Get Your Winter Bartending Essentials With The Infatuation Stirred Kit

If you want to make a cocktail, there are really only two ways you can go about it: shaking or stirring (and also just throwing some booze in a glass, if you’d like a third way).

As a rule of thumb, shaking is for juicy drinks — like Margaritas, Gimlets, and Cosmos. So, if it’s summertime, and you want to make a cocktail, that’ll (probably) be your method of choice. Winter, on the hand, calls for something different. It calls for a stirred drink.

This holiday season, stir a Manhattan and drink it by your fireplace while you enjoy the smooth sounds of Michael Bublé. Or, if you don’t have a fireplace and/or dislike Michael Bublé, try a Martini, a fur rug, and a podcast. Either way, you’re going to need The Infatuation Stirred Kit.

Just like last year, we worked with the folks at Cocktail Kingdom — a go-to brand for a truly exhausting number of professional bartenders — to bring you a kit that’ll help you turn your home into a bar (minus the booths, paper napkins, and people). It comes with everything you need to stir up a drink, including a silver-plated bar spoon, a special edition mixing glass, and the same hefty strainer we use on a daily basis.

Unless you’re really good at cradling liquid in your cupped hands, you’ll also need something to drink out of. That’s why we included six silver-rimmed coupes (which are similar to Martini glasses, except they don’t spill every time you move across a room). Pick up this kit and start perfecting your silky cold-weather drinks, or grab it as a gift for anyone who considers Negronis a key part of their personality. And be sure to keep good form when stirring. (It’s all in the wrist.)

Get The Infatuation Stirred Kit ($85) →

photo credit: Emily Schindler

What's Included

A quality mixing glass (like you see at high-end cocktail bars) is an at-home luxury we want you to experience — and everyone knows that rose-tinted mixing glasses produce better-tasting cocktails. (Don’t fact check that last part.) This is made from lead-free crystal, and it holds up to 17oz (or 500ml) of liquid.

This isn’t just a long fancy teaspoon. Well, it is, sort of. But the twisted handle actually helps you stir your drinks (by allowing you to rotate the spoon), and the non-spoon end can be used for muddling.

Whether you’re shaking or stirring, a strainer is essential — and this is the most versatile type of strainer there is. (It’s called a Hawthorne strainer.) Throw this compact tool on top of your shaker or mixing glass to keep any chunks of pulp or ice out of your drink.

If we had to choose three types of glassware to use for the rest of our lives, they would be: highballs, rocks glasses, and coupes. You probably already have highballs and rocks glasses in some shape or form — and you may have even owned coupes at some point. But those old coupes are gone, because you broke them. Get your bar cart sorted out with six of these silver-rimmed, 7.5oz vessels.