Bartending at Home (Part One: Bar Supply)

So I was browsing Facebook today, and I saw an inspirational quote.  It was beautiful, there was a picture background of a young couple walking on a beach to the sunset, and to be fully honest I can't remember what the quote was, but it struck a chord in my soul.  It made me think of all of my favorite inspirational quotes of all time, like "You always miss 100% of the shots you don't take. -Wayne Gretzky" -Michael Scott, and "Nothing good ever happens after midnight" -my mom.  Needless to say, this inspiration carried into my day and I wanted to look into some other great quotes that molded great people over the years.  I ended stumbling across this famous proverb that went something to the tune of "Serve them a cocktail and they'll be intoxicated for a day; teach them to convert their kitchen into a bar and they'll be intoxicated for a lifetime and you've gotten rid of the liability because they're somebody else's problem now."  Wow, that is some truly inspirational stuff.  So much so, that I have decided to make a series of blog posts about how to start making very nice drinks at home.  This first part of this series is going to be about all of the tools and utensils you will ever need to make beautiful drinks at home.

A few posts ago I talked about all sorts of easy drinks to make, and I went over a few absolute essentials for your bar in the form of glassware.  You can find that post here, but I'll gloss over it here as well.  Every home bar should have lots of pint glasses, because they are perfect for mixing all of your drinks.  Have six on hand as a bare minimum, more is always handy, which is why I collect them.  Whenever I visit a new brewery I make a point to buy a pint glass, so that when I am entertaining, I have plenty in reserve.  Just make sure they are good quality, heavy glass glasses.  Also, have a good amount of rocks glasses handy as well.  These are perfect for smaller drinks, and between rocks and pint glasses, you have about the perfect size to make the majority of cocktails out there.  It won't always be perfect, you might have to put a Martini in a rocks glass, but it will get the job done.

The next most important thing to have, and half of the reason why you need so many pint glasses, is a good shaker tin.  I use a Boston shaker which is just a large tin cup, that when you shove a pint glass into the top, it seals nicely, and you can give your mixed drinks a good shake.  Many shakers nowadays are moving away from the old Boston method, and are including a metal topper that you can use to put over the top and shake.  I don't usually like this method of doing it because you leave the pint glass out of the equation and he gets lonely sometimes.  Seriously.  I always pour my ingredients into a pint glass first instead of the tin, because this way, I can see what is going into my drink, and I can adjust accordingly if I want to.  The only problem with doing it my way is that the tin gets very cold while you shake it and will shrink around the glass, making it hard to remove sometimes.  Whenever this happens, I give the tin a good bang against the counter, which is usually enough to dislodge the glass.  However, if you don't buy good heavy pint glasses, you may end up with glass in your drink....

Now to pair with your shaker, a good strainer is needed.  This one is isn't too complicated, when you are done mixing your drink, place the strainer over the tin to get all of the ice out of the drink for Martini's and such.  Also, if you want to keep a full glass of ice to keep your drink cold longer, many people will strain their drink over clean ice to prevent spilling and splashing.  Many people will strain twice into a fine mesh strainer to get rid of any pulp that might be left over from using fresh citrus in your drinks.  Personally, I don't mind some pulp slipping through the cracks, so I never really use mine.

Pour spouts are next on the list, and they are the most used tool in my home.  Whenever I open up a bottle, I throw a pour spout on right away to make measuring my pours much easier.  A one ounce pour takes about two seconds of pouring, a two ounce pour takes four seconds, and so on.  Knowing this, I sell those pour spouts that automatically stop after about one ounce of pouring.  These are awful, and should be avoided.  I have always had problems with them working right.  Sometimes they pour too much, sometimes not enough, and they are not reliable enough.  Get the ones with no moving parts and they become so much more reliable.  These are nice to have in the kitchen as well, putting one of these on top of your bottle of olive oil or other liquids that you use frequently in the kitchen can simplify cooking immensely.

You don't always have an even pour and for those instances, a jigger is really nice.  You can find jiggers in many different sizes, so if you aren't comfortable with counting out your pour, you can get a few jiggers to help measure.  Regardless, I only have one jigger and one side measures 3/4 oz and the other side measures 1 1/2 oz, so I can accurately measure my difficult pours.

Not every drink should be shaken, and those that aren't should be stirred with a bar spoon.  I've found that your smaller, stronger drinks turn out better when stirred, and you can't just use a normal spoon.  With all of the ice in your drink, trying to use a normal spoon is a hassle and you will likely end up splashing everywhere, but when you get a nice fancy bar spoon with a twisted handle stirring becomes much easier.  You don't have to fight against all of the ice, and you can actually stir incredibly fast once you get the hand motion down, even faster than with a stir stick.

I have one optional bar utensil as well, and that is the muddler.  This one is used in a few cocktails like the Mojito to squish out any oils and juices in your drink.  While this is really important for a few cocktails, it's not the most used of the utensils that I mentioned in this post.

Cocktail Time!


Shamrock Sour

2 oz Irish Whiskey (2 Gingers)
Splash of Blue Curacao (Dekuyper)
1/2 of a lemon's juice
3/4 oz simple syrup
1/2 of the egg white of a large egg (about 1/2 oz)
Ice

Add all ingredients except ice to a cocktail shaker and shake for about 15 seconds to get a good foam started.  Add ice and shake again for another 15 seconds or until cold and then strain into a rocks glass or coupe.  Garnish with a skewered cherry.

Alright, I know what everybody is thinking, "Is he trying to kill us?  Telling us to eat raw egg whites?"  I can tell you with 100% certainty that when you add an egg white to alcohol, that any bacteria will die, and it is absolutely safe.  I can also tell you that this variation on a classic whiskey sour is phenomenal and you absolutely should try it, even though it might be the most labor intensive drink I have ever made.  The egg white gives it a nice froth and after that, it just tastes like a good lemon sour.  This makes the perfect drink for just staying at home and having a nice, quiet St. Patrick's Day.

Now that I have all of the utensils taken care of, my next post will be on some relatively inexpensive spirits to buy to make a variety of excellent cocktails.  Until then, have a happy and safe St. Patrick's Day, and hopefully the sun will start shining and melt my frozen heart.






P.S.  Please drink responsibly, please.
P.P.S.  Also, don't drink and drive.
P.P.P.S.  All opinions expressed in this blog are mine and don't represent those of my employer.
P.P.P.P.S.  Thank you Mrs. Klegstad for teaching me how to separate the white from a yolk.  I never thought that I would use that knowledge in real life back in 8th grade, but look where I am now!
P.P.P.P.P.S.  On the topic of good quotes, "May your kilt be short enough to dance a jig, but long enough to hide your lucky charms."  I wonder if Happy Harry's will let me wear my kilt to work on Saturday....