Notes on Bar Tools

A holiday gift guide — and a ranked hierarchy of bar tool usefulness.

Dec 10, 2021

You don’t need very much equipment to make a good cocktail. In a pinch, you can mix a drink with bagged ice from a local convenience store, a pint glass, and a butter knife or a chopstick (really!) for stirring. But if you make drinks regularly at home, you’ll probably want to skip the chopsticks and invest in some dedicated equipment. Good equipment doesn’t make good drinks — but it can certainly help.

At the same time, there’s a lot of cocktail equipment out there that you don’t need. It’s either wildly overpriced for what it delivers or impractical. A lot of cocktail equipment and glassware is sold primarily on the basis that it looks fancy or sophisticated or impressive somehow. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Visual appeal is an important part of a drink, and elaborate equipment and glassware can add a certain mystique to the drink-making process. Visual appeal can’t make a bad cocktail into a good one. But it can make a good cocktail a little more enjoyable to behold.

But as with my home bar setup, my preference is for equipment that is first and foremost highly functional: Good equipment makes it possible to do something you couldn’t otherwise do, or makes doing something you could do awkwardly — like stirring a drink with a chopstick or a butter knife — easier, more efficient, or more effective. The most essential equipment is also, in most cases, relatively durable, reusable, and inexpensive, or at least no more expensive than it needs to be. For the most part, you’re looking for pieces that you’ll use often, that will last, and that won’t break the bank.

So for this week, I’ve compiled a list of equipment I work with and recommend, organized into tiers of usefulness. Every single item on this list adds some value to the cocktail-making process (some more than others), and unless otherwise noted, every single item is something I own and have tested myself. You can and should use this as a holiday gift guide if you like. But I hope it also serves as a kind of entry-level theory of cocktail tools — what matters and why.

Tier 1: Essentials

Sometimes I am called upon to make drinks somewhere other than my own home, and when that happens, this is the basic travel pack I put together. These are the workhorses of any home bar operation, and while I hesitate to tell anyone what they ought to do with their life, if one of your goals is to make great drinks for yourself or your friends, you need to own every item in this tier, or something very similar. These specialty tools are all but required for making quality cocktails.

Stainless Steel Boston Shaker: A good shaker not only makes shaking foamy, aerated drinks easy, it can do double duty: If you don’t have a dedicated mixing glass, you can always use the large tin from a shaker to stir drinks in as well. I only use two-piece stainless steel Boston shaker sets — never three-piece shakers, which look nice but have a tendency to freeze shut after a hard shake. My favorites are 18/28 sets, like this one from Top Shelf. Cocktail Kingdom also sells a very nice shaker, although with added shipping it’s somewhat pricier.

Hawthorne Strainer: If you’re using a two-piece shaker set like the one above, you’ll need a separate strainer. Some people like julep strainers, which look nice but aren’t very effective with shaken drinks. That’s why I prefer spring-loaded Hawthorne strainers, like this one from Oxo. The spring gives them gate control — essentially allowing you to decide how fine you want to strain your drink — making them far more versatile. I rarely use any other kind of strainer.

Jigger: Among the keys to make excellent cocktails is precise measuring of relatively small liquid volumes. If you aren’t carefully measuring every single ingredient, you are probably not making your cocktails right. The easiest way to measure these small volumes is with a jigger, an easy-to-hold handheld volume measure. Many bartenders employ 2 ounce/1 ounce jiggers, and I own several. But my single favorite jigger for home use is this 1 ½ ounce/1 ounce jigger from Oxo. This jigger is relatively unique in having a marked-off ⅓ ounce measure, and it’s particularly suited for complex split-base drinks where the individual ingredient measurements are somewhat smaller. If you want a 2 ounce/1 ounce jigger, I’m fond of this Japanese-style jigger from Piña Barware.

