By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
If you enjoy champagne and/or sparkling wine, quality champagne flutes are an important addition to your home bar. These tall slender glasses not only look elegant, they retain the fizz longer.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
Cocktail shakers often come as a kit with all the tools you'll need. Our favorite among the countless cocktail shaker kits is one from Libbey, featuring a 20 ounce glass mixing glass, stainless steel shaker, and stainless steel Hawthorn-style cocktail strainer. It's dishwasher safe, although hand washing is best.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
A quality cocktail recipe book is a must for any home bar and one of our favorites is "DIY Cocktails: A Simple Guide to Creating Your Own Signature Drinks" by Marcia Simmons and Jonas Halpren. DIY Cocktails is based on categories and ratios so we can understand the concepts of what the elements of a balanced mix.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
No bar would be complete without quality glassware including beer glasses, mugs, tankards, and steins. Here is as assortment of some of our favorite choices for your bar glassware collection including where to purchase them.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
Schrafft's Luncheonette-Style Glass with Holder Gift Box Set of 2) are a wonderful addition to your home glassware collection. These nearly-forgotten glasses, supported by gleaming stainless-steel holders and accompanied by elegant, long-handled spoons, are perfect for milkshakes, ice cream sodas, or hot rum drinks.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
When it comes to selecting the right wine glasses, simple all-purposes glasses are just fine. All you truly need is an opening wide enough so your nose fits in when you sip and dishwasher safe with a stem that fits. I know the wine snobs will cringe, but I never bought into the need for a broad array of glasses.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
Elegant martini glasses add a touch of class to any cocktail party. Unlike most bar glassware, martini glasses have become an art form. Some are quite elegant, whimsical, even spectacular. I have about 20, no two alike, so people can sit them down and remember which is theirs. Here is my favorite among them all.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
You've stocked your bar with all of the right liquors and bar tools but now you need the right glassware including two of the most important pieces of a collection -- Collins glasses and rocks glasses. Here is our favorite 16 piece collection. They're heavy and clunky, but hard to break, and I love the cool retro look.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
If you are a wine enthusiast then owning a well designed wine decanter is a must, but that doesn't have to mean the most expensive one. You want a wine decanter with a wide mouth, large capacity, steady base, and a good pouring lip. They can be used to aerate young wines or for pouring off sediment that forms with age.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
Many classic drinks such as mint juleps and mojitos use fresh mint leaves. More modern drink recipes use herbs such as basil. To extract their flavors they are placed in the shaker or glass and crushed with a mini-baseball bat called a muddler, a must if you enjoy mojitos and other muddled cocktails.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
There are few things better than fresh citrus in your cocktail. This stainless steel juicer is an elegant and effective way of juicing citrus, thereby making it a valuable addition to your bar or kitchen.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
Long and slender with a spoon at one end and tines on the other, the bar spoon is a very handy multi-function tool for any home bar. Here is one of favorites which, as a bonus, comes with a muddler for muddling mint, fruit and so much more.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
A cocktail strainer is a valuable addition to any bar and the Hawthorn-style cocktail strainer from OXO is a great choice. It fits over the top of a cocktail shaker, keeping ice and seeds out of your drink. It has a short handle for storing, and a slightly raised lip to make pouring easier with less spillage.
By:
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com Founder And BBQ Hall of Famer
The best cocktails are accurately measured and mixed and that means owning a quality measuring shot glass. Sadly, the numbers wash off many of the glass measures so the tried and true metal two sided jigger from reliable Oxo with measurement etched into the stainless steel and a non-slip grip is the best choice.
Perfectly remove the foil from wine bottles with a foil cutter. Screwpull makes one of these handy tool to cut the foil off the bottle so you can clean the top nice and neat.
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