Essential Barware

Tools of the Trade
Engineered for Excellence

Professional-grade equipment doesn't require professional budgets. Discover the essential tools that transform good ingredients into exceptional cocktails.

★Essential Equipment

★ Essential
Coupe Glass
A coupe is a stemmed glass with a wide, shallow, rounded bowl; Urban Bar’s run from 18cl to 23cl. Its job is the drink served up with no ice in the glass: shaken sours like the Daiquiri, stirred ones like the Bamboo, and cocktails topped with sparkling wine. A coupe of 180 to 200ml takes almost anything served up, egg white sours included.
Learn More
★ Essential
Highball Glass
A highball glass is the tall, straight-sided glass for a spirit and one carbonated mixer over ice. A British serve of 50ml spirit and 150ml mixer needs about 38 to 42cl once the ice is in, by our guidance, which is what our shop sells; smaller is the range most UK hiballs are sold in. Rum and cola, gin and tonic, Campari and soda and the long mixed drinks such as the Long Island Iced Tea all go in one.
Learn More
★ Essential
Rocks Glass
A rocks glass is a short, wide tumbler with a heavy base, sold as a single (our shop’s Club ICE tumbler is 26cl) or a double (Urban Bar’s run 32 to 35cl). It holds spirits and short drinks over ice, and drinks built in the glass, from the Old Fashioned and the Negroni to sours on the rocks. The thick base keeps it steady under a muddler and when a large cube drops in.
Learn More
Rum Glass
There is no single rum glass: rum takes three, chosen by how it is drunk. A tulip nosing glass of 17 to 20cl (Glencairn’s copita and glass) for tasting it neat, a heavy rocks glass of 26cl or more (our shop’s tumbler) for a pour over one large cube, and a 38 or 42cl highball (our shop’s) for rum with cola or ginger beer. Expedition Spiced Rum, designed for slow sipping, belongs in the rocks glass or the tulip.
Learn More
★ Essential
Wine Glass
A wine glass is a stemmed glass with a tulip-shaped bowl, 43 to 56cl in Urban Bar’s listings, with larger ones holding 600ml or more. Behind a bar it takes wine and the drinks built on it: spritzes over ice, the Kir, Sangria, the Sherry Cobbler and the Pisco Punch. For spritzes, which take a full load of ice, choose a large one of 500ml or more.
Learn More
★ Essential
Bar Spoon
A bar spoon is a long spoon, 30 or 40cm in Urban Bar’s own Drop spoons, with a small bowl that holds roughly 5ml and a shaft that is often twisted. It stirs drinks in a mixing glass or a tall glass, floats one liquid on top of another, and measures small amounts such as a spoon of maraschino. Our Manhattan and Martini are stirred with one in the mixing glass, and a Tom Collins finishes with a single lift of it.
Learn More
★ Essential
Boston Shaker
A Boston shaker is a large metal tin, 70 to 85cl in Urban Bar’s own tins, paired with a smaller tin or a mixing glass that seals inside it at an angle. It has no built-in strainer, so it pours through a Hawthorne strainer, and it holds enough for two or three drinks at once. Any shaken drink goes through it, from a Daiquiri to a Singapore Sling.
Learn More
★ Essential
Muddler
A muddler is a blunt pestle, about 20 to 25cm long in the ones we use (Urban Bar’s own 360 muddlers are 24 and 24.5cm), for pressing herbs, fruit and sugar in the base of a glass or shaker to release juice and oils. Mint wants a few gentle presses; limes and sugar cubes want firm ones. It is the tool for the Mojito, the Caipirinha, an Old Fashioned built on a sugar cube, and smashes.
Learn More
★ Essential
Hawthorne Strainer
A Hawthorne strainer is a flat, perforated metal disc, about 8 to 10cm across on the ones we use, with a coiled spring round its edge and a handle. It sits on a shaker tin and holds the ice back as you pour, and the spring lets one strainer fit tins and mixing glasses of different sizes. It strains every shaken drink, from the Sidecar to the Whiskey Sour, and with a fine mesh strainer underneath it double strains them.
Learn More
★ Essential
Jigger
A jigger is a double-ended measure: two cups of different sizes joined at the waist, each filled to the brim for an exact pour. Our shop’s jigger measures 25ml and 50ml, the pub single and double, while a 30/45ml jigger such as Urban Bar’s own Mr Slim fits recipes that move in 15ml steps. It measures the spirit, juice and syrup in nearly every shaken or stirred drink.
Learn More

Tools of the TradeEngineered for Excellence

Category

★Essential Equipment

Coupe Glass

Highball Glass

Rocks Glass

Rum Glass

Wine Glass

Bar Spoon

Boston Shaker

Muddler

Hawthorne Strainer

Jigger

The Rest of the Kit

Glassware24

Absinthe Fountain & Glass

Brandy Snifter

Champagne Flute

Collins Glass

Copa Glass

Copper Mug

Drinking Jam Jar

Glencairn Glass

Heatproof Mug

Hurricane Glass

Irish Coffee Mug

Julep Cup

Margarita Glass

Martini Glass

Nick & Nora Glass

Pousse-Café Glass

All 74 equipment guides, A to Z

The book that comes before the bottle.

Category

★Essential Equipment

Coupe Glass

Highball Glass

Rocks Glass

Rum Glass

Wine Glass

Bar Spoon

Boston Shaker

Muddler

Hawthorne Strainer

Jigger

The Rest of the Kit

Glassware24

Absinthe Fountain & Glass

Brandy Snifter

Champagne Flute

Collins Glass

Copa Glass

Copper Mug

Drinking Jam Jar

Glencairn Glass

Heatproof Mug

Hurricane Glass

Irish Coffee Mug

Julep Cup

Margarita Glass

Martini Glass

Nick & Nora Glass

Pousse-Café Glass

Tools of the Trade
Engineered for Excellence