Barware Guide: What Each Bar Tool Does and Why Its Shape Matters

A cocktail is a small piece of kitchen chemistry: spirit, something sweet or sour, and water from melting ice, in proportions measured in milliliters. Bar tools exist to control those milliliters. Each one does a single job, measuring, mixing, chilling, straining or pouring, and its shape is the way it does that job. This guide covers the tools only; the bottles, bitters and syrups that go in them are in the home bar guide. To browse the tools themselves, shop barware and cocktail tools.

Eleven of the twelve products linked below come from Cocktail Kingdom, a company with a showroom in New York that describes itself as a manufacturer and distributor of professional barware. The company says it began during the early-aughts cocktail renaissance (the revival of classic cocktails in the early 2000s), when its founder, Greg Boehm, noted that bar professionals lacked access to proper tools. Its house designs, Koriko, Leopold and Yarai, are the names that come up again and again on the tools here (shop Cocktail Kingdom).

The five jobs

Each step in a drink has its tool.

Job Tool What its shape does
Measure Jigger Two cups of fixed volume, with lines inside for smaller amounts
Mix and chill (stirred) Mixing glass or stirring tin A wide, heavy vessel that holds ice and liquid while a spoon turns them
Stir Bar spoon A long shaft that reaches the bottom of the vessel and turns smoothly in the fingers
Strain Hawthorne or julep strainer Holds back ice and solids while the liquid pours out
Pour from the bottle Speed pourer A spout that replaces the cap so a bottle pours in a steady stream

The jigger: measuring

A jigger is a measuring cup for drinks. Merriam-Webster defines it as "a measure used in mixing drinks that usually holds 1 to 2 ounces (30 to 60 milliliters)." Both jiggers below have two cups joined at the base, one on each end, so a single tool gives two standard pours. Measuring matters because cocktail recipes are ratios. The International Bartenders Association (IBA), the trade body that publishes official specifications for classic cocktails, writes its Manhattan as 50 ml of rye whiskey and 20 ml of sweet vermouth. A 5 ml mistake is a quarter of the vermouth but only a tenth of the whiskey, so the smaller measure is the one that needs the most care.

Two jigger styles show how shape follows use.

  • The Japanese-style jigger. Cocktail Kingdom says this jigger was designed in America and popularized in Japan, and calls it the measurement tool of choice for modern cocktail bars around the world. The 1 oz / 1.5 oz version measures 1 ounce (30 ml) in one cup and 1.5 ounces (45 ml) in the other, with interior lines for ½ ounce (15 ml) and ¾ ounce (22 ml). It is made of 18/8 stainless steel, a common food-grade steel, with a brushed finish (shop the Japanese-style jigger).
  • The Leopold jigger. The Leopold line has an ornate art deco style based on pieces in Cocktail Kingdom's own antique barware collection dating to the 1920s and 1930s. This jigger measures 1 ounce (30 ml) over 2 ounces (60 ml), with interior lines at ¼, ½, ¾ and 1½ ounces, so one tool gives six measures from ¼ ounce to 2 ounces (shop the Leopold jigger).

The interior lines let a ¾ ounce pour and a 2 ounce pour come out of the same tool without guessing. NIST, the United States standards agency, puts one fluid ounce at 29.57 ml, which is why both jiggers' specifications round 1 ounce to 30 ml.

Stirred or shaken

Before choosing a vessel, a bartender decides whether the drink is stirred or shaken. The IBA's own specifications show the pattern clearly. Its Manhattan (rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, bitters) and its Dry Martini (gin and dry vermouth) both go into a mixing glass with ice and are stirred, then strained. Its Daiquiri (rum, fresh lime juice and sugar) and its Whiskey Sour (bourbon, fresh lemon juice and sugar syrup, with optional egg white) are both shaken with ice in a cocktail shaker. In those four official recipes, the drinks made of spirits, vermouth (a wine flavored with herbs) and bitters are stirred, and the drinks with citrus juice are shaken.