Cocktail Spoon: Yes, you need a dedicated spoon for stirring cocktails. Alright, fine, you don’t absolutely need one. Like I said, in a pinch, you can use a chopstick or a butter knife. But the ordinary spoons you use with dinner, and even longer spoons that you might use in a pitcher of iced tea, don’t work particularly well for the sort of smooth and rapid circular stirring motion you want for stirred drinks. They don’t have the right balance, the right shape, or the right feel in your hand. For that, you need an extra long spoon with a weighted top and a twisted-metal stem. I am particularly fond of Viski’s 15.75” weighted spoon, but recently I have also been using some of these extra long 18” spoons, which allow for a slightly different grip and have a slightly different balance.

Tier 2: Always Useful, Often Used

None of the tools in this section are strictly necessary, in the sense that you can usually find a tolerable workaround. (Don’t have a peeler? Use a knife. Don’t have a mixing glass? Use a shaker tin or a beer glass. Don’t have ice molds? Use your fridge, or buy bagged ice at a local store. You get the idea.) However, they are incredibly useful, and indeed, in my house, everything in this tier ends up getting used several times a week. If you plan to make drinks regularly — a few times a month or more — these are all items that you should strongly consider acquiring.

Mixing glass: Sure, you can always use the tall tin from your shaker set or a basic pint glass. But a dedicated mixing glass looks nicer and has practical advantages: The stirring action is better, there’s a pour spout, and one-inch ice cubes (see below) fit better. I have several, but the one I like best and use most often is this one from HiWare.

Peeler: If you’ve been reading this newsletter over the past year, you will have noticed that many of the cocktails I write about call for a strip of orange, lemon, or grapefruit peel to be added to the drink as a final step, typically as a big twisted strip. You can cut these strips with a paring knife, but an easy to hold, durable fruit and veggie peeler is definitely the easiest way to do this. Many bartenders use Y shaped peelers, but I find these more difficult to use (and more likely to cut your fingers) so I tend to go for a more conventional veggie peeler, like you’d use to peel carrots.

Small ice cube mold: In cocktails, ice is really, really important. There’s a big difference between using crappy ice from a refrigerator and larger format ice from a mold. By far the most versatile and useful of the molds is the small cube mold with a flat bottom, which makes cubes of about once inch or a little larger. I keep many different sizes and shapes of ice mold in my freezer. But if you only have one, this should be it.

Double rocks glasses: It is possible to become too obsessed with glassware, and to make your drink-making all about the look of the serving vessel rather than the drink itself. But glassware does serve a purpose, framing the drink and presenting the contents, including ice. Rocks glasses of about 13-14 ounces, like this Geo set from Libbey, are the single most versatile cocktail glassware you can own; they’ll work especially well for larger stirred drinks, like Negronis and Boulevardiers, as well as crushed ice fixes and tiki drinks. You can even serve an up drink like a Manhattan or a Martini in them if that’s all you have around.

Coupe glasses: That said, if you’re going to make cocktails regularly, you should have some sort of glassware for serving drinks “up.” Sure you can invest in pricey Nick & Nora or Martini glasses — I have both — but there’s no better value than a small coupe, which can easily accommodate most any shaken drink served up. Coupes also work reasonably well for Manhattan- and Martini-style stirred drinks as well. For the most part, I use Luminarc 5.5 ounce coupes. But you can also get nice, slightly more expensive coupes from Libbey and Cocktail Kingdom.

Hand juicer: If you’re going to make cocktails, you’re going to need to juice fruits. And while I love my stand juicer, it’s quite large, and definitely not necessary for basic home bartending, especially when you’re only making a couple of drinks for yourself and a friend. That’s why I keep a hand juicer around for when I need to juice one or two lemons or limes, but not a whole bottle’s worth. I prefer a stainless steel model, as these things are put under a lot of pressure and tend to break.

Tier 3: Helpful Upgrades

This category includes tools that I use often enough, and enjoy having around, but aren’t in any way essential for most ordinary use-cases. If you have coupe glasses, for example, you don’t need Nick & Nora glasses; similarly, if you have a hand juicer, you don’t really need a stand juicer. At the same time, a Nick & Nora is a better vessel for a Martini or a Manhattan, and a stand juicer is a huge help if you need to juice a lot of fruit for a party. These are upgrades, in other words, but they’re not just for show.

