Most drinks in the standard repertoire are built from four techniques: shaking, stirring, straining and measuring. Four tools cover all four, and everything beyond that is refinement.
Boston shaker
Two stainless tins — one slightly smaller — that press together to form a friction seal. The alternative is a three-piece cobbler shaker with a built-in strainer and a cap. It looks easier to use, but the cap seizes once sugar or juice dries in the threads, and the built-in strainer is worse than a separate one.
The community consensus is blunt on this: a Boston shaker is durable, easy to clean, and will not get stuck the way cobbler shakers do. See the Boston shaker guide.
A shaker full of ice and spirit is a pressure vessel. Point it away from your face and anyone nearby when you break the seal, and never shake a carbonated ingredient.
Hawthorne strainer
A flat perforated disc with a coiled spring around the rim. The spring is the whole design: it fills the gap between the disc and the mouth of the shaker, and it catches the fine pulp that would otherwise slip past. A strainer without a spring leaks. See the Hawthorne strainer guide.
Jigger
A double-ended measure, classically 1.5 oz one way and 0.75 oz the other. Cocktails are ratios, and a jigger is how you hit them repeatedly. Free pouring is faster and drifts; a jigger is what makes a drink the same twice. A version with internal 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 lines is worth more than a prettier one without. See the jigger guide.
Bar spoon
A long twisted shaft with a small bowl. It stirs a drink in a mixing glass without agitating it, measures a teaspoon, and — poured down — guides liquid when you float a layer. See the bar spoon guide.
The optional fifth
A mixing glass is the one addition worth making early. Anything that is all spirit or spirit plus a clear modifier should be stirred, not shaken, and stirring in a shaker tin is awkward. It is optional because you can start without it — but it is the tool people add first.
| Shaker | Boston, two tins, unlined stainless |
|---|---|
| Strainer | Hawthorne, with a spring |
| Measure | Jigger, 1.5 oz / 0.75 oz, internally marked |
| Stirrer | Bar spoon, 30–40 cm |
| Optional | Mixing glass, 500–700 ml |
What to skip
- Plastic shakers. They crack, they stain, and the seal degrades.
- A cobbler shaker as your only shaker, for the reasons above.
- Pre-bottled sour mix. It is sugar, acid and preservative, and it removes the one variable worth controlling.
- A drawer of novelty tools. Add a tool when you can name the drink that needs it.
Rinse everything immediately
Sugar dries and welds the tins together; pulp rots inside a strainer spring. Rinse with hot water the moment you finish, and wash the spring properly once a week.
Once the tools exist, the next thing to learn is balance — the cocktail ratios guide covers it, and the dilution calculator works out the numbers before you shake.
This guide covers hot water, steam, pressurised equipment and, in places, alcohol. Follow the instructions supplied with your own equipment, ventilate when you clean or descale, keep spirits out of reach of children, and drink responsibly.