This chapter covers the basic barware you will need to make the perfect G&T or craft a great cocktail, including some handy equipment: jiggers and measures, shakers, strainers, bar spoons, muddlers, juicers, glassware and ice. Little extras you might need but already have in your kitchen are cocktail sticks, a blender, chopping boards and knives, a potato peeler (makes a great citrus peeler) and cute paper straws.
Bar equipment need not be expensive. You can find everything you need in your local supermarket or online and if you don’t want to splash out, a lot of the equipment you already have in your kitchen will do just fine.
I have a handy drawer in my kitchen where I store almost all of the necessary equipment, apart from glasses and shakers. Whenever I’m making a G&T or a cocktail I can find what I need without going to look for it.
If there is just one piece of equipment you do need to spend money on it is an accurate jigger. A jigger is a double-ended cup for measuring out your gin. At one end is a 25ml/.75fl oz or 30ml/1fl oz measure and at the other is a double measure, 50ml/1.75fl oz or 60ml/2fl oz. You can use either as long as you keep the ratios consistent. There are no standard measures of a single or double shot, so any cocktail recipe that doesn’t give accurate measurements should be treated with caution.
I have bought quite a few jiggers and thimble measures (the single version of a jigger) in my time, only to find out they were wide of the mark when it came to accuracy. An inaccurate jigger/measure will ruin your cocktails. It might be stating the obvious but when you measure your ingredients make sure you measure accurately. Take your time. Measure up to the mark. And unless you are a highly trained bartender – and I’m talking world class here – don’t free pour. Only the most professional of bartenders can accurately measure out spirits without a jigger.
Also, it pays to pay a little more for your jigger. Browse online. There is a fantastic array of jiggers and bar equipment out there, in all colours from stainless steel to rose gold, copper and psychedelic.
The one I use is nothing fancy. Just stainless steel but with some very handy internal measurements of 15ml, 25ml and 45ml.
Next on your must-have list of cocktail tools is a shaker. The majority of cocktails are shaken as opposed to stirring in a glass.
Dry shaking is when you shake your ingredients without ice. This is usually when one of your ingredients is pasteurised egg white. Effectively, you are emulsifying your egg white and combining it with the other ingredients, something that is harder to do when your shaker is filled with chunks of ice. You can also cheat and use an electric hand whisk of the kind used to froth milk. This will thoroughly emulsify your egg white and save arm ache. After dry shaking to emulsify, you then add your ice and shake again to chill your drink.
Shaking your ingredients in a shaker filled with ice does several things to your cocktail. First, and most obvious, it chills your drink. And most cocktails taste better when cold. When shaking vigorously for a minute you will notice your shaker getting very cold to the touch and water droplets from condensation forming on the outside.
Second, you are diluting your drink. This might seem like an odd thing to do, but most cocktails taste better when chilled and slightly diluted.
While you are busily shaking your cocktail shaker, tiny pieces of ice are breaking off from the chunks of ice that are bashing together in the shaker. These tiny pieces then melt to dilute your drink. Finally, you are aerating your drink and making the texture lighter.
There are many cocktail shakers out there. Again, supermarkets and online are good places to buy. For the home cocktail-maker, a standard shaker bought in a supermarket is more than adequate for the job and there are some quite nice-looking ones around, including copper and rose-gold coloured options.
The classic shaker is one you will instantly recognise from its shape. It has three parts to it: the can (the large tumbler), the top (which has a coarse strainer built in) and the cap, which should fit on snugly.
You should have at least one cocktail strainer in your gin cabinet, preferably two. Strainers are essential for filtering out any little bits of fruit or herb or ice pieces that may spoil your otherwise perfect cocktail. But at the same time, they shouldn’t eliminate the ‘fluffiness’ of the drink that you made by shaking it.
There are two types of strainer: the Hawthorne strainer and the fine strainer. Both are useful to have for when you need to double strain your cocktail. Both can be bought online.
