Like a lot of commercial places, many bars closed down during the course of the last two years. While some have returned, a few others have shut their doors permanently. You know what opened during that time? Most people’s home bars, as folks brought happy hour home instead of driving down their favorite watering holes.
If you did that, you probably noticed how boring your home concoctions tend to be. You can only pour whiskey on a fancy glass with ice enough times before you start craving a little adventure from your drinks. Yeah, drinking seems more fun with a skilled bartender actually making your libations. Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can keep hosting happy hour at home while serving fancy cocktails just like you get at the old joint.
A good set of bartending tools, a few Google searches for drink mixes, and some practice should be enough to shore up your craft cocktail skills to impress both your friends and the new friends they bring along. If you need to shop for bartending tools, we highly recommend going with a bar kit – it gets you all the essentials in one fell swoop, with a few extras you may or may not need along with it. Here are our favorite bartender sets for making your home-bound happy hour stand out.
Modern Mixology Bartender Kit with Stand
This affordable set stocks your home bar with the bare basics for mixing, including an 18oz cocktail shaker, a mixing spoon, a Hawthorne strainer, ice tongs, a bottle opener, and a double jigger, complete with a wooden stand to easily organize all your bartending tools. It even comes with cocktail recipe cards, so you can have a handy reference without having to look at an LCD screen. The recipe cards are detailed and beautifully illustrated, too, making them an interesting addition to have lying around whichever makeshift table you’re using as a home bar.
W&P Travel Cocktail Canteen
This portable mixing set combines a stouter-than-usual shaker, a 2oz jigger than can collapse into a 1oz shot glass, a telescoping bar spoon, a mini-funnel, a glass dropper bottle, and a combo peeler/zester. The shaker is insulated, so you can use it to keep ice while waiting for your friends to choose their cocktails, with all the tools designed to fit snugly inside the same shaker, so you can easily throw it in a bag for taking on the go.
Summit51 Bartender Bag
Prefer to keep your bartending tools under wraps, only to be brought out when the need to get plastered arises? You know… like a bug out bag for drinking emergencies? Get this bartender bag, which stashes all your mixing tools in a handy backpack, complete with plenty of room in the main compartment for all your favorite spirits, liqueurs, and bitters. It comes with a large cocktail shaker, two shot glasses (1oz and 2oz), a stir stick with integrated spoon and fork, two pour spouts, a muddler with a rubber top, and tongs. Sure, you’ll probably want to add a couple more tools in there, but there’s enough compartments here to accommodate them, making this a great starter set.
Canvas Cocktail Kit
Want a bar set you can bring along for happy hour at a pal’s place? Get this kit, which houses every tool in a handy roll, each in their own snug compartments. While it doesn’t include a shaker (we’re guessing, for portability’s sake), it does come with a jigger, a strainer, a wood wrap truetap, a channel knife, a bar spoon, ice tongs, and a wooden muddler. These are high-quality tools, too, so even experienced mixologists will likely be impressed with your handy little stash.
Rabbit Bar Tool Set
This is not your ordinary bartending kit. Instead, it’s a modern redesign of classic mixing tools, designed to perform the same functions with a slightly different twist. While they did skip the shaker, the rest should stock up your tool kit nicely, with a 2-in-1 muddler-and-reamer, a three-in-1 zester, peeler, and channel knife, and a glass strainer that doubles as a measuring jigger. It’s one of the best-looking bar sets you can get – one that’s perfect for guys who like a more modern aesthetic to go with their tools.
Legacy Madison Tabletop Cocktail Set
Want something that gives you a complete home bar in a jiffy, price notwithstanding? It doesn’t get better than this cocktail kit, which houses all the tools inside a handsome cherry-stained acacia wood box that you can throw into a bag for easily toting anywhere the party is happening. While it is pricey, you get the full load here, including a two-piece Boston shaker, a Hawthorne strainer, tongs, a bar spoon, a double-sided jigger, a muddler, a paring knife, a bottle opener, a corkscrew, an 8oz mixing glass, six cocktail sticks (with a caddy), an ice bucket, and even a marble cutting board. All tools are neatly arranged inside the box, which opens with a hinged lid to create a fancy-looking top shelf. Seriously, this looks amazing.