Opening a bar is an arduous process; you become a plumber, a painter, an electrician and more adept at navigating the bureaucracy of local government than you ever wanted to be. However, once the bones are in place, the fun begins – using the company card to set your bar up for success. They say a bad workman blames their tools, but a good bartender understands how important they are. Choosing the right bar equipment can have a massive impact on the speed and efficiency with which you can put up your cocktails, and save many headaches further down the line.

It all starts with the jigger. Quite aside from the legality of free pouring, proper measurement allows for consistency in your drinks and helps control cost of goods. Simple one-shot jiggers are fine for spirit mixers, but cocktail-making requires larger measures. A double-ended (single and double shot) flared jigger, sometimes known as a Japanese jigger, with volume markings on the inside is a good investment as they make it easy to pour different quantities, but they can take a little practice (and a steady hand!) to use. A multi-level or ‘stepped’ jigger, a shot and a half, is easier to handle for novices as spillage is limited – although you can overpour! They are especially good for venues that batch cocktails, though, as they allow you to pour larger quantities in one go.

“Now I’m going to say something controversial: mixing glasses or tins are optional. A Martini or Manhattan stirred in one half of a shaker tin tastes perfectly good to me! If you’d like to use them, mixing tins are becoming more popular – again, they are lighter (although it could be argued therefore less stable) but importantly, don’t chip or smash as glass ones are wont to do in a busy bar.”

Once the measuring is done, we’re on to the mixing. Cobblers and Parisian shaker tins are undeniably beautiful, but they are finicky to use and harder to clean; I tend to keep them for at home bartending. For high-volume cocktail bars, it’s hard to go past a simple tin on tin boston shaker. While the glass ones are good in that you can see what is in it, they are heavier and breakable. Tin on tins are easy to clean, can be stacked to save space, and if you buy multiple of the same brand you can mix and match the tops and bottoms if one goes wandering…which we all know happens surprisingly easily in a bar!

Now, I’m going to say something controversial: mixing glasses or tins is optional. A Martini or Manhattan stirred in one half of a shaker tin tastes perfectly good to me! If you’d like to use them, mixing tins are becoming more popular – again, they are lighter (although it could be argued, therefore, less stable), but importantly, don’t chip or smash as glass ones are wont to do in a busy bar. Metal also chills drinks faster and slows dilution, so there’s a scientific basis for choosing metal too! A good bar spoon is also important. I prefer one with a smoother texture on the handle, as aggressive ridges can be hard on the hands, and check the volume of the spoon so you can use it for adding smaller quantities of ingredients to your drinks should you wish – most are 5ml.

For strainers, I’m a big fan of the no prong hawthorne strainer. They fit snugly into all manner of tins and glasses, removing the need for a separate julep strainer. However, the lack of prongs make them a little more tricky to handle one-handedly, so a sturdier, pronged hawthorne can be a good option when you’re still finding your way around a bar tin. A fine strainer is essential for straining out smaller chips of ice and any pulp etc from juices or homemade ingredients – texture is key! Just make sure they are rinsed after every use and soaked regularly to help with longevity; there’s nothing worse than a slow pouring strainer to slow you down on service.

Of course, garnishing is a large part of cocktail making so a good, sharp knife and vegetable peeler are necessary parts of your arsenal. I like the serrated Victorinox knives, and they come in a range of colours so each bartender can have their favourite. I have yet to find the holy grail vegetable peeler – suggestions are welcome – but ones with rubber handles are more ergonomically effective, and make sure they are cleaned between uses to keep them sharper for longer. Buy more than you think you need; you’ll never regret having a backup in the cupboard.

Of course, there are a hundred decisions to be made in terms of style and colour finishes, but I’ll leave those to you in matters of taste – classics are classics for a reason, but if a bejewelled bar spoon is calling your name, go for it. This is the fun part, after all!

Story by Jono Carr. Jono is the Director of Bars for the Etymon Group and our Sydney-based Drinks Writer. You can reach Jono at drinks@spantonmedia.com

Once upon a time, this was a much more straightforward answer. The Hand Jive Barblade bottle opener was the tool I most valued, so much so that I guarded my own fervently. It became part of the mantra of leaving the house. “Keys, wallet, phone, bar blade”. It had the weight needed to swing it around your index finger and swiftly crack the top off a bottle with an impressive sound, especially when you snapped that bottle top into a nearby bin just after. Nightclub days were much simpler times.

Over the years, that was replaced by needing a nice Wine knife and perhaps a preference for Japanese measures or the trident ice carving tools that were, in my humble opinion, so much faster than the single prong. Different bars called for a different must-have tool that became the pride of the bar kit. Either living at the bar with a firm understanding of who it belonged to or, if it was the bars, desperately wanting to have your own.

