Tools for Your Home Bar

Hi, I'm Joe Campanale. You're watching eHow.com. Today, I'm going to show you all the tools you need for your own home bar. The first thing you're going to need is a pour spout. Pour spouts are great, because they control the flow of liquid coming out the bottle. Really easy to use. You just add them to the top of your bottle. And, that makes pouring anything a lot easier, and much more controlled. Next thing I'd say that you need, is a bar spoon. These are, the bar spoons are really nice and long. So, this way, you don't get your hand into the cocktail. Something that I like to do is, take your standard spoon, and then just bend the end of it. By bending the end of it, you get this great little sort of curvature, and that grabs the ice, and stirs your cocktail a lot better. Bar spoon. Next thing you're going to need is some sort of shaker and mixer. I really like to use this Boston Shaker, which consists of a glass, and a metal mixing cup. You might also see a shaker that's all one piece, but Boston Shaker is preferred for bartenders, because you have a glass piece that you can build your cocktail in, and then the metal piece that goes right on top. Next thing you need: Two types of strainers. One strainer is called the Hawthorne strainer, and this has a very specific purpose. It's used for anytime you're making a cocktail that has bits of fruit in it that you don't want to get into the glass. So, you add it to the top of your mixing cup, and you pour out like that. Now, this Julep strainer is great as well. But, Julep strainer you're going to use in your clear glass mixing glass. And, the kind of drinks that you'd make in the clear glass mixing glass are drinks that are spirit-only based, like a martini. So, you add all of your spirits to the glass. Use your stirrer, and you're going to stir it up, just like that. And then, use your Julep strainer, and when you take your Julep strainer on, you just put it on the front, and then you pour it into whatever sort of fancy glass you like, usually a martini glass. Next thing you're going to need is a muddler. I love these baseball bat-shaped muddlers. These are really the best style. Again, it should be long enough so that your hand is not getting into the glass. And, make sure you don't get the painted muddlers. Paint is eventually going to chip off, and where's that going to go, but into your drink. And, you do not want to drink that. I like to make sure that we have a couple of jiggers around. Jiggers are basically just measuring tools. They come in one ounce, two ounce, half ounce sizes. If you don't have any jiggers, you can totally use measuring cups or measuring spoons at home. I also like to have one of these peelers around. These are really great fruit peelers, especially for anything that you're going to hold in your hand, because it's really steady. The other reason that they're great is because when you're peeling the skin off a lemon like that, it keeps the pith on the lemon, and not on the fruit. The pith is really bitter, and this is all you want right here. So, use a good peeler. Something else that's very important is to have a little butting board, and a pairing knife. I really like plastic cutting boards, because they're very sanitary, they're super easy to clean. And, a nice pairing knife. Use a good, sharp blade. If you can find a pairing knife that has a serrated blade, like the ones that you would find for, say, a really big bread knife, but just in a small size, that makes it even easier to cut. And then, don't forget having a corkscrew around. A lot of bottles have corks. A lot of times, you can also use corkscrews to open up your beer can. Corkscrews are an essential bartending tool. The final tool that we use at the bar, and I think is great to use at home, too, is a couple of straws. Straws are great, because you're able to taste any cocktail before it goes out without putting your, you know, lips on your friend's cocktail. All you do is, you put the straw inside, you touch the top, and you can steal just a little bit, just to make sure the cocktail tastes great. Well, thanks so much for watching. Next time you're in New York City, come visit me at Anfora, or Dell'Anima.