The Best Bar Accessories You Need to Make the Perfect Drink

[Karlston]

The Best Bar Accessories You Need to Make the Perfect Drink

Crafting a good cocktail is a game of milliliters (and great technique). It helps to have the right equipment to make a winner.

 

Photograph: Rob Lawson/Getty Images

 

I've had more bad cocktails in my life than I want to remember, and it often comes down to the maker not knowing how to measure out their liquor, muddle their solid ingredients, or strain ice. Making a cocktail is like making bolognese—you don't rush it. It needs time and the right tools, all of which we've collected below so you can start bartending for your family (or yourself) like a pro.

 

Be sure to check out our other buying guides, like our 12 Boozy Gift Ideas and 12 Gifts for Coffee Lovers roundups.

You're stuck at home and you could use a drink. I've been there. Actually, I'm there right now. Hold on a second ... OK, much better. I didn't just grab one of those premixed cocktails in a can. I usually take a few minutes to measure out the ingredients and strain the mixing ice.

 

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  Photograph: Cocktail Kingdom

   

  01

   

  Cocktail Kingdom Japanese-Style Jigger

  Spirits are measured in such small amounts when making a cocktail, and you have to be exact with your measurements when crafting a drink. On a Japanese-style jigger, each size measures a different amount. Many people will have both a larger 1 or 2 fluid ounces jigger and a 0.5 or 0.75 fluid ounce jigger, but if you buy only one, buy the smaller of the two. It'll come in handy for all the drinks that call for 1.5 fluid ounces of a spirit.

  $11 at Amazon (0.50 oz/0.75 oz)

  $11 at Amazon (1 oz/2 oz)

   

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  Photograph: Cocktail Kingdom

   

  02

   

  Cocktail Kingdom Dashdarts (2 pack)

  Open a cocktail book or find a recipe online, and on the list of ingredients you're going to see "a dash of bitters". Nobody's ever agreed on how much a dash measures, a funny thing when all other ingredients—from lemon juice to whiskey—are precisely quantified. It's an inconsistency, and inconsistencies ruin cocktails. The DashDart nozzle replaces the tops of most popular bitters brands, such as Angostura, Bitterman's, and Peychaud's, and makes every dash of the bottle release a consistent amount of bitters.

  $17 at Amazon

  $16 at Cocktail Kingdom

   

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  Photograph: Amazon

   

  03

   

  Piña Barware Boston Shaker Tin Set

  Cobbler shakers, with a cap over a built-in strainer, nail the Great Gatsby look, but professional bartenders tend to prefer the Boston shaker comprised of two mismatched tins. It holds more ingredients and doesn't get jammed shut as easily when the cold contracts the metal parts. They're also easier to clean.

  $20 at Amazon

  $20 at Piña Barware

 

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  Photograph: Amazon

   

  04

   

  Cocktail Kingdom Koriko Hawthorne Strainer

  Whether you're using your Boston shaker or your mixing glass (you need both), you're going to need a way to keep the mixing ice and muddled ingredient debris from falling into the serving glass when you're dumping your finished drink. A Hawthorne-style strainer uses a spring to fit more tightly inside the rim of the shaker tin or mixing glass compared to other strainers.

  $16 at Amazon

  $21 at Cocktail Kingdom

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  Photograph: Cocktail Kingdom

   

  05

   

  Cocktail Kingdom Queen Beehive Juicer

  Keep it simple and use a hand juicer instead of springing for something with a motor. This one is large enough to squeeze not just lemons and limes, but oranges and grapefruits, too. There's no point in buying a small juicer that can't handle the latter two fruits. Too many drinks require them.

  $18 at Amazon

  $20 at Cocktail Kingdom

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  Photograph: Cocktail Kingdom

   

  06

   

  Cocktail Kingdom Natural Wood Muddler

  Some drinks, like Mojitos, need ingredients to be crushed in the bottom of the glass to release oils and flavors. Always buy an unvarnished, natural-wood muddler like this one or a plastic muddler. People who buy the fancy, varnished models will notice that over time it chips off, meaning they've been drinking toxic flakes.

  $11 at Amazon

  $11 at Cocktail Kingdom

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  Photograph: Cocktail Kingdom

   

  07

   

  Cocktail Kingdom Yarai Mixing Glass

  Not every drink should be made in a shaker. Many need a mixing glass instead. Cheap mixing glasses are one of the few pieces of barware that often break, usually when the person wielding the spoon gets too carried away. Buy something well built, like this one from Cocktail Kingdom, for making your Manhattans and Negronis.