Large ice mold: Like I said, if you only keep one ice mold around the house, it really should be small cubes, which are a big step up from basic ice machine ice in every way. But large ice molds, like this 3x2 set from Syntus, are useful too: I prefer big two inch blocks for shaking drinks, and of course big cubes look great in an Old Fashioned. They are also useful for crushing when you want to make a fix or a tiki drink. And for that you’ll need a…

Lewis Bag & Wooden Mallet: Yes, it really is useful to have a dedicated wooden mallet and canvas on hand for crushing ice. Of all the cocktail tools I own, this one is by far the one that my friends remark upon the most, and by remark upon I mean: make fun of me for. Fair enough. But it’s really the best inexpensive way to get good crushed ice for tiki drinks and fixes.

Single Old Fashioned glasses: Sure, you can always use a double Old Fashioned glass, but for a 2 ounce Old Fashioned style drink served over a large ice cube, a single — typically in the range of 9-11 ounces — fits the liquid/ice much better. It’s not essential, but it feels nicer in the hand. I have a bunch of these, including this inexpensive set from Anchor Hoching and this gold-rimmed set for when I’m feeling fancy. My current favorite, however, is this somewhat pricey set from Reidel, which was designed with large ice cubes in mind.

Nick & Nora glasses: These glasses are a little smaller than a coupe, and don’t have quite as wide a bowl. That makes them particularly suited for stirred drinks served up; many bars now serve Martinis in these glasses rather than in Martini glasses for this reason. They’re more expensive, but they fit 3-ounce stirred drinks better than coupes, and their tulip-shaped bowl makes them somewhat less prone to spillage. You have seen a lot of these in the cocktail photos that accompany this newsletter.

Stand juicer: Sure, you can get by with a hand juicer if you’re just making a drink or two. But if you’re hosting a group for drinks and need to juice 30 limes and 30 lemons the afternoon before a party, a stand juicer like the 18.5 inch juicer from Vollum is the way to go.

Bar mats: Bar mats might seem like an affectation in a home environment, but they help manage inevitable small spills, make for better stability on surfaces that would otherwise become slippery over a night of making drinks, and also just help define your work area. Even — perhaps especially — if you don’t have a dedicated bar space, bar mats can help say: This is the drink making area. There are 12” x 6” versions for smaller spaces, but I’m a fan of these 12” x 18” mats for most purposes. I also own a slightly pricier mat with a nicely defined rim from Highball & Chaser.

Tiny spray bottles: Any drink that requires a rinse — often but not always of absinthe — benefits from a small, inexpensive spray bottle, which sprays an even mist onto a glass. You won’t need these often, unless you become a Sazerac fanatic, but it’s difficult to make a proper Tuxedo No. 2 or Penicillin without one.

Dropper bottles: Similarly, eye dropper bottles that drop amounts smaller than a bitters dash are useful for adding small amounts of saline solution or absinthe to a drink like a Daiquiri.

Squeeze bottles: You can always put your syrups in basic plastic storage bottles, but for regular ease of use, I find plastic squeeze bottles, often intended for condiments, to be much more convenient. Typically I use 8 ounce and 16 ounce versions.

Small conical strainer: Your Hawthorne strainer will be your workhouse. But sometimes you need to strain an individual drink through something even finer to remove tiny particles or ice chips. That’s where a handheld conical strainer comes in. If you don’t own a larger fine mesh strainer, you can also use this for straining fresh juice.

Tier 4: Inessential But Fun

Honestly, you don’t truly need anything from this section in order to make excellent drinks. But everything here will make the experience of preparing or consuming cocktails a little bit better, somehow. Think of these primarily as experience enhancers.

Clear ice mold system: Clear ice doesn’t make your cocktail taste better. It doesn’t make it colder. Clear ice takes longer to make than ordinary large format molds, and the process, which requires a full day of advance planning, can be kind of fussy. But it looks awesome, and people love it. (I love it.) The least expensive, easiest way to make large clear ice cubes at home is with this system from ClearlyFrozen. I also own a smaller system from OnTheRocks. It’s more durable, but also more expensive, and it produces fewer cubes per round.

