Having a home bar is a game changer.
It instantly elevates the aesthetic of your home and gives things a more sophisticated feel.
Whether you have a bar cart in the dining room or a wet bar in the basement, there are some essentials that everyone should have for proper drink mixing and serving.
For people who never worked a job as a bartender, using bar tools can be intimidating, but trust me, these are all easy to use and affordable.
1) Cocktail Shaker
There are two primary types of shaker tins:
The Cobbler Shaker (seen above)
When most people think of cocktail shakers, they think of a Cobbler Shaker.
You might recognize these from some of the classic James Bond movies.
Cobbler shakers are a good start for most people because they’re so easy to use. They have 3 pieces. The shaking tin, strainer, and the cap. The top is slotted with holes to pour the liquid out after you finish mixing your drink.
The pro of these tins is that you don’t need to use a mixing glass or a separate strainer. The con is that they don’t always seal great.
Sometimes the liquid leaks while shaking, and if you don’t keep a finger on the strainer portion while pouring drinks, it can fall out and create a big mess.
The Boston Shaker
These are what you see 99% of bartenders using when you’re out.
They’re better for speed and large amounts of liquid. Some come with just the bottom tin, and a pint glass is used as the top. Some come with both a top and bottom metal piece.
After the contents of your drink are put into the shaker, press the glass into the base. Give the top a nice pop to create a seal, and then stir. To strain the liquid from the Boston Shaker, you’ll need a Hawthorne strainer.
Pro Tip: Always build your cocktails dry. This means adding the liquids first and the ice last. This avoids over-dilution while you measure and pour your ingredients into the shaker tin.
Read: 5 Delicious Meals Every Man Should Know How to Cook (step by step)
2) Hawthorne Strainer
The Hawthorne strainer is what’s used by bartenders around the world.
Invented by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1800s, it’s an improvement upon its predecessor, the Julep strainer.
The Hawthorne strainer has a metal coil and holes that allow liquid to pass while keeping the ice in the shaker tin or mixing glass. It’s usually stainless steel and fits snuggly into a shaker tin or mixing glass.
After mixing a drink, remove the glass from the shaker tin and place the Hawthorne strainer into the shaker tin coil side down. Hold the shaker tin with your thumb on one side, your index finger over the top of the strainer, and your other three fingers on the other side of the tin
The small handle of the strainer should fit over the meat of your hand, between the thumb and index finger.
3) Mixing Beaker
Although you can use a standard pint glass to stir your cocktails, they fit limited liquid, and you usually can’t mix more than one drink at a time.
Enter the cocktail beaker. It looks like something you’d see in a high school science class. It’s wider than a standard mixing glass and has a spout that makes it easy to pour the liquid out.
You use a mixing glass to stir drinks instead of a shaker tin because it allows for proper dilution while stirring your drink. When you use a shaker tin, the stainless steel cools the liquid too quickly and prevents proper dilution.
4) Stirring Spoon
As a rule of thumb, you don’t want to shake any drink that doesn’t have citrus, juice, or simple syrup as an ingredient.
This is where the stirring spoon comes into play. It’s a long spoon that usually has a spiral or twisted handle that allows it to glide through your hand while stirring.
In other words, if the ingredients are all spirits, liqueurs, or cordials, the drink should be stirred, not shaken. This prevents over-dilution, and you don’t want to “bruise” the spirit.
Think negronis, old-fashioned, and Manhattans. These drinks are spirited and taste awful when shaken.
Learning to use a stirring spoon will take some practice. Hold it like a pencil and rotate it in circles using only your fingers.
The idea is to have the bottom of the spoon always pressed against the mixing glass while spinning it.
Check out this helpful video so that you can master the stirring spoon. This will go a long way toward making tasty cocktails for your guests.
5) Muddler
When adding fruits, vegetables, and herbs to cocktails, a muddler is key to getting the most flavor out of your ingredients.
This tool is used to mash down your ingredients so you get the most fragrance and juice. This helps impart the most flavor into your drink.
Pro Tip: Pour the spirit into your shaker tin before muddling your ingredients. The liquid makes it easier to mash up the ingredients.
6) Jigger
These are small tools used to measure the liquid put into cocktails.
Believe me when I say that ½ oz too little or too much of one ingredient can completely ruin your cocktail.
If you’re mixing up a whiskey and coke a jigger isn’t necessary. If you want to enjoy a proper cocktail, measure your ingredients properly.
7) Tea Strainer
Have you ever gotten a martini with a bunch of ice chips in it?
Who wants to eat ice while they drink a fine cocktail? Not most people.
Get a stainless-steel tea strainer so that after you mix a drink, you pour the liquid through it as you pour into the glass.
Use one hand to hold the tea strainer over the glass and the other to pour the cocktail.
Those little ice chips might not seem like a big deal, but as they melt, they also over-dilute your drink and make it taste watered down.
8) Coupe Glasses
Martini glasses are out of style.
The coupe glass is in.
Coupe glasses were originally used for champagne before the modern champagne flute gained popularity, but in the last decade, they made a comeback as the go-to glass for martini-style cocktails.
You can use these for standard martinis, Manhattans, and any other cocktail served up.
9) Ice Mold
Since you’re putting in the effort to make a proper drink, you might as well use proper ice.
You can find ice molds for large cubes or large spheres.
The reason this type of ice is better is that it offers a large surface area to cool your drink, but because of the large frozen center, it dilutes much slower than normal ice.
This ensures that your cocktail doesn’t taste watered down after only a few sips.
10) Wine Glasses
These are widely overlooked by the younger male population.
I still remember having girls over and serving them wine in my random assortment of pint glasses from college. I don’t think they minded, but it made me look like a man-baby.
Go on Amazon and get a 4-pack of stemless wine glasses for cheap. Don’t be the guy that serves wine in the pint glass branded with the local pub’s logo.
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