Introduction
Are you creating a home bar and wondering what home bar essentials you’ll need to make cocktails and other beverages like a pro? In this article we’ll go through our top 20 must-have items that no well-stocked home bar should be without. We’ll also be explaining what each piece of equipment is used for within the bar tendering world.
Cocktail Shaker
Lets start with the classic cocktail shaker. Shakers come in various shapes and sizes, but they all help you shake up great drinks. You can create a frothy texture by shaking the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, or you can serve incredibly chilled spirits by shaking with ice.
Strainer
Strainers are used to ensure solids like chunks of ice or fruit don’t make their way into the finished cocktail after shaking and mixing. If your planning to make the nicest drinks possible, you’ll need to use a strainer.
Jigger
A Jigger is a bar tool that is used to measure and pour alcohol when creating a drink. This is an important little tool as it helps get the strength and flavours of the drink just right. Jiggers are shaped like an hour glass, with one small measure side and one larger measure side joined in the middle.
Bar Spoon
The bar spoon is an elongated spoon used for stirring, mixing and layering cocktails. The spoon can also be used for garnishing drinks and removing any unwanted fruit pulp from a finished cocktail. Its a good idea to have a few of these to save you from having to rinse in between mixing drinks to avoid cross contamination.
Pour Spouts
A pourer is a bottle cork with a spout, it is inserted into the top of a bottle and used pour a steady and controllable stream of liquid. They are usually used to pour spirits and liqueurs into a spirit measure or directly into a glass.
Bottle Openers
We’ve all seen the one guy at a party opening bottles in all kinds of ways. This however is the proper way to open a bottle safely. A bottle opener tool uses leverage to pop the cap off the top of a bottle with ease and will fit nicely in a bar tenders pocket or overalls. You should probably have a few of these lying around your bar area.
Tongs
Tongs are used in bars to either pick up and add ice into a drink or to add garnishes. You’ll appreciate this tool as it will keep your hands clean and also warm. You don’t need me to tell you not to grab ice cubes with your hands all night, you can also use an ice scoop along side this tool.
Bottle Stoppers
You’ll want a few of these for your bar. The bottle stopper is essentially a reusable cork for your bottles and helps to keep the contents of the bottle fresh when it isn’t immediately being used.
Cork Screw
The corkscrew tool is used for opening a wine bottle. The screw is twisted into the sealed cork and uses leverage to fully remove the cork from the wine bottle. Most cork screws also come with a handy bottle opener on the opposite end.
Muddler
A cocktail muddler is similar to a pestle. It is used to mash up ingredients for your cocktail as well as ice. You can mash up fruit, ice, sugar, herbs and spices, it is an important little tool when making drinks like mojitos.
Most of the items listed above can be found in a cocktail making kit. If you’d rather buy a kit that includes all the items instead of shopping around for all the items individually here’s one linked below that will make a great starter kit for your bar.
Ice Cube Trays
Ice cube trays are moulds for creating ice cubes. You fill the moulds with water and then place in the freezer until they freeze. There are many different moulds that can create ice cubes in all sorts of fun shapes and sizes.
Ice Bucket
An ice bucket is used to contain your ice cubes. Its handy to have an ice bucket on the side when making multiple drinks. An ice bucket can also be used store bottles of wine in to keep the wine cool.
Chopping Boards
Chopping boards are durable boards, often made of hardwoods but can also be made of plastic. They are used to chop up fruit and garnishes with a knife and also to smash up cocktail ingredients on to ensure you don’t damage the surface of your bar.
Wall Mounted Bottle Openers
A wall mounted bottle opener is a handy accessory to have fitted somewhere around your bar. Every time you need to open a bottle, you know exactly where to go with a fixed opener. This avoids you frantically looking round for where you last left the hand held bottle opener when you have drinks to be making and serving.
Hand Press Juicer
Hand press juicers use a lever, crank and press to apply pressure to fruits and vegetables in order to squeeze out and extract the juice. This is a great tool for when you are making fruity cocktails with fresh fruit juice such as a pineapple mojito. There is also a cheaper hand held option which is perhaps better to have if you only make fruity cocktails occasionally.
Zester
A zester is a great tool for extracting the zest from citrus fruits like lemons and limes. Not only does this compliment the flavours of the cocktails but it also adds a lovely decorative element to the drink. Great when making drinks like cosmopolitans,
Spill Mats
Spill or drip mats are used on a bar to collect any spillages when serving drinks. They really do a great job of collecting liquid due to their design they are also emptied and cleaned very easily.
Optic
The optic is a device that is mounted into the neck of an inverted spirit bottle. When the lever of the optic is pushed or pulled it dispenses an accurate measure of alcohol into a glass. Most optic sets are wall mounted but a rotary optic set is a good option if your working with limited space.
Garnish Storage
Garnish storage is used behind a bar to store and allow easy access of pre prepared cocktail garnishes. They offer a really handy convenient way to organize your garnishes, this really helps when you have a lot of drinks to make.
Bottle and Glass Storage
All bars have to have somewhere for storing glasses and bottles right? It is handy to have your bottles and glasses in the same place and its good to have something that looks aesthetically pleasing. You can go for a simple free standing wine bottle rack or choose to go for a more fitted wall mounted bottle and glass unit to store all of your home bar essentials.
Conclusion
We hope that you’ve enjoyed looking through our list of the top 20 home bar essentials. Now you know the basics to get you started there’s no stopping you. If there is anything you need for your bar get stocking up! If you don’t have the space for a bar, check out our article on home bar carts here.
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