Koriko Weighted Shaking Tins are often regarded as the gold standard in cocktail shakers. You’ll find them behind the stick—as bartenders call the bar—at establishments across the U.S. We asked cocktail professionals why they’re so enamored with the Koriko tins, and solicited their suggestions for other well-performing cocktail shakers for home use. Then we tested their six top picks by shaking up a cocktail classic, the margarita, in each one.
The Koriko is actually a type of Boston shaker, meaning it consists of two cups; the smaller vessel nests in the mouth of the larger, creating a vacuum seal so you can vigorously shake your ingredients. Dislodging one tin from the other when you’re ready to pour—“breaking” the shaker, in bar lingo—can require some muscle and can make a mess. One reason Danielle Gray, bar manager at Guard and Grace in Houston, Texas, likes the Koriko tins is that “they come apart easily when popped open,” she says. “Nothing sprays on myself or my guests.”
While everyone on our expert panel extolled the Korikos’ virtues, plenty of other shakers earned a place on these pros’ home bars. Here’s the equipment they like best:
Jena Ellenwood, a cocktail educator and consultant for New York City restaurants The Raines Law Room and Dear Irving, has used Koriko shakers at the Speed Rack, a high-speed, women’s bartending competition that raises money for breast cancer. At home, though, she’s partial to the Bull in China brand. Its Shaken Cocktail Set comes with two shaker cups, a jigger, a fine mesh strainer and a Hawthorne strainer (round, often with a short handle, slots in the top and a coiled spring around the bottom). Ellenwood praised the shaker cups’ size (28 ounces and 18 ounces) and weight, which she finds nicely balanced when nested for shaking. In our own testing, we liked the weighted bases, which kept the shakers steady as we added ingredients, and found that the stainless-steel surface was easy to grip, even with damp hands.
For small-batch cocktails at home, Viara Crosby, bartender at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek in Beaver Creek, Colo., likes the 18-ounce shaker from Rabbit, maker of the iconic Rabbit corkscrew. The stainless-steel, double-wall construction helps drinks get and stay cold while keeping your hands from freezing. This is what’s known as a cobbler shaker—a base plus a lid with a built-in strainer. Although we found the lid a little tough to unlock, overall this design would work well for anyone new to the art of cocktail creation, negating the need for the tricky nesting of Boston-style shakers.
Leandro P. DiMonriva, of The Educated Barfly in Los Angeles, Calif., is fond of the double-walled stainless-steel Hybrid model from Elevated Craft. In our margarita test, the 28-ounce shaker produced a perfectly chilled drink but protected our hands, as billed. Plus, the threaded, screw-on cap is extremely easy to remove—no struggling to break the vacuum seal. DiMonriva also appreciates that the shaker top has measuring lines on the inside, eliminating the need for a jigger.
If you’re hunting for a bar bargain, Nicholas Lappen, founder of Boston Baijiu Bar in Somerville, Mass., recommends Piña Barware’s Boston shakers. The company claims these are made with the heaviest stainless steel of any shaker on the market, belying their low price, and we appreciated that the tins’ heft helped produce a cold, frothy margarita without much vigorous shaking. The 28-ounce and 18-ounce tins in the set have weighted bases and an attractive brushed finish.
Joy Figueroa’s favorite Boston-style shaker has raised, double ribs on the body and a footed base, decorative touches that she feels make it a particularly elegant piece to display on a home bar. Figueroa, the corporate bar manager for Herbs & Rye and Cleaver in Las Vegas, Nev., also likes that “breaking the seal is effortless” with this set-up—an assertion borne out in our in-house testing. The easy break made up for our one small quibble: This set felt lighter and a little flimsier in our hands than some others on our list.
On his home bar, Michael J. Neff, bar director at San Antonio’s Bar Loretta, employs what he describes as a “full suite of beautiful tools to make cocktails.” Among them are the affordable but well-performing shakers from Barfly. These pieces didn’t feel quite as substantial as some others in our tests, and we had to do a little bit more shaking to get the well-integrated, frothy margarita we were after. But they got the job done, and—for people who prize good aesthetics—they looked great doing it. The shakers come in several finishes, including brushed and mirrored copper and a weathered steel described as “vintage.” We tested the gold-plated set, which looked right at home on a mid-century modern bar cart.
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