How to Make Cocktails Playlist with Tom Macy https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuJxNvoq3gXjucZOGPf9RRfX5TqF6AHw1
To make great cocktails you need the proper equipment. Nothing fancy, just the basics to cover all your bases. Let’s talk about some of them. First, your shaker, the one probably everyone is familiar with. There’s two types. There’s the two-piece shaker and then there’s the three-piece shaker. I like this one just because the ice can travel more. It gives it a better texture. It makes it colder. Also, you can really get into it. Give it whatever rhythm you want to add to your shake, up to you. This one I just feel like has three pieces and it’s kind of constrained with the ice.
You also want to have a mixing glass for stirring cocktails. Something nice and heavy, so that it won’t tip over when you’re stirring. And speaking of stirring that transitions nicely into bar spoons. They come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. It’s really about personal preference and what is most comfortable for you to use. This is my favorite one called the Teardrop bar spoon. The next thing you definitely want to have on hand is some jiggers. Those are measuring devices. So they come in different sizes. The most important one to have I think, or the most important two are the two/one jiggers. So it’s two ounces and one ounce, and the half-ounce and three-quarter ounce jigger.
They also make three-quarter ounce, one and a half, one-half, you know whatever works for you. But I really find that with these two you can pretty much make any recipe and you don’t need any more. After you’re done shaking or stirring your cocktail, you’re going to want to strain it into a glass, and that’s where these guys come in. They just hold the ice back so that you can pour the drink into your glass. This is called a julep strainer. This is a Hawthorne strainer. You know, they both work fine. This is a fine strainer, if you maybe you’re muddling mint or something, it’ll catch all the excess mint that when you’re pouring it out of your glass.
I don’t know why you’re stirring a cocktail with mint in it, which is what I just pretended to do, but you know it’ll just give it a better texture and make it look more aesthetically pleasing. The other two really important tools you want are a muddler, just gently muddling, pressing fruit, fresh herbs, stuff like that and a hand juicer for making fresh citrus juice, which is probably the most important ingredient in making great cocktails. If you have all of that you can pretty much make any cocktail you can imagine.