Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about some great tools for setting up a home bar, but not everything out there is actually useful. This week, I want to cover a few items to avoid as you learn to make cocktails at home:
Cocktail Kits
There are a lot of prepackaged cocktail kits out there which include a full set of bar tools at a “bargain” price. Be wary of these kits since many will include inferior or useless products. For example, if you’re casually mixing drinks in your home, you really don’t need three sizes of jiggers or pour spouts or jiggers with extraneous handles or (heaven forbid) a 3-piece shaker. For the record, 3-piece shakers are the most overrated bar tool of all time since they’re challenging to clean, frequently get stuck together, and are usually more expensive than more practical shaker options. Never buy one; they’re a waste of money. Most 3-piece shakers wind up collecting dust behind more practical tools or lurking in thrift store bargain bins to snare new owners. For some reason, like 90% of cocktail sets have a 3-piece shaker along with other less useful items, so you’re better off buying individual components over time as you get deeper into the craft. As for which individual components to buy, you can check out the last two posts for a handy guide.
Cocktail Books
While there are some fascinating books on cocktail history and cocktail culture, the internet has made cocktail recipe books obsolete except as items of historical interest. Not only are most cocktail recipes available for free online, but many recipe books are painfully dated. For example, when I was just starting into classic cocktails, I picked up a used Williams Sonoma recipe book for a few bucks. A product of the late 90s, the book featured countless vodka recipes but lacked many classic cocktails (which were only just beginning to experience a revival). I had better luck with a free booklet from Total Wine, which gave explanations of the various spirits with a few recipes after each, but all of this information could still be found online just as easily. Even though this source is a bit dated as well, I’ve found the best guide to classic cocktails is still the online BarSmarts program; for $30, you get a crash course in cocktail history, recipes, video tutorials, and even quizzes, all with a spiffy certificate at the end. BarSmarts is a great intro to mixology, and from there, you should be able to recreate recipes you find online with no difficulty.
Whiskey Stones
If you like your whiskey slightly lower than room temperature with a faint taste of soapstone, then sure, invest in a set of whiskey stones. They may cool a drink as much as 10 degrees for as long as half an hour, but ultimately, you still wind up with a glass full of rocks. Unless you’re going for something really high-end like Balls of Steel (which has a gel interior to hold colder temperatures for longer), research has shown these novelty drink coolers aren’t very effective. Pass on these, and buy yourself some cool silicone ice molds instead.
Bottled Simple Syrup
There are some really fascinating bottled syrups out there, but you never need to purchase simple syrup. To make this ingredient yourself, simply place equal parts sugar and water in a sealed container (like a mason jar), and shake the hell out of it until the sugar dissolves. Bam, you just made simple syrup, and you can use the money you saved to buy other more interesting ingredients. For the record, you can also make classic grenadine the same way by shaking equal parts sugar and pomegranate juice. Mason jars and other sealed containers are drastically underrated bar tools when it comes to making ingredients like syrups and bitters at home.
So yeah, beware these products. Keep your focus on the bar tools we outlined last time, and look for the genuinely useful items at reasonable prices. But speaking of where to find those other useful items, there are a few handy tricks we’ll cover next week.