How to use a whiskey smoker kit

Smoker kits arrive with instructions that mostly cover assembly. This covers the part that decides whether the drink is good, which is timing.

1. Use a small pinch of chips. A teaspoon is plenty. The instinct is to fill the tray, and the tray is bigger than the amount you want.
2. Set the lid on the glass first, chips in place. Smoking an empty glass and then pouring gives a cleaner result than smoking over the drink, because the smoke coats the glass rather than sitting on the liquid.
3. Light the chips until they smolder, not flame. With a torch that is a few seconds of direct flame, then take the heat away. A visible flame is producing soot rather than smoke, and soot tastes like a bonfire.
4. Let the glass fill for ten to thirty seconds. Ten seconds gives a light aromatic smoke. Thirty is assertive. Beyond that you are in ashtray territory.
5. Lift the lid and pour immediately. The smoke that matters is the film clinging to the inside of the glass.
6. Add ice last. Cold suppresses aromatics, so adding ice before the smoke wastes most of the effect.

Smoke compounds are extremely potent and they are cumulative. A drink that has been smoked for two minutes does not taste twice as smoky as one smoked for thirty seconds - it tastes acrid, and there is no way to take it back out.

The failure mode is compounded by the fact that smoke looks impressive, so the natural instinct is to keep going while it looks good. Resist it. Start at ten seconds, taste, and go longer next time if you want more.

• Oak - the natural match, because whiskey is aged in oak. The safest starting point and the one to use if you are only going to use one.
• Cherry - gentle and slightly sweet. Works particularly well with bourbon and with anything sweetened, so it is the usual choice for an old fashioned.
• Hickory - assertive. Good with high-proof whiskey that can stand up to it, heavy-handed with anything delicate.
• Apple and pecan - milder fruit and nut notes, better with lighter whiskeys.
• Mesquite - the most aggressive of the common chips. Use less time than you think.

Tip the ash out while the lid is still warm - it comes away far more easily than once it has cooled and set. Wipe the lid rather than soaking it, and let the mesh dry completely before the kit goes back in its case. Ash left in a closed case is what makes a kit smell stale by its third use.

For the kits themselves, smoker kits. For the glasses to smoke into, whiskey glassware - a wide-mouthed rocks glass takes a smoker lid far better than a tapered nosing glass. And for the ice, ice molds.