Learn the Secret to Making Quality Cocktails! Hint: It’s the Equipment!
There are three varieties of bar equipment you need to buy for your restaurant or bar that your bartenders must have in order to do their jobs.
- Hardware - Hardware is the backbone of your bar. It’s the most expensive aspect, but the one that lets you keep drinks cold and all that. The whole category can be said to encompasses the lot of it from your soda gun to your beer tap system to your ice machine
- Bar Glasses - It’s a no-brainer that you can’t serve beverages without glassware. People can’t drink cocktails from their hands and they’re not generally up for trying. Good bar glasses are essential, but today we want to talk about the third category.
- Barware - This is the generic category for all the critical tools you will require. Although barware is usually not the place where restaurant and hospitality business owners think they need to spend money, many shoot themselves in the foot when they neglect quality barware.
A generic term, barware is generally refers to bar utensils, bar tools, and other assorted accessories. Normally the term barware is used to tie together everything bottle openers to zesting tools to cocktail shakers to cork screws. The problem is that when you skimp the budget you allot for restaurant barware, you run the risk of serving inferior drinks. In many cases a shoddy tool can ruin good the quality liquor or make a gifted bartender look like a fool. So before you purchase tools for your bar, save yourself some trouble by considering these few rules.
Try and find an insulated cocktail shaker because the colder your cocktails are when you serve them, the better they will taste. It’s essential to have a hawthorn strainer if you are using Boston shakers. For cutting lemon twist garnishes, a simple channel works better than a zester. A good quality wine opener is essential. Nothing is more unappealing than finding bits of cork in your wine. It’s a good idea to have a couple of bottle openers on hand because you are going to misplace more of them then you’d think. A wall mounted bottle opener might actually work better. Because portion control is everything, be sure you have a couple double jiggers or spirit measures around.