The difference is texture. Stirring moves ice gently through the liquid, so it chills and dilutes a spirit-forward drink without beating air into it. Shaking throws ice and liquid against each other, which mixes in air and blends ingredients of different thickness, like juice and syrup. The IBA's Whiskey Sour note says that if egg white is used, the drink should be shaken "little harder to release and incorporate the foam from the egg white." That foam is air held in the drink, and the shake is what puts it there.

Mixing glasses and stirring tins

A mixing glass is a wide, heavy, straight-sided glass for stirred drinks. Cocktail Kingdom describes its mixing glasses as having a heavy base, a narrow spout for pouring, and a seamless stir. Its Yarai seamless glasses are hand blown, so the inside has no seam (a joined edge), and the company says the seamless interior makes for quieter stirring.

Size matters too. The company lists its standard 550 ml Yarai glass at a capacity of one to two drinks. The Gallone mixing glass goes much bigger. It holds 1 liter (33.8 ounces), was designed in Italy and is hand blown in Poland, and Cocktail Kingdom calls it great for making three cocktails at a time. It also changes the technique: no bar spoon is needed. The drink is swirled by holding the foot of the glass and moving the arm in a circle, and the company recommends pairing it with its julep and antique strainers. It is hand wash only (shop the Gallone mixing glass).

A stirring tin does the same job in metal. The Mixtin was designed in collaboration with Nico de Soto, a Paris-born bartender who opened the cocktail bar Mace in New York's East Village in 2015 and Danico in Paris in 2016. The Mixtin's product description says de Soto found that in a busy bar it was faster to stir several drinks at once in metal shakers, because they chill more quickly than thick glass mixing glasses. The Mixtin is 18/8 stainless steel, double-walled and vacuum insulated for temperature consistency, holds two to three drinks and is dishwasher safe (shop the Mixtin stirring tin).

Why stirring always adds water

Ice does not chill a drink just by being cold. It chills by melting, and melting turns ice into water that stays in the drink. Two physics numbers show how much. According to Georgia State University's HyperPhysics reference, melting ice absorbs 80 calories of heat per gram (the "heat of fusion," or the energy it takes to turn solid into liquid at the same temperature). According to the U.S. Geological Survey, raising the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C takes 4,184 joules (1 kilocalorie), which is 1 calorie per gram, and cooling it by 1°C releases the same amount. So every gram of ice that melts can cool about 80 grams of water by one degree Celsius.

A dilution worksheet for the Manhattan

Here is that arithmetic applied to the IBA Manhattan. It treats the drink as if it were plain water, which is a simplification (alcohol mixtures behave a little differently), so the result is an estimate, not a measurement.

  • Drink before ice: 50 ml rye plus 20 ml vermouth, about 70 grams of liquid.
  • Cooling needed: from a room temperature of 20°C down to 0°C, 20 degrees. 70 grams times 20 degrees is about 1,400 calories of heat to remove.
  • Ice that must melt: 1,400 calories divided by 80 calories per gram is about 17.5 grams of ice.
  • Result: about 17.5 ml of new water, roughly a quarter of the original drink, for a finished volume near 88 ml (about 3 ounces).

That quarter is not a flaw. It is part of the drink: the IBA's Manhattan is stirred well with ice cubes and strained into the glass, meltwater included. The same arithmetic explains a few tool choices. A mixing glass or tin that starts at room temperature also has heat to give up, and more ice has to melt to remove it, so a vessel chilled in advance adds less water. And the finished 88 ml fits easily in a 5 ounce (150 ml) Nick & Nora glass with room to carry it without spilling. Cocktail Kingdom's Nick & Nora glasses come in a six-pack, are built for commercial use, and are dishwasher safe (shop Nick & Nora glasses). For shaken drinks with foam, Spiegelau's Perfect Coupette holds 8.3 ounces, and the product page notes that its size leaves lots of room for foam (shop the Spiegelau Perfect Coupette).

Bar spoons: stirring and measuring

A bar spoon is a long, thin spoon made for stirring. Its length lets it reach the bottom of a mixing glass full of ice. Both spoons below have a coiled shaft, which lets the spoon spin between the fingers. Cocktail Kingdom says its coiled and weighted bar spoons are field tested and approved to give an effortless, elegant stir, and it matches spoon to glass: the 550 ml Yarai glass is recommended with its 30 cm range of spoons.

