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.

Jono Carr is the former Group Bars Manager for Liquid & Larder as well as being a runner up in the Bartender of the Year comp. He is currently doing a stint at PS40 and writing a bunch of stories for us. Follow him @jonothandc

Since the early days of taverns and coffee houses when the ‘tenders of their respective times started making the ‘fancy’ mixed drinks that we now call cocktails, the equipment used has been almost as important as the drinks themselves. Booze historian Dave Wondrich suggests that even the word cocktail may actually come from a piece of bar equipment. He cites a liquid measure used in New Orleans to make a Sazerac, the ‘coquetier’, which is French for egg cup.

‘You are only as good as your tools’ might be a direct contradiction to ‘you can’t blame your tools’, but they share a similar constant. The bar equipment we use should be up to the task of what we need them to do. Whether it was the Godfather of cocktails Jerry Thomas pouring a fiery blazer between two handled mugs or even further back to hot pokers being pulled out of a fire to create early Flips in colonial America, the equipment needs to be up to the task at hand.

If you have ever been to any of Sven Almenning’s venues you may have seen his amazing array of antique shakers. He has painstakingly collected these items over the years and they come in every shape and form. He has the classic handled number, Penguins and even the infamous Ladies Boot shaker that has become Insta-famous.

All this history of beautiful bar equipment took a bit of a slide in the late 80s and early 90s when light-up plastic shakers matched the quality of the drinks. Slowly glass Bostons became the norm and then thankfully – with the return to classic cocktails – quality and beautiful bar tools also came back into vogue.

“A protein shaker from Coles may do the trick but to make you look as good as you want your cocktail to taste, then a set of Toby Tins are the minimum. However, some swear by the Parisian shaker instead and others prefer a 3 piece to keep up appearances, they all have their pros and cons.”

All of a sudden three-piece, Parisian and Toby Tins were being found in good cocktail bars. Alongside them, fancy bar spoons out of Japan with dangerously sharp trident edges (I’ve had one stuck in my arm before, not so good), hawthorne and julep strainers and the like were being seen in high-end bars, budget-depending of course. If it suits your venue then anything can be used to stir a cocktail, from a knife used by Don Javier Delgado at La Capilla to mix a Batanga or even Quynh Van Nguyen’s trick of stirring drinks with a chopstick.

Where there is a want there is a need and some companies have risen to the call. Overseas, Cocktail Kingdom lead the way by providing tools for American bartenders to show off, locally the legends Dre and Gabs Walters and Dave Rozario started up BarGeek to keep us Aussie bartenders on trend with the tools we wanted to be seen using. I asked Dre what people are ordering the most now.

According to Dre: “The top-selling item would be a Toby Tin set. All bars need to shake cocktails so understandably this is the sole key item that we use the most to make delicious drinks. Other than that it’s all a personal preference to which mixing glass, bar spoon, strainer and jigger. Everyone has their own opinion on barware and it’s always interesting to know their opinion, people get really passionate about certain things”.

Now that all shades of copper, brass and gold shakers and tools are available to us, what’s next? Custom bar tools are the next level for any new bar wanting to put their (literal) stamp on their cocktails and one of the arms of Proof & Co is doing just that, says Charlie Ainsbury, Spirit Evangelist for Proof & Company.

“We’re always sourcing items like ice stamps, custom stencils and other hard to find equipment for venues,” says Charlie. “For the Next Hotel in Melbourne, for instance, we sourced over 40 barrels and clay amphoras for their ageing room including the likes of ex-Chardonnay, Sherry and New French Oak finishes with custom made copper whisky thieves to go with them. We have the capacity to create signature glassware for venues too with help from John Jenkins, an incredible crystal glassware producer based in the UK. We’ve also created bespoke cocktail trolleys for venues too, designed from scratch with the expertise of the Proof Creative team.”

So, what do you actually need to open and tend your bar? No matter if you are a friendly neighbourhood joint or dedicated high-end cocktail bar if you want to make mixed beverages you will need a few things in your kit. Shaken drinks require a shaker, makes sense but this is where personal preference divides the most. A protein shaker from Coles may do the trick but to make you look as good as you want your cocktail to taste then a set of Toby Tins are the minimum. However, some swear by the Parisian shaker instead and others prefer a 3 piece to keep up appearances, they all have their pros and cons.

When stirring down those classics a good mixing glass is needed, in this case it’s all about your personal choice or venue style. Glass is the most widely used but there are some metal mixing glasses on the market. They conduct temperature incredibly well though do make a bit of a racket. Unless you plan to finger stir your drinks (RIP Gary Regan) then you will need a bar spoon too. These come in all sorts of lengths and styles but as long as you can get the ice and booze going around in a circle you are doing ok. At a house party a Pyrex jug works a treat by the way, it even has measurements on the side.

Whether you have shaken or stirred your libation you’ll need to get it into the vessel of choice. A Hawthorne strainer is generally used for shaken and a julep for stirred. Separating the ice from your liquid is the aim, so use what’s best for you given your cocktail creation’s final form. A fine strainer will keep you from having unwanted seeds, solids and chards in the beverage and can also give a little aeration too. You’ll also need a good knife, serrated or otherwise, and a chopping board and you can whip up most drinks. Tweezers and ice tongs are there if you don’t like touching anything that goes into the drinks, or just wash your hands a lot and well.

On top of our traditional bar tools, bartenders are turning to the kitchen for high tech chef’s tools to create drinks like M.C., owner of PS40, using a Thermomix to blend a cocktail before shaking it at PS40 and of course the ‘love or don’t understand it’ Rotovap being used at some great bars (with strong budgets) across the country. However, don’t get too overwhelmed by the choices out there – as long as your instrument suits the task at hand (as shown by Quynh chopstick method) then go for it. Hey, if it works, right?