Tips, techniques, and stories from the world of cocktails
Most home bars start the same way: a nice whiskey, a gifted shaker, and a shelf of bottles used once a year. The problem isn't commitment — it's buying things in the wrong order. Build around what you'll actually make, not what looks impressive. Here's how to do it in stages.
Glassware isn't just presentation — glass shape affects how a drink smells, how fast it warms, how much ice fits, and how it hits your palate. The right glass won't save a bad cocktail, but the wrong one can make a good one worse. Here's what each type does and which drinks belong in it.
There are three types of cocktail shakers, and most people buy the wrong one first. The cobbler — the three-piece design with a built-in strainer — is the most common starter set pick, yet the one pros almost universally avoid. Here's what each type does and which belongs in your bar.
A refractometer is only as good as its calibration. If the zero point is off by even 1°Bx, every reading you take is wrong by that same amount — and for frozen drink machines where the ideal Brix range is 13–18, a 2 °Bx error can mean the difference between a perfect slush and a solid block of ice.
Every stirred cocktail — Manhattan, Negroni, Martini, Old Fashioned (when built in the glass, it's technically stirred) — is prepared in some kind of vessel with ice and a bar spoon. A lot of home bartenders use a pint glass for this.
You need a strainer. You search for one and find two different types — a Hawthorne strainer (the one with the spring) and a julep strainer (the perforated spoon-shaped one). They both strain drinks. Do you need both? Does it matter which you use?
Everyone knows they need a shaker, a jigger, and a strainer. Those are the obvious bar tools — the ones that show up in every starter kit and gift set. But there's a second tier of tools that most home bartenders skip, either because they don't know they exist or because they seem unnecessary.
A bar spoon is a bar spoon, right? It stirs drinks. How different can they be?
Every home bartender has the same debate at some point: do I really need a jigger, or can I just eyeball it? The short answer is that free pouring is less accurate than almost everyone thinks it is, and the difference between a great cocktail and a mediocre one often comes down to a quarter ounce.
You've decided you need a refractometer. Maybe you just bought a frozen drink machine and someone told you to "check the Brix." Maybe you're batching cocktails for a party and want to verify the alcohol content.
If you've ever poured a batch into your frozen drink machine only to watch it freeze into a solid block — or churn endlessly without thickening — the problem almost certainly comes down to one number: Brix.