Bar at home: A beginner’s guide to a basic home bar set-up

While not everyone craves a home bar, it’s a luxury that many grown-ups would enjoy. Even if you’re not a frequent drinker or interested in dabbling in creating cocktails, having a bar at home may be something that comes into its own when you have a few friends round for a dinner party or celebration.

Thus, if you intend to have a bar at home, you should know how to set up a bar that contains all of the necessary equipment and is visually appealing and encourages you to experiment with new ideas.

With that in mind, this article will give you some of the basic home bar set-ups from drinkware and bar tools like mixers, shakers, and strainers. All these things can help you set up your bar at home and become your own bartender. So, read on!

Basic home bar set-up

If you want to have a home bar, regardless of whether or not you’re a bar enthusiast, you need to have the right tools. Getting the best hospitality supplier that will offer high-quality items for your bar will surely get you an awesome-looking bar. So here’s a list of some essential bar tools for your home bar set-up.

Shakers

A cocktail shaker is one of the indispensable and most basic bar tools. It allows you to thoroughly blend cocktails, which is necessary for creating a deliciously cooled, mixed beverage. A cocktail shaker is available in two distinct forms: Cobblers and Boston-style. The latter is a metal container that tightly fits over a shaker glass to prevent it from spilling while shaking.

The majority of the experienced bartenders prefer to use Boston-style shakers as they are more convenient and can be easily cleaned for reuse. However, for home bar use, you may choose to opt for the cobbler. This is a one-piece shaker consisting of a cap, metal tin, and a built-in filter. This is also an excellent choice if you’re just getting started with cocktail mixing.

Jiggers

A bar tool that you see bartenders use in measuring and pouring liquor shots to create cocktails, which can be shaped like an hourglass or in a narrow and sleek style, is called a jigger. It comes in various sizes, but a standard jigger typically measures 1½ ounces.

Having this valuable item for your home bar set-up is crucial as it will help you determine the proper measurements when following a cocktail recipe or crafting your drink and will enable you to serve a high-quality drink to yourself or your guests.

Strainers

One essential bar tool that you need to be equipped with is a cocktail strainer. This is a piece of bar equipment that filters out solid particles such as ice, fruit bits, or pulp from the drink that has been shaken or mixed. There are three types of strainers that you should consider before buying: the Julep Strainer, Hawthorne Strainer and Fine Strainer.

Mixing glass and bar spoons

A mixing glass is a necessary home bar set-up specially designed for combining the cocktail’s ingredients. Although you can use alternative drinkware like a pint glass, having a dedicated mixing glass in the bar counter of your home can add elegance and functionality.

On the other hand, bar spoons aren’t your typical type of spoon, as they’re specifically designed for stirring cocktails. Instead, they’re often long-handled, manufactured from stainless steel and made so that they don’t interfere with the drink’s taste.

Home bar drinkware

The bar is stocked with different glasses, and each glass is designated for a specific drink. The right glass for your cocktail can be found in various sizes to suit your preference: short, tall, fancy or casual.

● Coupe glasses

Besides its classy style and look, this drinkware is all-round. You can have your Margarita or Martini in this glass instead of buying special ones for such specific drinks. Also, they’re far more effective at avoiding spills.

● Shot glasses

Shoot your spirits away! Although this type of drinkware can be alternatively used as a jigger measure, this glass is typically used to serve powerful spirits and cocktails in single, neat servings.

You wouldn’t want to waste an expensive bottle of whiskey by pouring a large volume of it into a normal glass would you? Aside from proper measurements, shot glasses provide you an invaluable way to save on your more pricey drinks and spirits.

● Rocks glasses

Want to sip on your whiskey? The old-fashioned glass is also referred to as a rocks glass. This drinkware is typically used for small mixed drinks served on the rocks.

Takeaway

Are you planning on installing a bar counter in your home? Having these basic home bar set-ups will give you a solid ground for entertaining your guests or enjoying a beverage on your own. Having the right tools such as a jigger, stirrers, mixers and glassware, allows you to mix your drinks easily for fun and enjoyable get-togethers at home.

[disclosure*]

Barista Box Little Taster review

Regular readers will know that we enjoy a cup or two (or three!) of real coffee every day. That’s why we were really up for trying the subscription service from the newly formed company, Barista Box.

The Brighton-based brand teamed up with their favourite local coffee shop, Blend & Brew, who supply their coffee. In addition, Barista Box also donate to local causes:

Barista Box has formed a charity partnership with two The Trussell Trust Foodbanks. Our pledge is to donate a 1-litre carton of long-life milk, or non-dairy equivalent, for every order that we fulfil. So for every monthly coffee subscription order, every coffee gift box and any other products we might sell in the future we shall donate long-life milk to one of these foodbanks

They have a number of different options on offer; tasting boxes, gift sets, regular subscriptions and one off purchases. Our ‘Little Taster’ box comprised 2 resealable pouches of coffee (1 x Libertine + 1 x Blend & Brew), blue plastic coffee scoop, glass espresso measure and battery-operated milk frother.

