​Beverage Time

It you are planning to set up your own home bar, there are some basic bartender tools that you must not ignore. After all, the objective is to serve beverages that reflect your personal style.

 

If draft beer is the main item, a beer dispenser adds panache. To mix cocktails, some items may already be available in your kitchen, and as for the rest you can easily purchase them at a brick and mortar store or online.

 

You may be familiar with items like jiggers, bar spoons, and muddlers, so here we shall concentrate on certain bartender tools that are unique, but nevertheless can make for a very handy addition to your list.

 

Speed Pourer

 

You certainly would not like to mess up while pouring drinks to your guests. With a speed pourer, you streamline the flow of liquid coming out of the bottle. With a continuous controlled flow of hooch, you make drinks faster.

 

However, remember that speed pourers are not required for stuff like thick, sugary, or creamy Apertifs and Digestifs, where a speed pourer can hold back adequate flow.

 

Luckily, speedy pourers are not expensive and are available in three different types, namely standard metal pourer, tapered metal pourer, and screened metal pourer.

 

A Neat Ice Kit

 

Ice is a key item in almost all gatherings. So, ice buckets, crushers, scoops, and tongs are must have items in a home bar. However, a nice ice kit will add notches to your bartender tools' status.

A typical Neat Ice Kit includes an ice mold, an ice chisel with built-in bottle opener, a Lewis bag for making crushed ice, and a wooden muddler that you can use as a club with ice chisel and Lewis bag.

For those who are not familiar, a Lewis bag is akin to a coin bag used by banks. It is heavy duty and perfect for making crushed ice.

 

With a little practice, you can create the following three different types of ice that will cover the gamut of cocktails:

 

1.Large Ice Chunks: Can be mixed with any kind of drink and is especially useful when tall and narrow glasses are used for serving.
2.Crushed Ice: With the wooden muddler and Lewis Bag, you can create the perfect crushed ice for drinks like Mint Julep. When more dilution is necessary, then ice is broken down into small pieces to create more surface area than ice cubes. This way, ice will melt faster and chill the drink faster.
3.Large chunks crystal clear ice: Here you break the ice brick in half to get perfectly shaped clear cube. Looks fantastic in a rocks glass and is ideal when slow dilution is required.

 

Soda Siphon

 

When you add soda water for making cocktails or mixed drinks, you have two options:

• Use bottled sodas that go flat, if not used properly.
• Use a soda siphon that transforms regular water into an effervescent carbonated drink by using carbon-dioxide cartridges attached to the handle. Looks great and trendy when you make a quick squirt of soda water into a Gin Fizz and serve it to your guests.

 

Having the right bartender tools gives you confidence and is fun too.