How to Build Your Bar Cart
JAMES MAUK
Professional amateur chocolate chip cookie Judge, off hour fermentation enthusiast, and co-founder of Golden Rule Spirits.
Let’s talk home bars and bar carts… Building out a bar can feel overwhelming. There are so many options on the shelves where does one even begin!? Well that’s why there are Golden Rule cocktails! Stock your bar with our cocktails and we can move on with our lives.
But actually, we love bartenders and respect the shit out of what they do. The home mixologist is a hero as well. We created our cocktails for the times where you don’t have a bartender present or simply don’t want to go through the effort of mixing and shaking a cocktail.
With that said, we figured it would be prudent to give some of our tips and recommendations regarding tools and liquid for the instances when you’re feeling inspired or have some extra time to craft your own.
Starting with tools…like any good 90 second workout— there are a lot of gimmicks and tools that are simply unnecessary. The tried and true tools any home bar needs are; a shaker (we will explore a couple options), a jigger, a bar spoon, and a strainer (possibly two).
For shakers the most common options are a “Boston” or a “Cobbler”. Boston shakers can either be glass on tin or tin on tin. They are two piece, extremely easy to clean and the option of most professional bartenders in the world. One item of note for the Boston is it may take a bit of practice to get the seal right and then again to “break the seal”. The Cobbler on the other hand is a three piece option typically with a strainer built in. This option is very user friendly and often more aesthetically pleasing. However, it can be a bit more challenging to wash.
Jiggers, these little tools help you build your cocktails in the correct proportions. A standard jigger has one side that is .75 ounces and another that is 1.5 ounces (22ml and 44ml respectively). For the most part choose a jigger that fits your aesthetic with one caveat for someone learning to build cocktails. It is nice to have a jigger that has gradations for .5 and 1 ounce as well.
You might think that a bar spoon can be replaced with any other stirring object and I would tend to agree. However, the twist down the handle is very helpful for fully combining stirred cocktails and the bar spoon also acts as a measuring device, one barspoon is ~5ml.
Lastly, the strainer, while a Cobbler shaker has a built in strainer the Boston shaker will need the additional strainer piece. In addition to the first strainer some cocktails ask to be double strained. For this application there is a fine mesh strainer to help catch any residual ice or pulpy ingredients that make it through to the glass.
There are other tools that can be helpful, a muddler, might be the next most useful. However I think most tasks can be accomplished with other kitchen items.
Until next time Drink Unto Others…