So when asking a few bar folk what they couldn’t live without recently, it is not surprising that the answers were all different. Horses for courses, right? They represent the type of bars they work in or the tools they simply couldn’t, or at least wouldn’t want to live without. No one said a Barblade, though. How times change.

However, the thing he couldn’t live without – was foot pedal-activated taps. “Once you have worked with foot pedal tap, it is so hard to go back; they just make sense and become part of your movement behind the bar,” says Conor O’Brien.

While talking to Conor O’Brien at his first bar, once he got to design the metal for himself, he was happy to point out the care taken in making sure it was ergonomically correct, and all the drains had a sloped gradient, so liquid actually drains down them. However, the thing he couldn’t live without – was foot pedal-activated taps. “Once you have worked with foot pedal tap, it is so hard to go back; they just make sense and become part of your movement behind the bar,” says Conor.

Having had the pleasure of working with them before, I must admit they become part of your flow, so much so that often after a long shift, you step on a non-existent foot pedal to turn the tap on when brushing your teeth at home.

Matt Dale of Re has a different need from his bar tools in the highly technique-driven cocktail bar. “Thermomix. The single most important item in our bar. In order to do anything in our bar, the prep would no doubt have to run through the Thermomix first. Need to centrifuge something? Needs to be blended in the Thermomix first. Need to rotovap something? Needs to be blended in the Thermomix first. Need a coffee or a tea but don’t have a kettle? Boil water in the Thermomix to make your coffee or tea. This is why it would need to be in any bar I work at”.

Makes sense. As does Elliot Pascoe’s very literal response and very fair point. He says the bar tool he cannot live without is, well, himself. Though more specifically, his best self. “Moving several countries several times has necessitated the regretful shedding of the usual totemic mainstays of our craft. I do not have a favourite jigger, shaking tins, a cherished bar spoon, etc.,” says Pascoe. “So before every shift, I turn my phone to do-not-disturb and take twenty minutes to go for a silly little walk for my silly little mental health, do my little meditate, see the sun, and come to work having touched upon the things that actually give wind to my sails and made me fall in love with this ridiculous life in the first place. Everything else from there is just glitter”.

Nowadays, when we are pretty spoiled for choice in terms of shaker types, bar spoons and strainers in stainless/gold/copper/brushed copper/black/vintage and somehow even more, the perfect bar tool is in the eye of the beholder and the type of bar they work. Though I did think someone would say a sharp bar knife.

This is part two of an article that appeared in the October issue of Australian Bartender.

By Simon McGoram
Photography by Rob Palmer

A Quick History of Modern Bar Tools

Before the 1830s – the beginning of what cocktail historian David Wondrich refers to as the “Baroque Age” of bartending – a bartender’s kit consisted little more that a toddy stick (similar to an elegant modern day muddler) and a nutmeg grater. Individually prepared mixed drinks weren’t the norm you see, Punch was still the king of drinks.

It was the burgeoning ice trade that elevated the barkeep from a man filling glasses with liquor to a conjuror of magical mixes.

“Ice, combined with the American drinking public’s ever-increasing preference for individual drinks made to order over things drunk communally out of bowls, meant that the bartender had to add a whole new set of tools to his kit,” explains Wondrich in my dog-eared copy of Imbibe! “Once the blocks – in New York, at least, they we cubes twenty-two inches [56cm] per side – reached the bar they had to be butchered, as it were into usable pieces.”

This lead to the development of ice-tongs, ice-picks, ice-shavers, ice-saws, ice-axes, ice-breakers, ice-scoops, ice-bags and ice-mallets and more. A simple yet genius invention that the bartenders of today use every shift – the humble straw – was also invented at this stage as a way of keeping the ice away from people’s sensitive teeth. The toddy stick was almost out of a job with the arrival of ice being replaced by long handled spoons with twisted stems. It was a novel new method of mixing drinks though that really shook (ahem…) things up.

Well before shaking was developed skilled bartenders were throwing drinks between one mixing glass and another – ice and all – in a method not dissimilar to the way you might make a blazer. When done well it would have been quite a show though it still lacked the aerating power to emulsify egg and cream the way a modern shaker can today.

It isn’t until 1848 that we find the first written reference to someone actually shaking a beverage thanks to a reporter by the name of George Foster. Foster described by Wondrich as a “pioneering lowlife reporter” described a man in a New York oyster bar with a new contraption; “with his shirt-sleeves rolled up and his face in a fiery glow, seems to be pulling long ribbons of julep out of a tin cup.”

