So it’s not exactly a cocktail recipe, but ever since I saw this amazing (but wholly unaffordable – at least for me) bag for carrying around all of my bar tools, I’ve been trying to come up with a way to approximate it at home. I’ve come up short on bags for other purposes that could be easily co-opted, so I’ve landed on just sucking it up and trying to make one myself.
I went on eBay and bought a cheap shoulder bag and some heavy-duty elastic and velcro, and plan to attempt my own version of a bar tool carrying case. It won’t be the vintage-looking work of art from Moore & Giles, but if I do it correctly, it ought to do the trick. The picture shows roughly what I’d like to get into the bag (with a few changes…I’ll probably omit the flask and try to add a cutting board and I forgot to include measuring spoons & a knife), but that is the gist. I’m giving myself even odds on failure, and was going to hold off posting anything about this until I started to make real progress to save myself the embarrassment, but maybe this can be the motivation to NOT fuck up.
Oh, and I don’t have a sewing machine, so this will have to be all hand-sewn. Progress reports to follow.
I could be mistaken, but from the picture above, it looks like you’re trying to pack two muddlers, two barspoons, at least two fine strainers, two citrus juicers, and both a Hawthorn and Julep strainer. Is there a reason for the redundancy? Seems as though this project would be easier if you pared the list down.
One wood and one metal/plastic muddler. I like using different ones for different uses because the teeth on the bottom of the plastic one are better for bruising leaves, imo. Same material-based preference for the hawthorne and julep.
The small, strange-shaped fine strainer might not actually be included, but I use that for steeping and as a jury-rigged absinthe spoon.
As for the spoons, one is a regular bar spoon, the other is a straw with a spoon end that I find useful when testing new things since I don’t carry a box of cocktail straws.
There’s only one juicer there. There’s also a reamer and an old hand ice crusher, but I’m not sure which one you’re talking about.
I was talking about the reamer, which, in my experience, achieves the same purpose as a hand juicer.
Mostly, yes. The hand juicer is easier, less messy and more efficient, but you can’t fit a grapefruit in there.
Nice! I need a similar bag for toting around my cooking tools to demos and such. I’m interested in seeing your progress and how you like the end result. 🙂