The Hawthorne strainer is shaped a bit like a table tennis bat with a spring around the edge. You use it by holding it in the mouth of the shaker can, where the spring then holds it in place. You pour the shaken cocktail through the strainer into your glass.
Cocktails will often call for fine straining, and some for double straining, using both, and while the Hawthorne will be adequate for most cocktails, the fine strainer really does the job much better. Shaped like a conical tea strainer you hold it over your glass and pour through it from your shaker. You can make do with a tea strainer if you don’t want to go to the bother of hunting down a fine strainer. But you’ll be amazed at the difference a decent strainer makes to the quality of your cocktails.
A bar spoon is basically a spoon with a long elegant twisted stem, and sometimes with a flat end. It is a useful stirring tool or can be used to create layered cocktails by pouring the ingredients down the twisted stem. In the hands of a good bartender, it is a thing of beauty, acting like a conductor’s baton orchestrating a symphony of cocktails. Just watch a bartender pour tonic down the twisted stem into a copa glass of gin and ice. It is said that pouring the tonic into the glass this way keeps all the fizz.
It is also used for measuring out cocktail ingredients. The standard measurement of a bar spoon is 5ml, the same as a teaspoon. Some cheap bar spoons, like cheap jiggers, are inaccurate and not worth the little money you spend on them. Buy cheap and you end up paying double.
The flat end is supposed to be used as a muddler, but I’ve never found them to be fit for purpose for muddling (see below). And on more than one occasion I have bent the thin stem of the spoon by energetically muddling basil for a Gin Basil Smash (see page 147).
A muddler is a fun tool to have in your gin cabinet. Like a mini rolling pin with a serrated end, it’s designed to crush or bruise herbs, spices and fruits in your shaker in a similar way to a pestle and mortar, to release the oils and flavours. It’s essential for cocktails such as Gin Basil Smash (see page 147). Find yourself a heavy plastic one that can be cleaned using hot soapy water. The wooden ones are more difficult to keep clean and hygienic.
Most cocktails call for an element of sweet and sour, with the sour often freshly squeezed lemon juice. So a juicer is an essential element of your kit.
Manual ones with the long-hinged handle like the one shown here are fine. They do the job and keep hold of the pips, which is what you want. But I always seem to make quite a mess with them, squirting lemon juice all over the kitchen. If I am making a lot of cocktails I much prefer to use an electric juicer. This might seem quite an expense to splash out on, but I think it’s worth it. If only to save you cleaning-up time.
If you are without, then either a fork or a good old-fashioned squeeze through your fingers will do.
This is where you can get creative with the presentation of your drinks. There are lots of bargains to be had in stores or online. I like to rummage around charity shops for old glassware from the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
There are six basic glass styles used for gin and tonics and cocktails: the copa de balon or balloon glass, the highball (similar to a Collins glass but only a bit fatter, which makes little difference), the martini or cocktail glass with its iconic cone shape, the coupe glass (think 70s Babycham), the squat old-fashioned glass, and the champagne flute (often used for gin fizzes if you want to look elegant).
The Copa de Balon
Copa de balon is Spanish for balloon glass and this gives you some idea of its shape. Prior to the Spanish revolution in serving gin (that’s a whole other book, by the way) gin and tonics were served in straight-up Collins or highball glasses. The copa is used for gin and tonics with room for plenty of ice and garnishes. And of course it has a stem to hold onto and avoid getting chilly fingers as with a traditional highball.
You must at least once in your life watch a Spanish bartender whizz round large chunks of ice in your copa to make the glass cold, drain off any melt, then carefully place garnishes with tweezers over your gin of choice, before pouring tonic down the twisted bar spoon. Artistry.
The Highball and Collins
Tall and slim, the highball and Collins were the glasses of choice before the copa de balon came along and virtually elbowed them out of fashion. They still have a place though, in long cold drinks with plenty of fizz.