This tin cup that was wide enough to fit snugly over a glass beaker eventually became know as a “shaker” though it went through several names first. In 1862 Jerry Thomas in his How to Mix Drinks noted that “every well ordered bar has a tin egg-nogg ‘shaker’ which is a great aid in mixing this beverage.”

By the end of the 19th Century there were a load of patents for various shakers and strainers not at all dissimilar to what we use today. During the 20th century a plethora of more intricate designs became available for professional and at home entertainment.

Bartender’s Top 5 Barware Sites

• BarGeek.com.au

New to the online barware scene Bar Geek are importers and purveyors of fine European and Japanese barware. These folk bring you premium bar tools at a competitive price.

• kansei.com.au

This Japanese barware specialist is another new-comer to the Aussie scene. Their stock is high-end stuff. Now you’re just being spoilt for choice.

• barware.com.au

Founded in 2005, barware.com.au has a massive range of stock that looks to out do your traditional barware store offering everything from straws and glass chillers right through to cocktail equipment.

• cocktailkingdom.com

Before we had a choice of online stores locally, it was a fair bet that you’d be looking up Cocktail Kingdom for your top ‘o the line equipment. They still have a good choice of tools along with bitters and books to boot. The only caveat is that you’ll end up paying a premium even before you’re stung with shipping.

• barstuff.de

This Germany based company offer a complete range of hospitality items including some high quality barware. Their prices are competitive, but shipping again is where you’ll get stung – delivery too takes a couple of weeks.

This feature appeared in the October issue of Australian Bartender.

By Simon McGoram
Photography by Rob Palmer
Selected imagery courtesy of Bar Geek

“Before shaking was developed skilled bartenders were throwing drinks between one mixing glass and another – ice and all…”

Some of the technology we use behind the bar has changed little in decades – a decent waiter’s friend, a set of pens and a bar-blade need little improvement. Where the stakes are getting raised however is in the quality of shakers, jiggers, strainers and barspoons now available to the cocktail bartender. The industry is even seeing a new class of niche online stores offering top quality European and Japanese barware.

Once such company is Bar Geek a team effort from Sydney based bartenders Andres Walters (The Wild Rover), David Rozario (Baxter Inn) and Gabrielle Hindmarch (formerly Black by Ezard). At the start of this year the trio saw that there was a growing demand for bar equipment and hence a market for a niche barware company like Bar Geek.

“We also saw how expensive it was to get to Australia and thought it was a bit ridiculous how much you had to pay to get it here,” explains Walters. “We wanted to make it cheaper and easier to obtain for Australia and New Zealand.”

Walters believes that one of the reasons there is a demand for higher quality barware is bartenders are becoming aware of the theatrical element of their craft. “So [everything] from the way you make a drink to the equipment you use creates that theatrical experience for the customer,” says Walters. “We provide a point of difference in the market and that is a big thing today considering there are always so many new bars opening. Better quality equipment that doesn’t break is always worth the money you spend on it. Anything that can make your job easier is welcomed too.”

The Bar Geek team have have not missed the fact that there has been a rise in interest in Japanese barware because of its high quality and design with much of their initial stock sourced from their contact on the ground in Japan. Walters reckons other manufacturing countries will get it on the act too; “I think we will see people look to other manufacturers and brands from Germany, Italy and the UK to embrace the high quality production processes that those countries have.”

Walters reckons their edge over other barware retailers is their fast and speedy service delivering high quality equipment from Japan, Germany, and  the UK. “We are always looking for new products to enhance the professional bartender in his or her bar,” adds Walters. “We are bartenders wanting to find practical and well made products for other bartenders to forward the trade of bartending in Australia and New Zealand.”

“Look out for our own brand of barware coming in the not too distant future. We have several ideas for better quality equipment and can’t wait to show people,” concludes Walters.

Bartenders Top Three Equipment Picks

1.    Mr Slim Jigger – this Japanese jigger isn’t only aesthetically pleasing and easy to use the measuring lines cut into this 30/45ml jigger make it practical to use for all types of cocktails.

2.    Two-Piece Parisian Shaker- this handsome shaker is virtually unbreakable. On top of that it’s light and streamlined. Using a Boston style shaker will feel cumbersome once you’ve got used to this style.

3.    27cm Barspoon with muddling disc- This one is an oldie but a goodie. It’s available through several barware sites and has been coming down in price for some time. The disc muddling end takes care of any need for a toddy stick (see below) and there’s no sharp bits to stab yourself on!

Keep an eye out for part two of this article, focusing on the history of barware.