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25 Essential Bar Accessories: 6 - 10
Tool #6: Mixing glasses
Mixing glasses are heavyweight glasses designed for use with shakers or as the go to spot for muddling, blending, and stirring in mixed drinks. Some mixing glasses have side markings to help with portion control, although this is more common with professional shot glasses than full-sized mixing glasses.
Making a drink can be messy and an inexact science. With a mixing glass, you can do all the work behind the bar and present your guest with a perfect finished product.
Mixing glasses help you keep things flowing and also help provide you with work space for exotic drinks. Paired with shakers or strainers, they can give you greater versatility behind the bar.
Tool #7: Long bar spoon
Long bar spoons are sold individually, but you may want more than one. These are a simple tool that can be used to mix drinks, serve drinks, or simply efficiently fish drinks out of their blender or shaker.
Clear drinks should be stirred, and the long bar spoon is a good tool for that. Long bar spoons are also very useful with frozen drinks, which may not want to come out of the blender or pitcher unaided.
The added inches of the long bar spoon give a thorough mix to your cocktails. The spoons are also much more professional than fingers for picking out fruits from the bottom of a glass or moving frozen concoctions to a new home.
Tool #8: Lemon/Lime Squeezer
Citrus juices are key ingredients in many mixed drinks, and pre-bottled juices just don’t taste the same as fresh juices.
Juicing lemons and limes can be messy, but with a lemon/lime squeezer you can quickly and efficiently extract the juices you need.
Professional squeezers get more juice out of the fruit than bare hands, with the added benefit of straining away pulp and keeping seeds out of drinks. Having the tool on hand also removes any reluctance you may have about using fresh produce at your bar, since you will be able to juice it in a matter of seconds with a minimum of fuss.
Tool #9: Double Jigger
Odd name aside, this is actually a small two-sided tool you’ll find yourself reaching for over and over. It’s inexpensive and invaluable if you like making mixed drinks or shots as it provides a simple measure of your pour.
Portion control is crucial for flavor, and with one side giving an ounce and the other capturing a quarter ounce, you will no longer have to guesstimate your portions.
Accurate measuring means your drinks will taste better, and you’ll also keep yourself from making things too strong and knocking your guests under the table. Portion control with a double jigger also helps you monitor your alcohol supply and your pouring skills.
Tool #10: Muddler
This simple wood stick is the key to many of the latest exotic drinks, as well as traditional favorites like the Mint Julep or the Mojito. With just a few simple thumps of your muddler, you can have some truly memorable concoctions on your hands.
Many herbs and fruits need to be lightly crushed to impart their flavor to the liquor. Known in bar speak as muddling, this practice of using an elongated member of the pestle family to bruise and crush additives at the bottom of the glass is the most efficient solution to the problem.
Muddlers are more effective than forks, and much neater (and more sanitary!) than crushing things with your bare hands.
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