The 2020 holiday season is at hand, and for many of us that means our collective stress levels are hitting all-time highs. Each of us has our own coping methods to deal with the overwhelming anxiety: playing video games to keep our hands busy, supporting business via retail therapy, or the old staple — liquor.
A jigger is a small measuring cup, used by bartenders to measure out the liquid ingredients for a cocktail. You’d be surprised how much better your cocktails will taste with precise measurements.
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If there’s any one item on this list that we’d call an absolute must-have, it’s a sturdy cocktail shaker. We like this Easton cobbler-style shaker because it’s shiny and timeless. It’ll match with basically any other tools you might have on your bar cart. The strainer lid is a huge draw here, too. Not every shaker comes with one, and it’s pretty essential for pouring your icy cocktails into the glass.
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These speakeasy-style cocktail glasses are the perfect escape from the clutches of your saggy couch cushions. They’re multipurpose, so you can use them for basically any cocktail your heart desires — or even just the dregs of that old bottle of wine you forgot about.
Like a jigger, owning a bar spoon isn’t strictly necessary, it is super helpful. Bar spoons are spoons with long, svelte handles that allow you to thoroughly mix your cocktail without any fuss. We like this one because it doesn’t try to be anything it’s not — it’s just 16 inches of stainless steel.
The corkscrew you picked up at the dollar store a few years back is...well, it’s either lost in the void of your junk drawer or you loaned it to a neighbor, you can’t quite remember.
This corkscrew is better, anyway. It comes in seven colors, and it’s sturdy enough that you’ll be able to open up that expensive wine with no problem, even if you haven’t lifted anything heavier than your laptop in months.
Paper towels are, like, so 2019. You need about ten of them to clean up the smallest of spills, and buying them all the time is really not good for the environment.
Whiskey stones are not an essential quarantine item, but they’re also not not an essential quarantine item...you know? These are more interesting than those grey ones your dad used to use, and they’ll keep just about any cocktail cold way longer than ice would — without watering it down.
A bar cart is perhaps the most “extravagant” item on this list, but it’s also the one that will most transform your home bar. This one has three tiers for storing all the other tools we’ve told you to purchase with plenty of room left over for wine and the hard stuff, too.