Top 10 Best Home Bar Essentials in 2020 (OXO, Barfly, and More)

Here you'll find Amazon's best when it comes to bar essentials. We've listed just some of the fundamental must-haves, made with top-notch quality, to achieve that perfect drink.

Whether it’s for your growing home bar or you’re thinking of a unique and useful gift for someone, choosing bar tools could get confusing mainly because there are so many of them available. That's hy we’ve created a buying guide to help you get started! 

After doing the research, we found there are a few home bar essentials that ensure a stress-free process of mixing drinks and the best-tasting beverages.

When asked, mixologists would recommend at least one or all of the following bar essentials, for commercial or residential use. Let’s take a look at these fundamentals and what you should know about each one regarding skill, durability, versatility, and more.

Let’s start with a shaker set. You might not yet be at the level of tossing the container in the air and catching it behind your back, but having a shaker ensures your drinks are mixed well in ice with minimal dilution. There are three main types of shakers: cobbler shakers, Boston shakers, and French shakers.

The cobbler shaker is a three-piece shaker set that is often used by beginners. You get the main cup, a built-in strainer, and a cap. Once you’re done shaking, you can easily strain your drink without the ice, seeds, and the like.

Meanwhile, the Boston shaker is composed of two cups that have been designed to shut tight when positioned together. These also hold more liquids than cobbler shakers and are stackable, thus more preferred by bartenders.

Lastly, we have the Parisian shaker or the French shaker, which is somewhat of a combination of the first two. You have what looks like a cobbler shaker, minus the strainer. These shakers chill faster, have that pleasant mixing sound, and look fancy.

No, a regular spoon will not do when it comes to mixing liquor. Bar spoons are long, slender, and look more sophisticated. They can mix your drinks thoroughly if you don’t need them shaken up. Bar spoons can also layer your drinks by letting one liquid slide down the spoon and create detail in your glass.

A mixing glass looks like your regular glass but with a spout for easy pouring. You often use these alongside bar spoons to prepare your drinks that require mixing and not shaking. 

A mixing glass, in short, is like the chef’s cutting board or a baker’s batter bowl, where everything is prepped. Look for a mixing glass that’s weighted at the bottom so it stays in place even through vigorous stirring.

Much like dishes, you can make drinks by following a recipe. However, it would look strange if you used a measuring cup in your home bar, right?

The fancy-schmancy version of a measuring cup for mixologists is the jigger. They’re often double-sided and carry one measurement on each end, such as a one- and two-ounce jigger, the most often used quantity for mixing.

Next, we have the strainer. You might have guessed it by now; your regular kitchen utensils just don’t make the cut when it comes to the style of mixing alcoholic beverages. So don't even think about pulling out one of those dome-shaped netted strainers with long handles.

In bartending, you have your Hawthorne strainer, which can be placed on top of a shaker or mixing glass and keep ice, fruit bits, and other items away from your smooth cocktail.

Lastly, you have your muddler, which looks like a wooden pin but with a blunt or toothed end for squashing fruits and herbs to extract their natural juices and flavors into your drink. Another alternative could be a handheld citrus juicer if you’re dealing with a lot of lemons and limes.

Ice is the most often disregarded ingredient in a drink but could make or break any beverage. The problem with regular ice cubes and liquor is that you often end up with a watered-down drink. To prevent this, you can also get specially-designed ice cube trays that yield slow-melting ice and prevents dilution, which is perfect for whiskey, bourbon, scotch, and other liquor-heavy drinks.

If you want to prevent the watered-down effect altogether, you can go for whiskey stones, typically made with natural soapstone, and can control the temperature of your drink. You freeze them, pop them into your glass, and enjoy a chilled drink. They’re also reusable!

And if you don't mind plain ol' ice, you can look for ice makers or ice cube molds that can freeze them into different shapes and sizes to fit your glass and give it an aesthetic finish.

Whether you prefer vodka, wine, whiskey, sake, or any other type of liquor, your tools would be based on your preferred drinks. The beauty with home bar essentials is that there is a tool that could accommodate each preference.

Your cups, glasses, shot glasses, wine glasses, and the like, for example, would depend on the drinks you like. For those who like hosting house gatherings, a rule of thumb would be to have a set of each of the following multi-purpose glasses as a start.

The Coupe glass is perfect for Manhattans, margaritas, and champagne. This eliminates the need to purchase separate champagne flutes, since this type of glass can also accommodate cocktails. The tall, sleek and slender Collins glass is another must-have glass option for your elegant cocktails and highballs.

For more liquor-heavy drinks, you have your Curved Rock Glass for brandy, cognac, and whiskey. The curved shape of the glass captures the spirit and aroma of your drink. These double as punch glasses too! 

Lastly, you have your beer mugs and wine glasses, which are the classic essentials for a party. There are a ton of different types of each suited for different kinds of beer and wine, though, so do your research!

Presentation is key for any mixologist and aspiring home bartender. So get some cocktail picks to keep those olives in place on top of your glass, or try some other garnishing tool such as a cocktail rimmer to easily get the sugar or salt on your glass rim. Or perhaps you'll want a citrus stripper for fancy ways to decorate a drink with citrus bits!

As your collection of liquor continues to grow, you might wish to display your options front and center at the bar (because we know they don't come cheap!).

The beauty of liquor bottles is that they're decorative pieces on their own and could be further accentuated by a display rack or shelf. You can opt for a wine rack to keep your bottles neatly stacked and organized or perhaps a bartender kit that holds all of your essential tools together.

For drinks that need to be kept cold, an investment would be a wine chiller, although these carry a hefty price tag. For an all-in-one storage and display tool, perhaps a portable bar stand that holds a few glasses and one or two bottles of wine and whiskey.

Sticking to the theme of drink night, you might be interested in the best citrus juicers, board games for adults, or tortilla chips to make your home bar night even more awesome.

Having a successful home bar is all about having the right essentials. Yes, you can make do with regular kitchen equipment, but there's something about bar tools that add to the flair and overall experience of drinking at home. The goal is to enjoy one's bar at home, after all!

Author: Hana Otsuka

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