What comes in a bartender kit
Every item, what it does, and which ones you will never take out of the box.
By Scooter M. · · How we pick
How this page is paid for: the buy buttons below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through one we earn a small commission, and you pay exactly the same price. We don’t print prices we can’t verify today, so the buttons send you to the live listing instead. Nobody pays to appear here. Full disclosure.
Quick picks
The short answer, ranked. Tap any row to jump to the full write-up further down this page, or go straight to Amazon for the live price.
| # | Product | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barillio Elite 23-Piece Bartender Kit with Bamboo Stand Seven tools plus the stand; the contents list is published and checkable. | The kit this list describes | Check price on Amazon #ad Live price at Amazon |
| 2 | Touch of Mixology 14-Piece Bartender Kit with Bamboo Stand The seven that matter, without nine pour-spout accessories. | Same tools, smaller number | Check price on Amazon #ad Live price at Amazon |
| 3 | Cocktail Kingdom Leopold Jigger, 1 oz / 2 oz Kit jiggers rarely have interior lines. This one has four. | The piece worth upgrading | Check price on Amazon #ad Live price at Amazon |
A standard bartender kit contains:
- A shaker — the metal container the drink is shaken in
- A jigger — the small hourglass measure
- A Hawthorne strainer — sprung disc that holds ice back while you pour
- A mixing spoon — long twisted spoon for stirred drinks
- A muddler — blunt pestle for crushing mint or fruit
- Ice tongs — for handling ice without your fingers
- A corkscrew — usually a waiter’s friend
- A stand — usually bamboo, holds the lot upright
Larger kits add pour spouts, spout caps, cleaning brushes, bottle stoppers and a recipe booklet. Those raise the advertised piece count without adding tools.
What each one actually does
The list above is the answer. This section is for deciding whether a kit is the right purchase, which requires knowing what gets used.
The shaker is the kit. It is used in every shaken drink and it is usually the cheapest-made component in the box, which is the central trade-off of buying a kit at all. Its capacity is the specification to check: about five to six ounces of space per drink once ice is in, so 24 oz makes two and 16 oz makes one.
The jigger is used in every drink, full stop. Kit jiggers are typically plain 1 oz / 2 oz cups with no interior lines, which means every 3/4 oz measurement in a recipe is estimated. Upgrading it is the single cheapest improvement available to any kit — the styles are compared here.
The Hawthorne strainer is used in every drink made with a two-piece shaker, and never in a drink made with a cobbler, which strains itself. If the kit’s shaker has a built-in strainer, this piece is redundant on day one.
The mixing spoon is used only for stirred drinks — Manhattans, Negronis, martinis. Someone whose repertoire is margaritas and daiquiris will never pick it up. Note also that a spoon is not a mixing glass, and stirring in the shaker tin works but is noisier and colder on the hand.
The muddler is used for mojitos, juleps and anything with fruit crushed in the glass. Note the awkwardness here: a kit with a cobbler shaker gives you a muddler and a fine built-in strainer that the muddled fruit will immediately clog.
The tongs and corkscrew are genuinely useful and genuinely duplicative — most kitchens already have a corkscrew.
The pieces that pad the number
Pour spouts let a bartender free-pour at speed. At home they drip onto the shelf, attract fruit flies in summer, and stop the cap going back on the bottle. Most households take them off within a week. A kit that includes three spouts, six spare caps for them and two brushes to clean them has spent eleven of its advertised pieces on an accessory that will be in a drawer by February.
Bottle stoppers matter for wine and not for spirits, which keep indefinitely with their own cap on.
The recipe booklet is a genuine nice-to-have and it is also eight to twelve recipes. A proper book is a better gift and a real one is under twenty-five dollars.
None of this makes a big kit a bad buy. It makes the piece count a bad way to compare two kits, which is why we publish the real tool count next to the marketing count on every kit we recommend.
What no kit includes
Two things, and both matter more than the muddler:
- Glassware. No kit at any price includes a glass. A drink has to go somewhere, and a good cocktail in a coffee mug is a slightly sad object. Start here.
- Ice. Freezer-tray ice is small, hollow and fast-melting, and it waters a drink down before it is finished. A clear-ice mold costs less than the muddler in the kit and does more for the drink than any tool in it. The ice section is here.
If you are buying a kit as a gift, adding either one turns it from a box of tools into a complete setup — and the essentials checklist is the full list of what a working home bar needs, in order.
The picks, in full
1. The kit this list describes
Barillio Elite 23-Piece Bartender Kit with Bamboo Stand
Barillio · best for the gift that has to look like a gift — a stand of tools, unwrapped in front of people
Twenty-three pieces, seven of which are tools that get used. That is not a criticism of this kit in particular — it is how the whole category counts — and at seven real tools plus a stand, this one is honest value.
