Bar tools: the essential kit

A good bar is a small workshop. Every tool in it does one job well, and the kit is smaller than most catalogs suggest. This guide explains what each piece is for, how to use it accurately, and which ten to buy before anything else.

What you need

Nothing to start except a kitchen scale and a measuring jug, which you will use to check the tools you buy.

The tools, one at a time

1. Jigger. A double-ended measure, most often 1 oz and 2 oz (30 and 60 ml), with inner lines at 0.5, 0.75 and 1.5 oz. A Japanese-style tall jigger is easier to read than a squat one. Reading it: hold it at eye level and fill until the bottom of the curved surface, the meniscus, sits on the line. Pour to the brim when the recipe calls for the full measure. Difford's test is worth doing on day one: weigh water poured from each side; 30 ml should weigh 30 g. Difford's warns that graduated jiggers are often inaccurate, and a drink built on a wrong jigger will never balance.
2. Shaker. Two designs. The Boston (two-piece) is a large 28 oz tin and a smaller 18 oz tin or glass; it seals with a firm tap, opens with a heel-of-the-hand knock where the tins meet, and needs a separate strainer. The cobbler (three-piece) has a cap and a built-in strainer; it is friendlier for a first week and worse after that, because the cap can freeze shut after a hard shake and the strainer holes are coarse. Both Difford's and most working bartenders favor tin-on-tin Boston sets. Shake 10 to 12 seconds, hard, with five or six 1-inch cubes.
3. Hawthorne strainer. A flat disc with a coiled spring that sits inside the large tin. Hold it with your index finger on the tab and pour; push the tab forward to "close the gate" and hold back ice and pulp. Use it for every shaken drink.
4. Julep strainer. A perforated bowl on a handle that nests in a mixing glass. Use it for stirred drinks; it is the cleaner pour from a glass with large ice.
5. Fine strainer. A small conical mesh sieve held under the Hawthorne. Use it for shaken drinks served up (daiquiri, sidecar) to catch ice shards and citrus pulp that would dull the texture. Skip it for drinks over ice.
6. Barspoon. At least 30 cm (12 inches), with a twisted stem and a small bowl of about 5 ml. Stir with the back of the spoon against the glass wall, 20 to 30 seconds for a spirit-forward drink such as a manhattan. The twist lets the spoon rotate in your fingers while the bowl rides the ice.
7. Mixing glass. A heavy glass or a double-walled tin, about 500 ml, with a pour lip. A Boston tin does the job while you save for one.
8. Muddler. A blunt wooden or steel rod. For a mojito, press mint leaves gently four or five times to release oil; grinding them shreds the leaf and turns the drink grassy. Press citrus and sugar harder.
9. Y-peeler. The fastest route to a clean 5 cm strip of zest with little pith; a swivel peeler works if you prefer it. Keep it sharp and keep your thumb behind the blade.
10. Citrus press. A hinged hand press handles one or two limes; a lever-action pillar press is the tool for a party batch. Strain juice through the fine strainer before measuring, since pulp under-measures.

The ten worth buying first

In order: 1 jigger, 2 Boston shaker tins, 3 Hawthorne strainer, 4 barspoon, 5 fine strainer, 6 Y-peeler, 7 hinged citrus press, 8 silicone ice tray for 1-inch or 2-inch cubes, 9 mixing glass, 10 julep strainer. Difford's calls the ice tray the most important purchase in the kit, and that is not a joke: clear, large, dry ice changes every drink. A blender is the item to skip on a budget.

What can go wrong

• Drinks taste sweet or sour at random: check the jigger with the scale. Also check that you are reading the meniscus at eye level, not from above.
• The shaker leaks: the small tin is not seated at an angle. Set it in tilted, then tap the base once with the heel of your hand.
• The shaker will not open: tap the large tin where the two meet, on the side opposite the lean. Do not twist.
• Shaken drink is cloudy with ice chips: use the fine strainer, or shake less violently with larger cubes.
• Stirred drink is thin: stirred too long, or with small wet ice. Use fresh 1-inch cubes and stop at 30 seconds.
• Mint tastes bitter: muddled too hard. Press, do not grind.

Food-safety note

Rinse tools between drinks: hot water after dairy, cream or egg; cold water after everything else. Wash the whole kit in hot soapy water at the end of the night and let it air dry. A barspoon that stirred an egg-white sour and then a martini is a cross-contamination risk for a guest with an egg allergy.

Sources

• Difford's Guide, Simon Difford, "Basic Cocktail Equipment: The Essential Bar Kit."
• Difford's Guide, "Basic Cocktail Techniques: Essential Skills Guide."
• Cocktails With Suderman, Peter Suderman, "Notes on Bar Tools" (2021).