The Elevated Craft Shaker
I have a confession to make: for over six months, I’ve spent a lot of time at my home bar. And I learned to make all kinds of cocktails, participating in forums like Craft Cocktail Club, on Facebook. In addition to following some of my friends who also like to mix a few drinks on occasion, like gin fan Jono Bacon (renowned open source and Ubuntu Linux), I have also read books on the subject. This includes the old Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide and mecca rum tiki tomes like Smuggler’s Cove.
In online mixology communities and by reading bartending and bartending books, you are being advised that no matter how minimalist or elaborate your home bar taste is, you will want some bar essentials.
A bar shaker set is one of the essentials. There are many drinks you can make that do not require stirring, such as martinis, mojitos, Old Fashioneds, negronis, gins and tonics, rum and coke, and types of mixed cocktails, all of which are of the ‘built in glass’ type. and is served in glasses, highballs or whiskey glasses.
I’ve been busy for the six months.
However, some of the more productive cocktails, especially the tiki variety, such as Mai Tai, must be shaken and filtered to get the right temperature and consistency. In addition to sipping chilled shots of vodka, tequila, and other spirits, this “whipped list” includes margaritas, daiquiris, cosmopolitans, and “Up” types of drinks served in glasses and glasses. incredibly bloodless cocktail.
You probably think any set of bar stirrers will do, but I have several other stirrers and they have their pros and cons.
A not unusual type of shaker, and one of the oldest models, is the Cobbler Shaker. It is popular with other people at home as maximum shoe racks have a strainer built into the cover, once the lid is removed. Those without built-in strainers are called “Parisian” flavor stirrers. They are horny and don’t require much else in terms of additional tools to use. Some, like the OXO, are insulated so you don’t have blood-free hands when you do it or heavy condensation, which creates puddles of liquid on the counter after leaving the shaker. Some also have measuring templates built into the lid. But all shoemakers have several drawbacks:
For those reasons, professionals tend not to use shoe rack-style shakers. Instead, they use boxes from Boston, like the right one made through A Bar Above, which runs Craft Cocktail Club on Facebook.
Boston boxes are as undeniable as they get. Made from stainless steel, they are virtually indestructible and dishwasher safe as long as you don’t buy the copper type. They are weighted and well balanced. They have a large amount of internal area for aeration and involve a lot of liquid and ice, so you can make multiple drinks at once. Smaller boxes are also useful for preparing drinks, like the Martini, as long as you have a cocktail spoon available. It is also undeniable that they filter.
But like the cobbler / Parisian style, they have drawbacks.
Considering the respective benefits and disadvantages of those two types of shakers, is there room for improvement? Is an ultimate house bar shaker possible? The people at Elevated Craft believe it is possible. This Scottsdale, Arizona-based company, created through commercial designer Adam Craft, just delivered its first product to Kickstarter 10 months after funding.
The Elevated Craft Shaker ($ 55) is, in my opinion, the most productive shaker for home use, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned mixologist. It is made of 18/8 stainless steel, with a vacuum insulated double wall construction. It has a built-in strainer (like a Cobbler), but the lid works like a 6 oz measuring cup, notched in 1 oz / 30 ml increments. The metric and imperial graduated volumes on the measuring cup are:
Raised Craft Measuring Cap with Strainer
On the surface it looks like a more advanced shoe rack / Parisian, which it is, but it incorporates other key updates, such as a 750ml liquid volume, with the most sensitive attached. The shaker glass itself has a volume of 19. 75 oz.
Naturally, since this shaker has a much higher volume than a typical cobbler flavored shaker, it is also significantly larger. To take care of this, Elevated Craft designed it to be taller than a cobbler’s shaker – it measures 10. 68 inches tall x 3. 45 inches wide. The mug’s most sensitive opening is 3. 25 inches wide, making it compatible with a Hawthorne-type strainer if you need to use one instead of the built-in strainer under the lid.
The structure and commercial design of this product are magnificent; it looks like anything that came out of Cupertino or an aerospace company. The beaker connects to the most sensitive measuring plug and the strainer has a threaded locking design, with BPA-free silicone gaskets. You can shake the thing like crazy with one hand, and nothing will fly off. The stainless metal frame also makes it dishwasher safe.
The shaker has double-wall insulation and a threaded interlock design.
Its double-walled thermal insulation gives the product enormous merit over any rival; you will get your drinks frozen with this shaker because you can shake it for a long time. Since there is minimal heat transfer, you can hardly feel a relief in temperature when it occurs, and the minimal dilution of the drink is a huge plus too. Shaker insulation will keep your cocktail fresh for up to 24 hours.
Because the tumbler is absolutely insulated, it’s also a very quiet shaker – you don’t get that big rattling / crunching sound from ice that you’d get otherwise with a set of Boston cans. Some other people would possibly see this as a weakness of the product because you don’t get the same dramatic sound effect. Also, the lack of warmth movement means you have to judge the freshness of the drink by how long you’ve been stirring it; With a Boston gadget, when that can gets uncomfortably cold, you know the drink is. Ready.
The other challenge is that it looks more like a thermos than a shaker due to the height of the glass. So while you can use it with one hand, it is a bit of a hassle to do, especially if you don’t have long arms.
The integrated strainer under the lid is smart enough for popular drinks like margaritas. However, if you need a finer cocktail, you must get this Hawthorne or a culinary-type cord-mesh strainer.
Perfect margarita made with a superior artisan shaker
The locking mechanism, also similar to that used on a Thermos vacuum bottle, is very effective. As Elevated Craft took no shortcuts in structure (the product is made entirely of stainless steel), there is an early break-in era with the most responsive strainer and lid. At first, you may notice a scraping sound, rubbing, and a final hole with the gasket – a purely cosmetic factor, as the most sensitive lid lock mechanisms close, but there is no leakage. After several days of use, this challenge solves itself, as the most sensitive becomes red. However, some users may wish to apply a small amount of vegetable oil to the silicone gaskets to stylize the connector threads and reduce friction, and this would possibly require more torque to create a seamless joint.
No shaker design is perfect, however the Elevated Craft is the best I have found and values the premium price.
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