Tools for the Home Bar

Don’t spend a lot of money right away.

My father always said that you need the right tools for the job. That’s so true for making good drinks but you don’t need a huge tool kit to get started. Early on I was using whatever I had in my kitchen to squeeze juice, measure ingredients and shake/mix a drink but a good tool for each of those functions can make the task so much easier and result in a consistently tasty drink every time.

Citrus Squeezers - The handheld juice extractor is essential if you are making drinks with citrus. Choose one that can squeeze lemons, limes and portions of oranges. When squeezing, catch the juice into a wide mouth measuring cup or ramekin - and watch out for sideways sprays!

Jiggers - The best choice is to get one with both one ounce and two ounce cups that show measurement lines for fractions within the cups. Stainless and copper finish look attractive and clean up easily. And, when you drop them, they don’t break!

Cocktail Shakers - The bartending community is adamant about using a Boston shaker (either with two metal cups or mixing glass with one tin). When I was first starting out, I was totally intimidated by the Boston shaker and had a hard time breaking the seal after a drink was shaken and chilled. I got started with a Cobbler shaker with three connecting parts - the tin, the strainer and the cap. Be warned, these are notoriously leaky but a good start for a beginning mixologist.

Once you get familiar with these items you might want to invest in a mixing glass and some spoons (for an old fashioned and “stirred” martinis), a wooden muddler (for macerating fruit and herbs), peelers for removing citrus rind for garnish, and a couple of strainers (Hawthorne and mesh cone).

You can find a lot of tools on Amazon, Williams Sonoma, etc., but specialty websites like ABarAbove have high quality tools at reasonable prices.