Hello, cocktail enthusiasts and bartending buffs! As we embrace 2024 with enthusiasm, it’s time to gear up our bar essentials with the latest and greatest bar tools. Gone are the days of makeshift gadgets and guesswork.
Today, we’re delving into a curated list of the 8 best bar tools of 2024 – each item promising to elevate your mixology game from amateur to A-list. So, let’s shake things up!
Our List of the Best Bar Tools
Here is our list of the best bar tools that we use daily to help us succeed in making delicious cocktails.
Luckily, getting these essential tools is not going to cost a fortune. The price for each ranges from $10 to $25.
There are more expensive versions, but they aren’t needed unless you have the extra dough.
My biggest suggestion is to ensure your bartending tools are made of stainless steel. This will ensure that it lasts the most extended amount of time.
I have the right set of tools that have lasted me over 5 years.
1. Cocktail Shakers: A Mixologist’s Must
Two bar tools are essential to success, and cocktail shakers are one of them; the other is listed below.
This bar tool you will use for every cocktail that needs to be shaken. It combines, chills, dilutes, and aerates your cocktail.
Several styles have been around: Boston, Cobbler, and Parisian. Most professional bars will use the Boston style. It offers a quick and easy way to start and finish your shake.
I personally like to choose the tin-on-tin over the tin-on-glass combination. It gets the drink colder, and the less I have to work with the glass in a moving motion, the better.
- QUALITY CONSTRUCTION: Crafted with heavy-duty stainless steel to maintain shape, hide wear, and perform consistently well while keeping a refined appearance
- BARWARE ESSENTIAL: A staple of every barman, these shakers are made with precision to fit together perfectly and release easily
- SET INCLUDES: One full and half-size stainless steel finish shaker to use together or separately
New Style of Cocktail Shaker
Some new styles take the standard styles and offer more benefits: insulated walls, screw-on tops, etc. Elevated Craft has hit the cocktail world running with its style.
2. Jiggers: Precision Pouring at it’s Best
Exactness is vital in mixology, and the jigger offers accuracy to the last drop. With clear markings and a range of measurements, jiggers ensure you get the perfect ratio every time.
When you want to create your favorite cocktails the same every time, you need to make sure all of your ingredients are measured correctly.
You can’t start to mix your drink with unmeasured spirits and modifiers to create a fantastic cocktail.
If you haven’t figured it out, a jigger is my other must-have bar tool.
This bartender’s essential is durable, well-calibrated, and includes a series of engraved measurement markings for precision bartending. Its matte titanium plating is easy on the eyes and provides a smooth, comfy grip for repetitive use.
Different Styles of Jiggers
There are 4 main styles of jiggers: Japanese, Multi-Level, Bell, and Oxo Measuring Cup. Find out more about my favorite bar tool, the jigger.
3. Strainers: Sifting with Style
How do you remove unwanted ice chips or herbs from your shaken cocktail? A strainer will do the job perfectly.
Strainers have gotten a sleek makeover. With tighter coils and more precise fits, strainers ensure customers a smooth and clean pour every time.
Different Styles of Strainers
You will see the Hawthorne, fine mesh, and Julep strainer in a professional setting, but if you only want one, the Hawthorne is the one to get.
Read more about each style, the benefits of each strainer, and why bartenders love to have all three.
4. A Bar Spoon: Stirring Up Drinks
You might be thinking bar spoon? Why can’t I use a spoon? That is a valid thought.
Bar spoons offer speed when stirring down your Manhattan, Vesper Martini, or any other stirred cocktail.
They have a more extended handle with a tight spiral. This gives you the ability to stir fast and concisely and have the best control over a standard spoon.
Bar Spoons with Style
You can find bar spoons with elegant or crazy designs. There are ones that have a muddler built on the end.
5. Mixing Glass For the Perfect Stirred Cocktail
A
The shape is tall, has straight walls, and has a broad base. This ensures your bar spoon will be able to stir the best.
They will be big enough to hold any cocktail and plenty of ice to have your drink adequately diluted and mixed together.
Glass and stainless steel are going to be the preferred material types.
6. The Muddler: Unleashing Flavors
A muddler you aren’t going to use all the time, but when you need one, it comes in so handy.
When you need to unleash the flavor of mint, basil, strawberries, or anything else, this tool does the job to perfection.
Built to Last
They are going to be built with a stainless steel handle and plastic end or entirely out of wood. Both work great and durable.
They will last you longer than almost any other bartending tool, as long as you don’t lose it.
7. The Citrus Juicer: Squeeze with Ease
Citrus is a vital part of cocktail creation. As a home or professional bartender, you will go through an endless amount of limes and oranges.
The easiest way to get your juice from your fruits is with a heavy-duty citrus juicer.
They come in different sizes and shapes; my suggestion is to get one for the size of orange so you don’t need to add another one.
Raising the Bar with the Best Bar Tools
As we journey through 2024, these bar tools are not just accessories; they are essentials that transform the art of cocktail making.
Whether you’re a home mixologist or a professional bartender, these tools are designed to elevate and maintain your craft.
Remember, great cocktails aren’t just about the ingredients; they’re about how they’re put together. And with products from these 7 best bar tools of 2024, you’re not just making drinks; you’re creating experiences.
Cheers to that!