The Best Barware for Home Bars: Glassware, Tools

Set of bar tools for cocktails and home bar.

Whether you’re mixing drinks at your kitchen counter, behind a basement bar, or at a bar cart, your beverage station should be well-equipped. Great liquor is only half the battle when mixing cocktails for yourself or guests. The right tools to mix a Manhattan or margarita make all the difference to your taste buds. Sure, maybe a shaker isn’t the end-all to making a perfect martini, but serving up a well-made daiquiri in a coupe glass can certainly boost its final rating.

If you’ve never worked behind a bar, however, it can be hard to know what exactly you’ll need to furnish your home cocktail station. You can piecemeal it together through some of our bar glassware selections, or grab one of the included collections of bar tools.

We’ve tried to keep things reasonably priced so you’re not breaking the bank to mix drinks at home. But these choices also aren’t so cheap that they’ll break on your second drink of the night. Once you get well-versed with the tools, then feel free to upgrade. However, that doesn’t mean you have to shell out for the most expensive barware in the world.

Here are our selections of the best barware you can buy to furnish your home drink station.

Related Guides

Best Jigger

Winco

It’s the tried-and-true Winco jigger. Less than $10 is the perfect price to make all your cocktail dreams come true. The 1-ounce/2-ounce split is all you need for most drinks.

Bar Spoons

Hiware 12-Inch Mixing Spoon

Hiware 12-inch stainless steel mixing spoon on white background.

It’s hard to go wrong with a bar spoon. It’s also easy to look cool when you’re stirring a cocktail with bar spoon. Grab the Hiware bar spoon and go crazy stirring.

Rabbit Swirling Bar Spoon

Rabbit stainless steel cocktail mixing spoon.

If the last bar spoon was a bit plain for your home bar, check out the Rabbit Swirling Bar Spoon. It’s black handle and circular head help give it a more modern look.

Shakers

OXO Steel Cocktail Shaker

OXO has a whole slate of great home barware, plenty worth checking out. The shakers even keeps OXO’s normal black handle tops off the cool silver shaker with a black cap. A handy pour spout keeps the drinks flowing too.

QLL Boston Shaker

Hand holding Boston cocktail shaker pouring green liquid onto glass with lemon.

A lot of bartenders prefer the Boston shaker, which often requires a sly wrist tap to separate the two vessels. Shaking the two metal cups together is a pretty professional look, thanks to an added weight to them.

Mixing Glasses

Hiware Mixing Glass

Hiware cocktail glass with liquid and ice on white background.

At $19, the Hiware mixing glass looks, and feels, like an expensive crystal. The good news is at that price point, if it shatters, you’re not breaking the bank to replace it.

Muddler

OXO Steel Muddler

A good cocktail often needs muddling, and the OXO muddler is a great, if not a little over the top, option to get that job done.

Strainers

Winco Stainless Steel Bar Strainer

The Winco bar strainer is the perfect cocktail strainer. Why fix what’s not broken? It’s also hard to look uncool when using it to drain the cocktail out of the shaker.

Openers

HiCoup Premium Waiters Rosewood Corkscrew

Hand opening wine bottle with HiCoup wine opener.

Sure, a home bartender could opt for a cheaper wine key, but the Hicoup has some style to it. There are fancier out there, even “more convenient” electric openers, but any wine lover will tell you a great wine key is the way to go.

Westmark Germany Hermetus Steel 3-in-1 Resealer Beer Bottle Opener

Westmark bottle opener on white background.

The Westmark opener is perfect for a beer lover. It can crack open a bottle, help twist off a cap and seal a big beer bomber that you can’t finish that night.

Bar Knives

Victorinox Swiss Classic Paring Knife

You certainly can use a normal set of kitchen knives to slice up or peel off twist of citrus, but why when you can get a quality paring knife you can dedicate to the bar. Victorinox is an inexpensive, but tried-and-true blade.

Best Bar Towel

Zeppoli Classic Kitchen Towels

Whether it’s drying off a freshly washed glass for the next cocktail or wiping up a little spillage, a good set of towels are necessary for a bar.

Ice Mold

Tovolo Inch Large King Craft Ice Mold

two-inch cube freezer tray on white background.

Solid pours of spirits and cocktails need more than a standard ice cube. These big molds create ice cubes that melt nice and slow to avoid watering down your drink.

Cocktail Book

Mr. Boston Cocktail Book

Don’t know how to make a Rusty Monk? Well if you had this book, you’d be able to find the recipe really easily. That and hundreds of other classic cocktails.

Rocks Glasses

Mofado Crystal Whiskey Glasses

Pair of Mofado cocktail glasses with liquid and ice cubes.

Streamlined and light, these on-the-rocks glasses are perfect for cocktails best served down or a neat pour of your favorite spirit.

High Ball Glass

Riedel Highball Glass

Riedel 10 oz pair of glasses with cucumber and mint.

Whether it’s a whiskey high ball or a Tom Collins, the these glasses will have a drinker sipping at ease.

Coupe Glass

Libbey Signature Kentfield Coupe Cocktail Glasses

Coupe glasses keep a cocktail up, and lets you concentrate on the beauty of the well-made treat, whether it’s a Manhattan or a martini. They’re also versatile enough to let a champagne shine.

Beer Glass

Teku 3.0 Stemmed Beer Glass

A pint glass can do in a pinch, but like cocktails and wine, there are specific glasses for most beer varieties. Thankfully, the Teku glass can pull out the best in every style.

Wine Glass

Libbey Signature Kentfield Estate All-Purpose Wine Glasses

Ideally, you’ll find a great set of glasses for both red and white wines, and maybe champagne, too. But these Libbey glasses can help a space crunch in any bar and make do for all wines.

Barware Sets

Mixology & Craft Bartender Kit

If putting together a home bar is too much piece by piece, this set is a great starter pack to get a bar up and ready to go.

Extravagant Extras

Breville Smoking Gun

Sometimes a cocktail calls for a little smoke factor to really complete the flavor profile. This personal smoking gun can make it easy at home.

EdgeStar Craft Brew Kegerator

If you’re a beer fan, a home bar is not complete without a kegerator. The EdgeStar is one of the most inexpensive options that can still get the job done efficiently.

Ninja BL610 Professional Countertop Blender

If it’s time to prepare a frozen version of your favorite drink for the high heat of summer, look no further than the Ninja. Now a name brand in the blending game, it gets the job done quickly.