Cocktail supplies

Five things make up the basics: a shaker to mix and chill, a jigger to measure, a bar spoon to stir, a strainer to hold back the ice and a muddler to bruise mint and lime. If you would rather not pick them one by one, those basics come together in a cocktail set.

With the shaker you choose between two systems. A Boston shaker is two parts, a large tin with a smaller tin or a glass, and needs a separate strainer. It works faster, leaks less and is easier to clean, but you have to learn how to break the seal between the two halves. A cobbler has three parts with a built-in strainer and cap, which works nicely if you make something now and then at home.

With the jigger, watch the measures. The European standard measures 2 and 4 cl, while American jiggers are marked at 3 and 4.5 cl. Recipes from American books count in ounces, so check which measures are marked on the inside before you follow a recipe to the letter. A jigger with graduations inside is more versatile than a smooth cup.

Choose the bar spoon by length. A 33 cm stem reaches the bottom of a 55 cl mixing glass; with a 25 cm spoon you only stir the top half cold.

The rule for shaking or stirring is simple. If there is something cloudy in it, such as juice, egg, cream or syrup, you shake. If the cocktail is completely clear, such as a dry martini or a negroni, you stir. Shaking chills faster, dilutes more and brings air into the drink; stirring keeps it heavy and smooth.

Shake hard and briefly, about twelve seconds, until the outside of the tin frosts over. Stirring takes longer, thirty to forty seconds, with the back of the spoon against the wall of the glass so the ice turns instead of clattering.

Fill your shaker or mixing glass generously with ice. That sounds contradictory, but a large mass of ice melts more slowly than a few loose cubes and therefore dilutes your drink less. Then strain onto fresh ice in the glass, never onto the ice you shook with. If you work with mint, lime or sugar, bruise them with the muddler before the drink goes in, with a turning movement and without force: you want the oil out of the leaf and not the bitter fibres.

Almost everything in this category is stainless steel, and that is on purpose. It does not take on smells, does not rust and can usually go in the dishwasher. Coated versions in black, copper and gold are the exception: that layer is thin and lasts longer with hand washing and immediate drying.

Rinse anything that has been in contact with sugar or citrus straight away. Dried syrup in the hinge of a strainer or in the thread of a shaker only comes out with soaking later on, and it attracts fruit flies. Glass mixing glasses are vulnerable at the rim, so do not stand them upside down on a hard shelf.

Rubber and plastic parts, such as the cork of a pour spout or the head of a muddler, are consumables. As soon as they turn sticky or discolour, replace them; a muddler with a worn head no longer bruises but cuts the mint to pieces.

Store everything dry and not pushed together. A shaker put away wet is hard to open the next day, because the two halves suck themselves tight as the metal contracts.

If you ended up here while you were actually looking for glassware, the full range is with the cocktail glasses. If you would rather know what you are going to make before you pick your tools, the recipes point the way: a margarita teaches you shaking, straining and setting a salt rim, while a negroni has you stirring three equal parts. That way you find out for yourself which tools you reach for daily and which can stay in the drawer for now. If you are right at the start, a set is a wiser beginning than separate pieces; you add to it later with whatever you find yourself missing in practice, such as a second strainer or a heavier mixing glass. That works out better than buying the same thing twice because the first choice was not quite right.