  $35 at Amazon

  $33 at Cocktail Kingdom

 

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  Photograph: Amazon

   

  08

   

  Barfly Teardrop Mixing Spoon

  Trying to stir with a regular spoon is a bit of a pain. They're often too short to reach deep into the mixing glass, and you'll either end up with your knuckles inside the drink or holding it by the tip, where you can't get good leverage. Use a long, narrow bar spoon that has a small bowl (the big end) to make stirring easier.

  $17 at Amazon

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  Photograph: Webstaurant Store

   

  09

   

  Victorinox Channel Knife

  This one's totally optional. Many drinks call for a garnish of citrus peel. The channel knife strips off a long, narrow piece of the rind so you can place a curly, colorful decoration on the rim or in the glass. It won't do much to the drink's taste, but if you buy into the philosophy that you always taste with the eyes first, it'll see a lot of use at your bar cart.

  $14 at Amazon

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  Photograph: Cocktail Kingdom

   

  10

   

  Cocktail Kingdom Ice Molds

  Whether you're shaking ingredients in a tin or stirring them in a glass, you need mixing ice to chill the drink to its serving temperature and dilute it with the right amount of water. Two-inch cubes are the best to use. Any smaller and they'll melt too quickly, diluting the drink. Any larger and they won't melt quickly enough.

  $8 at Amazon (2" Cubes)

  $8 at Amazon (Spears)

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  Photograph: Wintersmiths

   

  11

   

  Wintersmiths Phantom Mini

  Spherical ice melts more slowly than cubes. Ever wonder why your ice is cloudy and not clear like a good bar's ice? It's the impurities in tap water. Ignore popular advice and don’t bother with distilled water. Ice made with it will still be cloudy. Wintersmiths makes perfectly clear ice by freezing the water at the top of the container first, pushing impurities down and away from the ice ball molds. Don't pour the ice used to mix the drink into your drinking glass–that's the point of the strainer, to filter out this already melting ice. Put a fresh piece of ice in your glass when it's ready to be served.

  $85 at Wintersmiths

 

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  Photograph: Barnes & Noble

   

  12

   

  Cocktail-Teaching Books

  Jim Meehan, who founded New York City's PDT (Please Don't Tell) speakeasy in the East Village, was a part of a wave of bartenders to popularize cocktails to a new generation in the 2000s. Meehan's The PDT Cocktail Book includes a breakdown of how to organize your tools, select your ice, and choose good mixers and base liquors. It also has more than 300 of Meehan's recipes, some of which are his creations and others are reprinted from history's best bartenders.

  Gary Regan, who helped haul cocktails out of their dusty old-fashioned image as a rockstar bartender in the 1980s and 1990s, wrote The Joy of Mixology to break down drinks based on categories. There are really only a few categories of cocktail, and almost all recipes can be broken down into variations of a few. It also has more than 350 of Regan's recipes. Both are excellent books, not only for recipes but also for a better understanding of how to mix drinks and know the craft. Tools and exact measurements are only a part of making a good cocktail. A lot of it, maybe most, comes down to technique.

   

  $18 at Amazon (The PDT Cocktail Book)

  $21 at Amazon (The Joy of Mixology)

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  Photograph: Cocktail Kingdom

   

  13

   

  Cocktail Kingdom Cocktail Glasses

  Stores will try to sell you a million and a half types of glasses for your home bar, but there are only three that are absolute necessities. Rocks glasses are for drinks served over ice. Coupe glasses, replacing the easier-to-spill Martini glasses, are for drinks that are served without ice. And Collins glasses are for highballs, such as the classic gin and tonic, and for drinks served over crushed ice. Glasses used to serve alcoholic drinks have gotten ludicrously huge over the past couple of decades. The right volume for a rocks glass and a coupe glass differ, but the drink should come to just under the rim. You don't need a 10 fluid ounce rocks glass or coupe glass unless every drink you're serving is a double.

  $30 at Amazon (Yarai Rocks Glasses)

  $25 at Amazon (Buswell Collins Glasses)

  $40 at Amazon (Leopold Coupe Glasses)

 

Source: The Best Bar Accessories You Need to Make the Perfect Drink (Wired)