Published specs
- Published contents
- 24 oz cocktail shaker, jigger, muddler, mixing spoon, Hawthorne strainer, ice tongs, corkscrew, 3 liquor pourers, 6 pourer caps, 2 pourer brushes, 2 bottle stoppers, recipe booklet, bamboo stand
- Material
- SS304 stainless steel
- Stand dimensions
- 14.01" x 7.63" x 5.44"
- Care
- Dishwasher safe
- Warranty
- Lifetime, per the manufacturer
The math
- Advertised pieces vs real tools: 23 pieces / 7 tools
- Counting the published contents list: shaker, jigger, muddler, mixing spoon, Hawthorne strainer, ice tongs and corkscrew are tools = 7. The rest of the count is 3 pourers, 6 pourer caps, 2 pourer brushes, 2 stoppers, a recipe booklet and the stand. Real objects — but not seven more tools.
- Drinks per shake: 2
- 24 oz shaker at roughly 5-6 oz per shaken drink with ice.
What’s good
- Seven genuine tools, including the Hawthorne strainer and muddler that cheaper kits leave out
- The bamboo stand is the reason a kit like this gets used — tools on a counter get picked up, tools in a drawer do not
- SS304 stainless and dishwasher safe across the tool set
What’s not
- Six pourer caps and two pourer brushes are padding the piece count, and most households will never open them
- Pour spouts on home bottles look like a bar and behave like a leak; many people take them straight off
- The stand needs 14 inches of counter it will not always get
Skip this if
Someone short on counter space. The stand is the point of this kit, and a kit whose stand lives in a cupboard is a worse buy than three good tools in a drawer.
#ad We don’t print a price we can’t verify today. We may earn a commission at no cost to you. Disclosure.
2. Same tools, smaller number
Touch of Mixology 14-Piece Bartender Kit with Bamboo Stand
Touch of Mixology · best for a stand-and-tools gift at the lower end, where the piece count is closer to honest
Fourteen pieces, seven of which are tools — the same seven a 23-piece kit gives you. Knowing that before you pay for the bigger number is most of what this page is for.
Published specs
- Published contents
- Shaker with built-in strainer (750 ml), 2 liquor pourers, strainer, muddler, jigger, corkscrew, ice tongs, mixing spoon, 4 steel picks, bamboo stand
- Shaker capacity
- 750 ml
- Material
- Stainless steel
- Presentation
- Packed in the bamboo stand
The math
- Advertised pieces vs real tools: 14 pieces / 7 tools
- From the published contents: shaker, strainer, muddler, jigger, corkscrew, ice tongs and mixing spoon = 7 tools. The rest is 2 pourers, 4 steel picks and the stand.
- Real tools vs a 23-piece kit: Identical — 7 either way
- Barillio's 23-piece kit also resolves to 7 tools; nine of its extra pieces are pourer caps, brushes and stoppers. Piece count is not the variable that changes what the recipient can make.
What’s good
- The seven tools that matter are all present, at the lower end of the kit market
- 750 ml shaker with the strainer built in, so the kit works without the separate strainer being found first
- Comes packed in the stand, which makes it a genuinely good-looking thing to unwrap
What’s not
- Four steel picks are a garnish accessory most homes use once
- The brand does not publish a steel grade, so there is no way to compare its build against the SS304 kits
- A built-in strainer clogs on anything muddled, and this kit includes a muddler
Skip this if
Someone who already owns a shaker. You would be buying a duplicate of the one expensive piece in order to get six cheap ones.
#ad We don’t print a price we can’t verify today. We may earn a commission at no cost to you. Disclosure.
3. The piece worth upgrading
Cocktail Kingdom Leopold Jigger, 1 oz / 2 oz
Cocktail Kingdom · best for the small gift that measurably improves every drink the recipient already makes
A jigger — the little hourglass measure — with four interior lines, so one object covers 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1 1/2 and 2 oz. It is the cheapest thing on this site that reliably makes someone's drinks better.
Published specs
- Nominal sizes
- 1 oz (30 ml) over 2 oz (60 ml)
- Interior markings
- 1/4 oz (7.5 ml), 1/2 oz (15 ml), 3/4 oz (22 ml), 1 1/2 oz (45 ml)
- Height
- 3.3"
- Material
- 18/8 stainless steel
- Care
- Hand wash only
The math
- Measurements covered by one object: 6
- Two rim capacities (1 oz, 2 oz) plus four interior lines (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1 1/2 oz) = 6 distinct measures from a single tool. A plain unmarked 1 oz / 2 oz jigger covers 2.
What’s good
- Six measures in one tool means almost no recipe needs a second fill or mental arithmetic
- Tall and narrow, so the liquid level is easy to read against the line
- Small enough to be a stocking gift and useful enough not to feel like one
What’s not
- Hand wash only
- The interior lines are stamped rather than painted, so they take a moment to find in low light
- It is a small metal cup — as a standalone gift the wrapping has to do some work
Skip this if
Someone whose shaker already has a marked jigger lid, like the OXO or the Elevated Craft. It is a second answer to a question already answered.
#ad We don’t print a price we can’t verify today. We may earn a commission at no cost to you. Disclosure.
Questions people ask
What is in a bartender kit?
What is a Hawthorne strainer for?
What is a bar spoon used for?
Do I need the pour spouts that come with a kit?
What is missing from a bartender kit?
Where these numbers come from
Every specification on this page is a figure the manufacturer or retailer publishes. We have not measured any of it ourselves, and every calculation shows its working so you can redo it.