My favourite (booze-related) things: Part I—6 bar kit essentials

Whether you’re an aspiring cocktailer or just looking to spruce up your home bar, here are the bar tools you shouldn’t mix without.

First up in my favourite things series: Starter bar toolkit basics

Boston shaker

My beloved Boston shaker.

When I first started cocktailing at Luma, I had probably used a Boston shaker oh, maybe five times? I had nightmares of it coming apart mid-shake, and how the hell do you loosen the glass from the tin, anyway?? But it didn’t take me long to fall totally in love with using it. I learned proper technique really just by observing my colleagues use it, and by watching this helpful video on YouTube. Some of my proudest days were the ones when I taught myself how to shake by holding the shaker in the centre instead of with one hand on each end, and then how to shake using just one hand. I’ll break all this down in my next post on my favourite bar techniques.

This is a cobbler. I am sure you are familiar with it.

The virtues of the Boston shaker are many. Besides the hearty size of the glass and tin which allows for a much higher volume of ingredients and ice — which is crucial to the mixture and dilution of a cocktail, as you’ll learn below — this also allows you to make more than one serving at a time. Plus there’s just something so damn professional about using a Boston shaker that I could never imagine using the more readily available cobbler shaker now.

Take the leap. Shake yah drank in a Bah-stahn shakah. (Go Sox.)

Hawthorne strainer

Sweet Hawthorne action.

I know many of you noobs are still wondering why the hell anyone would use a Boston shaker over the cobbler shaker. You need to learn how to use it? So many moving parts! The glass can break (I’ll even admit to doing this once before in hilarious fashion while our Director of Operations looked on)! And why would you then need to buy yet another part to strain out the drink when the cobbler shaker has that handy-dandy perforated top built right in?

Allow me to enlighten.

The cobbler shaker itself is three moving parts — the perforated top tin, the base tin, and the cover for the strainer top. And you’ll only have to use a cobbler a couple times before you realize the top and bottom are damn near impossible to separate.

But even if you just want to use a large jar to shake up your cocktails (which is how I started before Aaron bought me a full bar kit for my birthday), you still need a way to strain the drinks that need to be strained, such as proper martinis (I don’t believe in martinis served on the rocks — just nut up and say you want 2.5oz of booze on ice with some olives). So if you’re going to buy just one “pro”-ish tool to use in your home bar, make it the Hawthorne. It fits relatively any opening [insert dirty joke here].

Peeler

My preferred style of peeler.

Now, I feel the importance of this one comes partially from working in a really busy cocktail bar, but garnish is a key element to rounding out your cocktails. And when you have a crap peeler, making a lemon twist for that Vesper martini is going to become enough of a time-consuming chore to make you want to use said peeler on yourself just to make the whole process come to an end.

One very helpful technique I learned from my friend Rudy — a very talented cocktailer at my beloved Drake Hotel, and all-around nice guy — was how to get the most from your peel. Unless you know how to do this, you will continue to view the need for a proper peeler as irrelevant. Learn what the hell I’m blathering on about in my upcoming post on my favourite techniques.

Buy a good peeler in the meantime.

Jigger

Jiggers tout two different measures in one handy tool.

Nothing wrong with using a good ol’ shot glass to measure your ounces, but a classic jigger is designed to make it easier to pour your measured ingredients into your mixing glass — something which, if you’ve ever “under-tipped” your regular shot glass while pouring, you’ll know will help avoid wet shirt cuffs and a sticky countertop. Plus it’s nice to not have to eyeball every pour that is less or more than one ounce, as jiggers are available in all sorts of measures.

Pour spouts

Cheaper is sometimes better.

Trust me. Invest the $2-3 or so a pop on a handful of pour spouts and you’ll wonder why you ever poured without them. Much like jiggers, these tiny simple tools make the pouring process unbelievably mess free and help with accuracy like whoa. And don’t even worry about special spouts that promise to pour an exact ounce for you — most break in about a second, if they ever work at all. Go cheap, and enjoy the feeling of smooth-pouring, easy-to-control alcohol.

If you feel like leaving them in your bottles, go for it, but I’d recommend covering the tips with tin foil to keep fruit flies at bay.

Ice
Ice, baby (yup, did it).

Image from the ridiculously awesome Liquor.com

I have a sneaking suspicion based on conversations I’ve had with many guests that almost everyone believes “tons of ice in my alcoholic drink = bad thing”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s talk about it.

I should tell you that I am a believer in adding ice after you’ve poured all your ingredients into your shaker, though many people do the reverse and start by filling their shaker with ice. The reasons why I choose to use ice last are:

1. Some cocktails have so many ingredients. When you become comfortable with the colour and shade each cocktail you prepare should be, it becomes easier to see if you’ve over-looked an ingredient in the measuring and pouring process if there isn’t a ton of ice crowding the ingredients in your mixing glass (another great reason to use the Boston shaker over the opaque tin of the cobbler).
2. It’s nice for guests to see how their ingredients are being poured into the mixing glass — it lets them know you’re not skimping out by hiding behind a pile of ice.
3. The less time your ingredients spend on ice, the less unnecessary dilution is created.

Let me expand on #3 there. Dilution to a certain degree is very, very much a necessary part of what makes cocktails palatable. While many may think it’s a way to cheapen the volume of the drink, it’s just not. Without the necessary chilling and addition of icy water, many cocktails you already know and love would be, frankly, pretty gross.

Also, proper cocktails are devised and measured out to fit perfectly in rocks and high ball glasses using the total volume of the booze put in them, plus the ice. In my opinion, the most important reason why we load your drinks on the rocks to the absolute top with ice is definitely not to skimp out on ingredients.

No, the fact is, the more ice there is in your glass, the colder the drink will remain throughout the drinking process and hence the more slowly the ice will melt. Four or five cubes on their own melt much, much more quickly, and will actually create that watery, diluted flavour in your cocktail in a fraction of the time than if you’d just let your bartender load up on the ice, dammit.

Alright, that about covers it for starter bar tools: Boston shaker, Hawthorne strainer, peeler, jigger (or jiggers in varying measures), pour spouts, and ice. Never forget the ice.

Next time: my favourite techniques. I’ll explain, among other things, what it means to “flame” your peel, how to make your peel work harder for you, and how to shake like a pro.

Special note: Photos of the Boston shaker, Hawthorne strainer, jigger, and pour spout are from the BYOB Cocktail Emporium. If you live in Toronto and have an affinity for bartending in any capacity, visit this gem of a store. I am so lucky to live in its ‘hood, even if it continues to take my hard-earned tip money in exchange for its shiny, pretty things.