The Martini or Cocktail Glass
The iconic Martini glass needs no explanation. This perfect vehicle for an elegant cocktail conjures up images of black tie-clad elbows on polished wooden bars holding a Gin Martini aloft while piano music plays softly in the background.
The Coupe Glass
Also used as an alternative for a Martini, the coupe is a fine and dandy receptacle for gin cocktails that include frothy egg white.
The Old Fashioned Glass
This is a squat, straight-sided, no-nonsense kind of glass. The old fashioned is also known as a rocks glass and is used just for that purpose: drinks on ice.
The Champagne Flute
Prosecco flute is probably a more apt name these days, as Prosecco gin cocktails seem just the thing at summer parties.
Although not strictly barware, good quality clear ice is as essential as any piece of equipment in your home bar.
Ice is a magical thing. It transforms your gin and tonic into a thing of beauty. I cannot stress enough the importance of good quality clear ice to your G&T. Without it, your drink will not only look inferior but rapidly become lukewarm with the heat of the room, your hand or the sun, and the taste won’t be the same – and who wants that.
Ice works by cooling your drink as it melts into it. And there is a trade-off: in order to have a cold drink that tastes good, it must suffer some dilution. Therefore it makes sense to have chunks of ice in your drink that cool slowly. Large chunks of ice will melt slower than small chunks of ice, so it pays to have large chunks filling your glass. By the time you’ve finished your drink, they should be no more than half melted.
Ice is also used in cocktail shakers to rapidly cool the ingredients. As the chunks of ice collide, tiny pieces break off which melt and produce that cooling effect. They also add a little bit of texture to the finished cocktail and help aerate it.
Crushed ice is used in frappe drinks such as the Bramble (see page 162). You can crush your ice in a bag by bashing with a rolling pin, an activity that is strangely therapeutic.
Buy bags of clear chunky ice in your local supermarket or freeze your own in an ice-cube tray. The silicone moulds that you can buy are quite handy. These come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Round ones are fun but I have to say, though, that most of the novelty ones are pretty much useless if you want to cool your drink properly. Freeze and pop out your cubes into a sturdy bag, freeze again and continue in the same way until you have a nice stock of cubes.
The ice you freeze at home won’t be totally clear though. It will be white, for reasons too long and technical to go into here. You can try boiling, cooling and chilling your water in the fridge prior to freezing. But this will only have a partial effect on producing clear ice cubes and, frankly, it is quicker and probably cheaper to pop to the shops and buy the stuff. You can, however, buy ice-cube mould kits online that promise clear ice and these are quite effective if a tad more expensive than your typical mould.
You can also freeze fruits, flowers, herbs, spices and whatnot in individual ice cube trays. Or try colouring them with natural colourings, such as blue with butterfly pea extract. They will make a pretty addition to your gin and tonic or cocktail without adding too much flavour. All their aroma and flavour will be locked inside the frozen ice and only be released gradually as the ice melts.
1736 ~ On 29 September the Gin Act, a UK Parliamentary Act, came into force at midnight. Retailers were required to purchase a licence at £50 per annum (approx. £7,000 in today’s money). Excise duty was set at 20 shillings per gallon. Riots ensued.
1743 ~ The Gin Act was repealed. During the seven years it was in existence only two distillers took out a licence and gin production rose by nearly 50 per cent to a whopping estimated 11 million gallons per year, despite the reward for informers on illegal gin shops of the princely sum of £5.
1751 ~ A new Gin Act was drafted, this time in consultation with distillers. This policy introduced reasonable prices and excise duties. Distillers were bound to sell only to licensed retailers supervised by magistrates.
Hogarth’s Beer Street and Gin Lane were printed in support of this Act, illustrating the evils of gin consumption: drunkenness, prostitution, child neglect, bankruptcy and death. In contrast, Beer Street was depicted as a model of industry and society. first example of a smear campaign?
The Gin Craze was subsiding. Madam Geneva seemed about to turn almost respectable.
Well, no, actually, that didn’t happen for a couple of hundred years.