For me and my home bartending, a bar spoon is not really needed. A regular soup spoon or tea spoon will work well for many folks at home. For your Boston shaker, there’s a nice Libbey one for $10 at every Target I’ve been too. A very nice piece with an over sized 20oz glass and tin and a strainer with a handle that sits nicely in the glass, which sits nicely in the tin, for transport. For a jigger, for the first year after I got into this stuff, I used a cheap set of measuring spoons from Wal-Mart. The set I got had a 1/2 Tbsp and a 2 Tbsp measure, which is 1/4 oz and 1 oz respectively. Very nice and fairly easy to use. Got a cheap no name muddler off Amazon and I was set for a long time. I now think it might be an 8″ Winco muddler.

I also have a couple 1/4 cup Oxo measuring cups and the Oxo jigger. I think the jigger is a piece of crap. The sharp edges on the lip make the liquid run down the sides of the jigger and always makes a mess. There’s a reason pro jiggers have rolled edges. With respect to the author’s opinion, I don’t like the Oxo jigger.. =) I love the design and function of the 1/4 cup Oxo measuring cups, but they don’t look like they have very precise measuring from cup to cup. Haven’t tested this, but if you find them and look at a stack of them, the printing is visibly off on one out of ten. They scratch easily so you need to hand wash them without heavy scrubbing. I want to check out The Pampered Chef’s 1/4 cup measuring cups, which are very similar to the Oxo’s and hopefully will have better quality control.

So, time to describe my BPLC, or BackPack Liquor Cabinet. My backpack has a large main compartment, a smaller secondary compartment, and an even smaller accessory compartment. It’s basically an old Jansport version of LLBean’s Deluxe Book Pack. On mine, I can fit two 1.75 L bottles in the large main compartment along with my tin full of tools and a canister of sugar in between the two bottles. In the smaller secondary compartment I have three 750 mL bottles. Then in the smaller accessory pocket I can fit at least one 375 mL bottle and maybe some bitters and sugar cubes. My tin full of tools is my Boston shaker tin with the glass sitting inside the tin. Inside the glass sits my muddler, strainer, and bar spoon. On top of my muddler sits a couple of upside down Oxo 1/4 cup measuring cups. I’ve also got a paperback recipe book (currently “Bartending For Dummies” 3rd ed.) stuffed into the top of the smaller secondary compartment. If need be, various citrus sit on top of the bottles in the large main compartment in grocery bags. Sling it on your back and your hands are still free to carry juice and cola and whatnot. It’s a wonderful setup to take to smaller parties.

The scariest part? We don’t own a Rosle bar spoon.

Btw, Marshall, I?m glad it?s you writing about jiggers here at the Den. Everyone knows Seanmike has no need for measures (unless he?s gonna write about that particular drink).

I bought a few of the new cocktail kingdom jiggers and they are very good. Quite precise and have a good weight to it.