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Best Home Bar and Cocktail Making Essentials
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items The best home bar essentials are the ones that change how a cocktail actually tastes, so this guide starts with shakers, jiggers and mixing glasses before it gets to the pretty glassware. It compares cocktail shakers, martini and coupe glasses, whisk...
Sections
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Cocktail Shakers and Bar Tools
Cocktail Glasses and Bar Glassware
Ice Tools and Home Bar Extras
Cocktail Shakers and Bar Tools
These are the cocktail bar tools that decide how a drink turns out, including cocktail shakers, a Japanese style jigger for exact pours, a long bar spoon and a weighted crystal mixing glass. Start here if the home bar is still mostly empty, because m...
Buying a shaker, strainer, jigger and spoon separately almost always costs more than a matched set, so this is the cheapest sensible way to start a home bar from nothing. The gunmetal finish also hides fingerprints far better than polished steel, whi...
Viski Warren Gunmetal Cocktail Set for Home Bartending
This is the shaker I reach for most nights because the hammered texture keeps a cold wet tin from sliding out of your hand, and the built in strainer means one less tool to wash. Pick this one if you want a single shaker that handles almost every dri...
Viski Irving Hammered Stainless Steel Cocktail Shaker
The measurement marks inside the tin are the whole reason to pick this over a plain shaker, because you can pour straight in without stopping to find a jigger. It suits anyone still learning ratios, or making the same round of drinks for four people ...
Viski Belmont Measured Cocktail Shaker with Inside Marks
Japanese style jiggers are taller and narrower than the squat bar ones, so small pours are much easier to read and you stop guessing at a half ounce. Worth adding if the same cocktail keeps tasting different every time, since most home drinks fail on...
Viski Harrison Large Japanese Style Jigger for Exact Pours
Stirred drinks like a martini or a negroni need a long twisted stem to chill the glass without whipping air into it and turning it cloudy. The trident tip doubles as a garnish pick, so a cheap tool quietly replaces a second purchase you would otherwi...
Viski Warren Trident Bar Spoon for Stirred Cocktails
A heavy mixing glass gives spirit forward drinks a silkier texture than shaking does, and the weighted base keeps it planted while you stir with one hand. Choose it over another shaker if the drinks made at home lean toward old fashioneds and negroni...
Viski Admiral Crystal Mixing Glass for Stirred Drinks
Cocktail Glasses and Bar Glassware
Cocktail glasses for every kind of serve, from crystal martini glasses and coupe glasses to whiskey tumblers and Nick and Nora glasses that keep a stirred drink cold to the last sip. Match the shape to what gets poured most, then buy in pairs for two...
These martini glasses use a narrower bowl than the wide vintage shape, which means far less sloshing over the rim when a full glass gets carried across a room. A sensible first pair for anyone who wants the classic silhouette without cleaning the flo...
Viski Meridian Crystal Martini Glasses Set of 2
Coupes work for anything served up, from a daiquiri to champagne, and they are much more forgiving to hold than a pointed martini glass. The crystal is thin enough to feel like a proper bar glass, which is what makes a simple two ingredient drink fee...
Viski Beau Crystal Cocktail Coupe Glasses Set of 2
Gin and tonic drinkers get more out of a wide stemmed bowl because it holds a lot of ice and citrus without crowding the drink or warming it in your palm. Coming as a set of four is the practical part, since two glasses never stretch far enough once ...
Viski Raye Angled Crystal Gin and Tonic Glasses Set of 4
Tritan crystal is the reason so many bars stock these, since it shrugs off chips at the rim and stays clear through years of dishwasher cycles. Worth the step up from cheap rocks glasses if whiskey, an old fashioned, or anything over a big cube gets ...
Schott Zwiesel Bar Collection Whiskey Tumbler Glasses
Nick and Nora glasses hold a smaller pour than a coupe, so a stirred drink stays properly cold to the last sip instead of going warm and dull halfway down. Six of them covers a dinner party, which is where a pair of nice coupes usually runs out.
Sur La Table Chateau Nick and Nora Cocktail Glasses Set of 6
Ice Tools and Home Bar Extras
Clear ice molds, a citrus press for fresh lime juice, a whiskey decanter and an electric cocktail smoker kit, the extras that separate a decent home bar from one people remember. Good ice and fresh juice fix more drinks than any expensive bottle does...
Cloudy freezer ice melts fast and waters down good whiskey, and this mold freezes from one direction so the cubes come out clear and dense. Once I started using clear cubes at home the same pour tasted colder and stayed drinkable much longer, which i...
Viski Glacier Rocks Clear Ice Maker for Cocktail Ice
The mountain shaped cube is more of a talking point than a serious ice tool, though it still melts slowly and it arrives paired with its own glass. Pick this one when the goal is a present for a whiskey drinker rather than the workhorse mold that run...
Viski Mountain Ice Mold with Whiskey Glass Set
Bottled juice is the fastest way to ruin a margarita, and a hand press gets almost everything out of a lime in one squeeze without a sticky mess. This is the tool we end up using most on cocktail nights because it earns its space in the kitchen the r...
Viski Professional Aluminum Citrus Juicer for Fresh Limes
A decanter is display rather than storage, since spirits do not improve sitting in glass, but it does turn a plain bottle into something worth leaving on the shelf. The etched peak inside catches light through the whiskey, which makes it an easy gift...
Viski Mountain Crystal Liquor Decanter for Whiskey
A smoked old fashioned is the drink guests always ask about, and an electric smoker does it in about a minute with no torch and no wood chips smouldering on the counter. Good for anyone who entertains and wants one showpiece drink without turning the...
Viski Cold Smoke Electric Cocktail Smoker Kit