Essential Bar Tools for a Home Bar
Great cocktails come from good measuring, proper chilling and clean straining.
A few well-chosen tools handle all three. Start with the essentials below, and add the rest as your drinks call for them.
The essentials
- Jigger
- A small double-ended measure, often 1 oz on one side and 2 oz on the other. Balance in a cocktail comes down to quarter ounces, so measuring matters more than any other habit. Choose one with markings inside for ½ oz and ¾ oz.
- Shaker
- A Boston shaker is two tins that seal together. It is quick, easy to clean and what most bartenders use. A cobbler shaker has three pieces with a built-in strainer, which suits a beginner well.
- Hawthorne strainer
- The strainer with the spring around its edge. It fits over a shaker tin or a mixing glass and holds back the ice as you pour.
- Bar spoon
- A long spoon for stirring drinks smoothly and for measuring small amounts. One bar spoon holds roughly a teaspoon.
- Citrus juicer
- A hand press gets the most from a lemon or lime in seconds. Fresh juice makes a bigger difference than any bottle upgrade.
Worth adding next
- Mixing glass
- A heavy glass for stirred drinks such as the Manhattan and the Negroni. It looks the part and lets you watch the dilution.
- Fine mesh strainer
- Held under the Hawthorne strainer, it catches ice chips, citrus pulp and bits of herb for a cleaner drink.
- Muddler
- For pressing mint, fruit or sugar in the bottom of a glass. Press gently on herbs, since crushing them turns the flavor bitter.
- Peeler
- A simple vegetable peeler cuts a wide strip of citrus peel for garnishing an Old Fashioned or a Negroni.
- Large ice molds
- Big cubes melt slowly, so a spirit-forward drink stays cold and stays strong.
Shake or stir?
Shake any drink that contains citrus juice, fruit juice, egg white or cream. Shaking blends those ingredients, chills fast and adds a light texture. Stir drinks made only of spirits, vermouth, liqueurs and bitters, which keeps them clear and silky.
Stand-ins from the kitchen
Your kitchen can cover for almost everything while the collection grows:
- Jigger: measuring spoons. Two tablespoons make 1 oz.
- Shaker: a jar with a tight lid.
- Strainer: a small sieve or a slotted spoon.
- Bar spoon: a chopstick or a long teaspoon.
- Mixing glass: a pint glass.
- Muddler: the handle of a wooden spoon.
Put your tools to work
Tell me which bar tools you own and I'll make the most of them. Every recipe I design works with the basics, and anything extra on your bar opens up new techniques to try.