  • The Leopold Barspoon is 36 cm long, with a smooth coil and a weighted topper that the maker says gives a balanced stir. Like the Leopold jigger, it follows the art deco style of the 1920s and 1930s, and it is dishwasher-safe stainless steel (shop the Leopold Barspoon).
  • The Trident Barspoon is inspired by the traditional Japanese design, with a decorative trident top, a smooth coil and a 31.5 cm stainless steel shaft (shop the Trident Barspoon).

A bar spoon is also a unit of measure. The IBA's Daiquiri calls for "2 Bar Spoons Superfine Sugar," and the same small measure suits a dash of syrup (the cocktail syrups and cordials guide covers the sweet side). Meehan's Mixology Spoons, a set designed with the bartender and author Jim Meehan, whose books include The PDT Cocktail Book and Meehan's Bartender Manual, puts a number on it. The set's "1 Barspoon" measures 0.060 ounce, next to a 1 teaspoon spoon at 0.1675 ounce. Using NIST's 29.57 ml per fluid ounce, that bar spoon is about 1.8 ml, a little more than a third of a teaspoon. The six spoons, from ¼ teaspoon to 1 tablespoon, are 304 stainless steel (a standard grade of stainless) on a ring for quick switching, and come in a reusable tin (shop Meehan's Mixology Spoons).

Strainers: Hawthorne and julep

Once a drink is mixed, the ice that chilled it stays behind. A strainer holds back ice, and in shaken drinks bits of fruit or herb, while the liquid pours out. There are two main shapes, and each grew up around a vessel.

The Hawthorne strainer is a flat metal disc with a coil of wire around its edge. The coil sits inside the rim of a shaker tin or glass and catches small ice chips and pulp. Cocktail Kingdom's Koriko Hawthorne strainer, developed by the bartender Don Lee, has a wide body for a stable fit and a tight coil for thorough straining; its four-prong Buswell model adds four prongs for added stability. Both fit the company's shaking tins as well as its mixing glasses, so one Hawthorne strainer can serve both vessels.

The julep strainer is a shallow, perforated metal bowl (one punched with small holes) with a handle. It shares its name with the julep, which Merriam-Webster defines as a drink of liquor and sugar poured over crushed ice and garnished with mint. The bowl fits inside the mouth of a mixing glass, where the perforations let a stirred drink through and hold the ice back. Cocktail Kingdom's Premium Julep Strainer is based on a 1930s strainer the company considers the best ever created, fits large and standard mixing glasses, and is stainless steel with a mirror finish (shop the Premium Julep Strainer).

The shapes suggest a working rule. A julep strainer is made for the mouth of a mixing glass, where the ice is whole and the liquid is clear. A Hawthorne strainer fits both vessels, and its coil earns its place after shaking, when broken ice and juice pulp need catching.

The julep drink itself skips the strainer entirely. The IBA's Mint Julep is built in a stainless steel julep cup: the mint is gently muddled (pressed to release its oils) with sugar and water, the cup is filled with cracked ice, bourbon goes in, and the drink is stirred "until the cup frosts" (shop the Cocktail Kingdom julep cup).

Speed pourers: the bottle as a tool

A speed pourer is a spout that replaces a bottle's cap. A rubbery stopper holds it in the neck, and a metal spout lets the bottle pour in a steady, even stream, which makes it easier to hit the line in a jigger without splashing. Cocktail Kingdom's stainless steel speed pourers are vented, meaning they have a small air channel that lets air into the bottle as liquid flows out, and the maker describes the stopper as balanced between suppleness and rigidity: it stays firmly in the bottle but is easy to remove. They come six to a pack (shop the speed pourers).

Shape is the recipe's other half

A written recipe says what goes into a drink. The tools decide what happens to it on the way to the glass: how exactly it was measured, whether air went in, how much ice melted, and what was left behind in the strainer. In the Manhattan worksheet, melting ice adds water equal to about a quarter of what the bottles poured, and the ice, the vessel, the spoon and the hand on it decide how much. Each shape is a decision about the drink, made before the first pour.

Sources & Further Reading

Back to blog

Shop this story

Shop this story (6)

Keep reading

More from The Pantry Dispatch