester that has little teeth at its top. Savvy Tip: If you don't have a zester on hand, use the finest sized grater you have in your kitchen.

HOW TO OPEN A BOTTLE OF WINE
A cork is a cork, of course, of course. But not all corkscrews are alike. To remove a cork, first take off the seal at the top of the bottle. Push the screw part of your corkscrew into the cork, and twist until the spiral of the screw is completely inside the cork. If you have a corkscrew that has levers on either side, push these levers down and the cork will pop up. If you have an old-fashioned corkscrew with no levers, hold the bottle firmly in place between your body and an arm or have someone else hold it for you. Gently rock and pull the top of the screw back-and-forth until the cork pulls all the way out.

HOW TO OPEN A BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE
Wrap a bottle with a clean towel and hold it firmly in one hand. (The towel will help keep it from slipping out of your grasp while opening and pouring.) With your free hand undo the wire around the cork. Be careful to position the cork away from your face, your guests, pets and expensive breakable objects. Then carefully use both thumbs to apply pressure and push out. Make sure to twist slowly while doing this. Savvy Tip: Since it's a little hard for small hands to maneuver the bottle in the aforementioned way, you can also hold the cork in one hand and hold the bottle by its indentation in the other. Slowly turn the bottle and the cork will pop out.