Elevated Craft Double Walled Hybrid Cocktail Shaker
This cleverly designed cocktail shaker from Elevated Craft includes upgraded features that solve common problems for a home bartender—while keeping you from making a mess. Founder Adam Craft spent two years developing a tool that prevents leakage, sticking and freezing your hands. With double-walled stainless steel and vacuum insulation, this shaker will make the drink ice cold while protecting your hands and keeping condensation at a minimum. Its high-capacity measuring top, with both ounces and milliliters, brings an element of precision to craft cocktails, and the screw-on lid is secured with gaskets to prevent leaks while shaking. A strainer built into the pour spout keeps seeds, ice and other large items out of the glass. And the generous size holds up to 750 milliliters (that’s an entire standard bottle of liquor) even as the slim design makes it easy to grip and shake.
L'atelier du Vin Oeno Motion Wine Key
Sleekly modern and classic at the same time, this wine key from L’Atelier du Vin was designed in France with materials that will last. The vertical lever corkscrew is larger than other models we’ve tried and sturdily built, but what it lacks in compactness, it makes up for in style—made from graceful lines of chrome and solid walnut, the key will blend in with classic and modern bar tools. The device opens bottles and expels the cork in a single sweeping motion of the ergonomic lever (a fan-favorite feature for anyone with limited wrist mobility). A foil cutter comes built in, and the jaw is designed to fit bottlenecks in a range of sizes. The key comes with a spare steel spiral worm and a ready-to-gift box.
Durand Wine Opener
Named for the late Yves Durand, a renowned French sommelier, this wine opener is Christopher Kimball’s tool of choice for vintage corks. It’s designed to effectively remove fragile or compromised corks from older wines (though Chris recommends them for any bottle) without breaking them. Throughout years of rigorous testing, the Durand has consistently removed even the most brittle corks whole with its ingenious two part design.
Crookedwood Hand-Sculpted Muddler
We found these cocktail muddlers from an artisan in Wisconsin, who individually sculpts each by hand to ensure a high-quality and unique product. The detailed contours of the handle make the muddler not only comfortable and easy to use but also beautiful for displaying on a bar cart. Crookedwood uses dense, lustrous hardwoods that are both attractive and durable.
Vintage French Wine Large Glass Eclectic Pair
Collected from flea markets across the French countryside, these vintage wine glasses come an eclectically mismatched set. Each glass is beautifully simple, with either a slim or chunky stem. Please note each product is one of a kind–items received may vary from those pictured.
Blossoms Syrup Rhubarb Syrup
The first ingredient in this Rhubarb Syrup by Blossoms Syrups is real rhubarb juice concentrate, so the syrup actually tastes like rhubarb, not a laboratory formulation of what rhubarb should taste like. With a balanced ratio of tart to sweet, this syrup’s flavor is evocative of strawberry rhubarb pie. Light in taste and color with just enough acidity, it hits all the marks and doesn’t contain any colorings or flavorings. Use it in smoothies, fruit desserts, drizzled over crêpes or added to a gin and tonic.
The Bitter Housewife Old Fashioned Aromatic Bitters
These handcrafted cocktail bitters from Portland, Oregon, are a modern take on the classic spice profile of Angostura bitters. They add the bitterness you'd expect in an Old Fashioned, but we also liked the spicy warmth the bitters added to seltzer water over ice with a lemon wedge or even a few dashes over roasted root vegetables.
Blossoms Syrup Passion Fruit
The first ingredient in this Passionfruit Syrup by Blossoms Syrup is real passion fruit juice concentrate, so the syrup actually tastes like passion fruit, not a laboratory formulation of what passion fruit should taste like. One of our favorites from the company, we see why this was the winner of a Great Taste award in 2012 and 2019. It’s sweet—but not cloyingly so—and levels out with a balanced tartness. It hits all the marks, and doesn’t contain any colorings or flavorings. Use it in cocktails or drizzle on desserts. The founders at Blossoms even like swirling it in yogurt.
Blossoms Syrup Pomegranate
The first ingredient in this Pomegranate Syrup by Blossoms Syrup is real pomegranate fruit juice concentrate, so the syrup actually tastes like pomegranate, not a laboratory formulation of what pomegranate should taste like. For the traditionalist who prefers pomegranate in their grenadine, this pure pomegranate syrup is a great option, as the fruit flavor doesn’t get lost or muddled. Winner of a Great Taste winner in 2018, it’s tart and tangy with just enough sweetness to keep it from tasting sour. It hits all the marks, and doesn’t contain any colorings or flavorings. Use it in cocktails or drizzle on desserts. We love it swirled into yogurt and granola.
Marchesi di San Giuliano Orange Slices in Syrup
We can't get enough of the warm, vibrant flavor of these orange slices in syrup, which our food editor, Matt Card, liken to deconstructed marmalade. To make them, organic blood oranges are hand-picked from the producer's own orchards, sliced finely with the rind still on, then briefly blanched to remove some of their bitterness and carefully layered in jars. The orange slices are covered with a reduction of orange juice, sugar and a touch of brandy—no pectin or artificial sweeteners—which contributes a vanilla-like roundness as well as sugary depth and richness. In addition to their rich flavor, we love the amazing texture of these orange slices, with a wonderful contrast between the silky pulp and surprisingly tender rind, which can be cut through with a fork.
Verve Culture Handblown Glass Pitcher
Verve Culture Handblown Glass Carafe
Milk Street Digital Class: Cocktails for Autumn with J.M. Hirsch
What’s on the Menu:
• Apple Pie Cocktail
• Tell Me You Didn’t
• The Mule’s Hind Leg
• Buttered Rum
We love to change the way we cook according to the seasons. Why not do the same with cocktails? J.M. Hirsch, Milk Street’s Editorial Director and author of “Shake Strain Done” and the new book “Pour Me Another,” is the leader of this pre-recorded Zoom livestream class featuring four cocktails that are perfect for crisp autumn evenings. You’ll learn how to draw inspiration from classic fall flavors like apple, pumpkin, maple and citrus and translate them into drinks that are balanced, complex and fun to drink. We start with a spin on apple pie that—spoiler alert—doesn’t actually include any apple. Instead, a combination of apricot brandy and grenadine creates gentle sweetness atop a foundation of white rum and vermouth. Then, we turn to a pumpkin spice latte in cocktail form. Never fear: the cloying sugariness of most pumpkin treats is nowhere to be seen here, as a generous amount of bourbon and splashes of two types of bitters keep the sweetness in check. Next, for you gin lovers out there, we have The Mule’s Hind Leg, which combines gin with Bénédictine, the herbal French liqueur that will become a staple of your bar cart. Finally, we wrap up the journey through J.M.’s choose-your-own-adventure book with some buttered rum. He turns this classic on its head by using fat washing, a fancy-sounding technique that is actually well within reach of the home bartender. Join us to add some refreshing seasonality to your cocktail routine.