Home Bar Equipment and Tools

Bar tools are the most essential items that you will need for a bar. Some of these items are available in the kitchen, but some have to be purchased. With these tools, mixing drinks will be easier.

Shakers are essential for mixing drinks, especially for chilled cocktails. There are two types of shakers. The cocktail or traditional shaker has a snug cover that has a strainer inside and fits into a metal cone. They are perfect for use at home. The Boston shaker serves two purposes because it has a mixing glass and a larger flat bottomed cone made out of metal. The glass can be used for stirring drinks with ice and the two pieces are combined to shake ingredients with the metal part over the glass. This kind of shaker is used by professional bartenders and a strainer is required.

A blender is the most common bar tool because it can easily be found in your kitchen. It is used to prepare frozen drinks that have crushed ice and fruit in them. Blenders come in different sizes. Smaller ones are advisable for use in the home bar.

Strainers are for drinks that are mixed over ice. A strainer is useful especially for Boston shakers because this needs a strainer to work.

There are two kinds of strainers, the hawthorne and julep. The hawthorne is a flat-topped device that is made out of metal and has a wire around it that keeps the strainer in place. This type of strainer is the best to use with a Boston shaker because it has a feature that keeps the shaker in place. The Julep strainer, on the other hand, is in the shape of a soup spoon and is used when drinks are supposed to be strained from a mixing glass.

Measuring devices, such jiggers and measuring spoons, are important bar tools as well. Jiggers are metal and usually have a large and small cone on either end. They are essential to the bar because they help measure out liquids for mixed drinks. Measuring spoons are a bunch of metal or plastic spoons that hold different amounts and are sometimes used for dry ingredients.

A bar spoon is different from an average spoon. This spoon usually has a long, spiral handle and a small bowl with holes in it. It is an important tool for stirring and layering drinks, as well as taking cherries out of jars.

The muddler is a thick stick made of either wood or stainless steel. It is used to mash ingredients that are at the bottom of the glass. It is often used to mix sugars and to extract oils and juices from fruit. These are mostly used to make drinks such as Mojitos.

The other essential tools are the following: bottle openers, corkscrews, bottle pourers, cutting boards, graters, ice accessories, a juicer, paring knives, and stirrers.