Best bar spoons and muddlers

Bar spoons: length is the specification

Everything else about a bar spoon — finish, end shape, brand — is secondary to whether it is the right length for the glass it will be used in. Too short and you cannot get a grip above the rim to spin it; too long and it is unmanageable in a tumbler.

The arithmetic is simple: subtract the height of the vessel from the length of the spoon, and what is left is the shaft you actually hold.

Both work in a 550 ml Yarai at 5.25 inches tall. In the 27 oz footed glass at 7.5 inches, the 30 cm spoon is workable and getting short. This is the whole reason spoon lengths run from 25 cm to 50 cm, and the reason buying a spoon without knowing the glass is a coin flip.

The end is the second decision and it is genuinely a choice rather than a hierarchy. A weighted teardrop balances the spoon so it does not tip out of the glass. A flat machined end does no balancing and instead gives you a working surface: it packs sugar, taps a stuck lid free and levels a bar spoon of syrup. Buy the teardrop for stirring, the flat end for someone who fiddles.

Muddlers: the head decides everything

A muddler has one job — press herbs and fruit to release oil and juice without tearing them — and one failure mode, which is tearing them.

Torn mint is bitter mint. The chlorophyll released by shredding is what makes a badly-made mojito taste grassy and harsh, and the thing that shreds it is a toothed head: the aggressive plastic grid found on most kit muddlers. It also gouges the inside of the glass, which is permanent.

• Flat head with rounded edges

  Presses rather than tears. This is the single specification that separates a good muddler from a bad one, and it is visible in any product photo.

• Long enough for the glass

  A mojito is built in a tall Collins glass. At 9" the OXO reaches the bottom comfortably; at 8 1/2" the walnut Barfly is workable and closer to its limit.

• Material against the glassware

  Nylon will not scratch and goes in the dishwasher. Walnut feels better in the hand, stains from berries and citrus, and must be hand washed.

• Whether they drink muddled drinks at all

  The most important check, and the one nobody does. A spirit-forward drinker will not use this tool once.

What a bundled kit gets wrong

Almost every multi-piece bartender kit contains a bar spoon and a muddler, because they are cheap and they raise the piece count. We count what is actually in those kits on its own page, and the spoon and muddler are usually the two weakest items in the box.

The spoon is typically short — 25 cm or less, which is fine for a tumbler and too short for a mixing glass — and the muddler is typically toothed plastic. Replacing exactly those two pieces is the cheapest meaningful upgrade for someone who already owns a kit, which makes this an unusually good gift for a person who appears to have everything.

Which one to buy

For a stirred-drinks drinker, the Barfly classic teardrop at 30 cm is the default and the right first spoon. Choose the Japanese style at 33.5 cm instead if they own a tall mixing glass, or if the flat working end appeals more than the balance of a teardrop.

For muddled drinks, the walnut Barfly is the better present and the OXO is the better tool for a household that puts everything in the dishwasher and cares about its glasses. Both have flat rounded heads, which is the part that matters.

If you are buying for someone whose drinks you genuinely cannot picture, buy the spoon. The proportion of cocktail drinkers who stir something at some point is far higher than the proportion who muddle, and a mixing glass and a spoon together is a complete gift where a muddler alone is a guess.