Bitters dasher bottles: They look nice. They help you produce consistent dashes, although this is less true if you use different types of dashers and/or also sometimes use bitters straight from the bottle. But they are also useful if you want to make your own bitters or bitters blends. (More on this at some point in the future.) I have several of these in different sizes, but I’m particularly fond of the somewhat larger 3 ounce Viski dashers. If you want something to hold the basics — Angostura aromatic bitters, Regan’s orange bitters, and Peychaud’s bitters — this trio set also works quite well.

Stainless steel mixing glass: In theory, a stainless steel mixing can produce colder drinks because they don’t heat up as fast as glass mixing glasses. Maybe. In my experiments, the difference is small at best. But unlike glass, they are practically impossible to damage. And they do look neat. I have one from Mixtin, but Viski makes a somewhat less expensive version that also looks nice.

Tiki mugs: Tiki mugs are not essential for tiki drinks. Made properly, a good tiki drink tastes basically the same if you serve it in an ordinary glass. But tiki is not just about the drinks. It’s also about the vibe. And tiki mugs add to the vibe: How can you resist a drink served in a ceramic parrot? And if you are making large format tiki drinks, scorpion bowls are genuinely better suited compared with a small pitcher or oversized glass.

Martini glasses: I serve many of my Martinis in Nick & Nora glasses. But it’s hard to deny the sharp and angular allure of a dedicated Martini glass. I have several different types of Martini glassware, but I tend to prefer quite small glasses designed for 3-4 ounce drinks.

Swing-top bottles: These are great for juice, but also for cocktail batches and large format experiments: If you’re making some apple-cinnamon infused brandy, for example, or barrel aging 60 ounces of Manhattan, you will need a vessel in which to store your creation. I keep a bunch around in 17 ounce and 33 ounce sizes in order to store the bulk liquids I end up mixing or creating.

Speed pourers: These standardize and regulate the flow of liquid from ordinary glass bottles. They are not strictly necessary at home, but in party situations, they can be quite useful for highly controlled pours of juice or syrup out of a glass bottle. I like the larger plastic ones for ease of pouring.

Tier 5: Cocktail-Relevant Kitchen Equipment

Mostly, cocktail making is about mixing drinks at a bar. But sometimes, it’s also about making or modifying ingredients — syrups, juices, etc. — in your kitchen. And for that, it’s helpful to have some kitchen equipment, particular tools for blending, heating, and straining liquids.

Chinois: This is a fine mesh strainer on a stand. It makes it easier to strain juice, syrups, and so forth. You can always use cheesecloth, but the stand makes it easier to add pressure to the straining process. It’s particularly useful with thick, difficult substances like ginger root. I’ve had my chinois forever, and I don’t know that the particular model I own is sold anymore, but there are plenty still on the market that should do the trick.

Immersion circulator: Admittedly somewhat pricey, but they’re much cheaper and much smaller than they used to be, when sous vide systems were the size of bulky shoeboxes. Great for heated rapid infusions; if you want to make professional level syrups, you’ll need one of these. I use an Anova, but there are somewhat less expensive models out that there should work.

Blender: I use a Thermomix, which also has a cooking function. It’s great, but for cocktail purposes, it’s total overkill. If you just want a dedicated blender, something like the Ninja 72 Ounce Pro model (which I’ve used elsewhere but don’t own) should fulfill all your blending needs.

Digital kitchen scale: Like baking, cocktail making involves a lot of measuring. A lot of that is small volume amounts in tiny jiggers. But even the most precise jiggers are prone to occasional tiny mismeasurements, and they don’t handle large portions well. Sometimes, it’s useful to be able to precisely measure the weight of something, down to the gram. Oxo makes a very nice scale that’s extremely accurate and easy to clean. I also like this less expensive one from Escali.

Pourfect Mixing Bowls and Measuring Beakers: Sure, any large bowl will work well enough for whisking, pouring, etc. But the shape and balance of Pourfect mixing bowls really does make dealing with large liquid volumes easier, especially in combination with the brand’s measuring beakers.

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