As we have a bean-to-cup coffee machine, we requested bags of beans in our bundle. However if you have a filter coffee machine, moka pot or cafetière (the latter which they can supply), you can choose from their 3 textures of ready-ground coffee.

Usually, I like a flat white with soya milk. However, as I was trying out a new coffee, I made a double espresso with the medium-roast Libertine beans so I could enjoy it in its pure form. The taste was very smooth and mellow – no bitterness at all – very enjoyable with a couple of chocolate digestives!

The espresso measure that was supplied is just the right height and width for fitting under the portafilter of our coffee machine.

The second pouch of beans, the Blend & Brew type, were also medium-roast. It has a little more earthy flavour with a touch of chocolate flavour. This time, I enjoyed my soya flat white with a late-afternoon croissant.

Many thanks to Alexandra from Barista Box for supplying us with our Little Taster coffee box.

**Use our special discount code H4H12 for 12% off any gift box, (valid until 4th September 2021)**

The basics of pairing wine with food to make you a better cook

Many people are confused and intimidated when it comes to wine. Unfortunately, wine experts have taken a lot of the fun out of enjoying wine and have created this atmosphere. The reality is that wine isn’t just for the upper crust to enjoy, anybody can and should be able to get wine they like and enjoy without the pretension surrounding it.

One of the best ways to get the most out of your wine is to pair it with the right foods. This isn’t as complicated as it may seem. And always remember that the best way to pair wine with food is to simply drink the wine that you enjoy the most whether it follows pairing rules or not.

In this post, we’ll go over some of the basics to remember when it comes to pairing wine with food. However, we repeat, you should feel free to break any of these rules.

Acid is important

The general idea is that you pair red with meat and white with fish or chicken but it does go beyond that. The real thing to consider is the acid of the wine and not so much the colour. You can enjoy a white with meat if you follow a certain guideline.

The basic gist of it is that the acid in the wine should be higher than the food. The classic steak and wine pairing, for instance, works best if you choose a wine that’s going to cut through the richness of a fatty sirloin. Instead of trying to find the biggest and boldest red to go with it, look for something whose acid is going to work well with the meat and whatever sauce you pair with it.

Contrasts work too

Wines can be fruity and sweet as well as being acidic. So, pair a sweet wine with something that’s salty, for instance. Think about what makes Thai food so interesting and you get the idea. Thai food very often uses salty, sour, and sweet in the same dish. You can achieve the same result by pairing your wines in a contrasting fashion with your food.

Let’s take a basic salad as an example. The greens may be a little sweet but the dressing is acidic and salty. Sweet wine like a Riesling is a good way to go so you aren’t overwhelmed with acidity.

Match like with like

There are times when you’ll want to match congruent factors. For instance, if you’re eating a creamy pasta dish with rich flavours you can go with a creamy wine to match. If you don’t like acidic wines, then this will still work well in your favour. For instance, a full-bodied and creamy Chardonnay will go well with a fettuccine Alfredo.

A lobster dish with a butter sauce can also handle the creaminess of a Chardonnay. It more depends on your tastes than with a hard and fast rule about using the acid in the wine to cut through the richness of a dish.

[disclosure*]

Review: Crozier Drinks

Crozier Drinks is a brand new company, launching only last week. They offer a home delivery service of pre-mixed, luxury cocktails using the best-quality fresh ingredients. You can make one off purchases or set up a regular subscription. It makes a lovely treat for yourself or an amazing gift for someone else.

All the packaging is recyclable – we’ve kept the box to send items sold on our web shop and the inner cardboard filler has gone on to our compost heap. The very nice aluminium bottle is totally re-usable for storing & carrying other liquids – or displaying a few cut flowers, perhaps.

We opted to try the Mango Lime & Cayenne Pepper Margarita. The beautifully labelled bottle contains gold tequila, mango juice, lime juice, sugar syrup and cayenne pepper – suitable for vegetarians and vegans. This mixture 14% ABV.

Some of the other mixes in their range include marmalade & ginger daiquiri, kiwi & lime mojito, bakewell sour and apple pie martini.

The margarita is very quaffable; the delicious fruitiness of the sweet mango is balanced with a tangy sourness of lime. The cayenne pepper adds a depth of flavour & spicy warmth. Truly delicious!!

Included in the package is an info sheet containing useful garnish ideas and serving suggestions for their whole range of cocktails.

Each Crozier Drinks bottle holds a 500ml amount of cocktail. The number of cocktails you get will depend on the size of your glass. Somewhere between two and four… or one whopping big one if you’re feeling particularly thirsty!!

H is for Home Harbinger

Category: drink