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See why.The Best Cocktail Shakers
We tested three Boston shakers and eight cobbler shakers with capacities ranging from 16 to 28 ounces, using them to make stirred, muddled, and shaken drinks.
By Published Nov. 1, 2016
Top Picks
The Boston Shaker Professional Boston Shaker, Weighted
What You Need To Know
There are two basic types of cocktail shakers: Boston shakers and cobbler shakers. The Boston shaker consists of two cups of slightly different sizes. You build the cocktail in the smaller cup, invert it into the larger one at a slight angle, tap the two together firmly to create a tight seal, shake, unseal, and use a separate strainer to decant the mixture into a serving glass. The cobbler shaker usually has three parts: a bottom cup, a top half with a built-in strainer, and a cap that fits over the open strainer. After building your cocktail in the bottom cup, you just fit on the strainer top, cap it, shake, uncap, and decant.
To find the best cocktail shaker in each style for the home bartender, we bought three Boston and eight cobbler shakers (priced about $9 to about $42) and used them to make shaken, stirred, and muddled drinks. Because we wanted to be able to make one or two cocktails at a time, we focused on models with a capacity of at least 18 ounces.
One fundamental problem emerged immediately. In theory, cobbler shakers offer simplicity and convenience for novice bartenders—because the strainer is built in and the other parts just join together, no extra gear or expertise is required to use it. In practice, however, the parts rarely fit together properly, making most of these shakers a pain to handle. Several of the models had strainer tops that were too loose, causing the shakers to leak or break apart during use. Other cobblers had the opposite problem: Their parts fit together too tightly, making them harder to open, especially when cold and wet.
Only two of the cobblers were both leakproof and consistently easy to open and close. Of these, we preferred the model that had a larger capacity. Bigger shakers not only allow you to make more drinks at a time but also provide more room for ice and liquids to circulate, enabling you to chill and dilute your cocktail to the appropriate levels more quickly. (Dilution isn’t a bad word here; water takes the harsh edge off alcohol and acid, bringing balance to your cocktail.)
Our favorite cobbler shaker, the Tovolo Stainless Steel 4-in-1 Cocktail Shaker, holds 24 ounces. To use it, you attach a strainer to the base with a simple twist and then snap on a domed top, which doubles as a 1- and 2-ounce jigger. The shaker’s carafe-like shape was easy for testers of all hand sizes to grip, and its wide mouth made it a breeze to load with ice, stir or muddle drinks in, and clean. If you’re new to making cocktails, this inexpensive shaker is an excellent choice.
But if you’re up for a little more of a challenge, we also recommend trying a Boston shaker. Boston shakers have a steepe...
Everything We Tested
Recommended
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
- Security: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This squat but surprisingly roomy cobbler shaker was leakproof and easy to use: Simply twist on a strainer and snap on a domed top, which doubles as a 1- and 2-ounce jigger. (The silicone top faded a bit after 10 washes but sealed just fine.) While the thin metal cup got cold during use, its carafe-like shape made it fairly comfortable for testers of all hand sizes to grip. The cup’s wide mouth allowed for effortless filling, muddling, and cleaning; a reamer attachment was a nice frill.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Security: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
With a little practice, this large Boston shaker was simple and comfortable to handle. The wide mouth and medium height of the sturdy, tempered mixing glass made for quick filling, stirring, muddling, and cleaning. And the glass itself sat low in the larger cup, making it especially easy to form and maintain a long-lasting seal. Our only gripe? The thin metal cup got fairly cold during use.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Security: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
This heavy glass-and-steel Boston shaker had an elegant, tapered profile but was a touch harder to seal. Once sealed, however, it was tight and leakproof. As with the other Boston shakers, the cup got very cold during use, but the mixing glass’s wide mouth made it very easy to stir, muddle, and clean. And testers appreciated the accurate whole-ounce measurements on the glass, though some grumbled that they would still need a jigger to precisely measure 1/2 ounces.
- Comfort: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Security: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
With two cups made of stainless steel, this Boston shaker was lightweight and seemingly indestructible, inspiring confidence in users who had worried about dropping glass-and-steel versions. Like the other Boston shakers, this wide-mouthed model was easy to fill, clean, stir, and muddle in. But because the mixing cup sat higher in the larger cup, sealing it tightly took a bit more practice; the metal also got very cold during use. Available at CocktailKingdom.com.
Recommended with reservations
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
- Security: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
Resembling a coffee thermos, this innovative cobbler shaker was simple and intuitive to use, and its strainer top screwed on and off easily, guarding tightly against leaks. The small insulated base kept our hands dry and comfortable but also inhibited ice from melting inside, requiring longer shakes to produce cocktails with the right levels of dilution. And because the base was narrow, this shaker was easy to grip but a little trickier to fill with ice. It decanted cocktails at a glacial rate, especially when muddled mint got stuck in the strainer holes. Finally, the base is not dishwasher-safe.
- Comfort: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Security: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
There was no danger of leaks with this classic-looking cobbler. Instead, its top and strainer cap fit too tightly, especially after long shakes made the thin stainless-steel parts chill and contract, freezing our hands and making the shaker hard to reopen. (On one testing copy, the strainer cap went on and never came off.) Still, its wide body made it easy to load with ice and clean, and large strainer holes made for quick, efficient straining.
Not Recommended
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
- Security: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
The clear plastic of this cobbler-style shaker kept our hands warm and comfortable, and two sizes of strainer holes gave us options when decanting mojitos and fizzes. But tasters disliked this cobbler’s finicky locking mechanism, and the tall, narrow base made it tricky to fill, clean, stir, and muddle. After one dishwasher cycle, an ounce of water got into the hollow top and would not come out; in subsequent cycles, tiny, superficial cracks developed in the strainer.
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
- Security: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
This innovative cobbler was fairly easy to fill, muddle, and stir in. Insulation made it comfortable to hold but kept ice from melting quickly inside, requiring us to shake longer to dilute drinks properly. And the screw-on strainer top didn’t always thread properly, leading to leaks during use. The strainer decanted very slowly; worse, liquid and mint got trapped inside the top and wouldn’t come out, shortchanging drinks and making the shaker a pain to clean.
- Comfort: 2 stars out of 3.
- Security: NaN stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: NaN stars out of 3.
Made of thick stainless steel, this cobbler kept our hands relatively warm and dry, and it was easy to fill, muddle, and stir in. But it was done in by its loose strainer top and cap, which both had to be held down tightly in order to prevent the drink from spraying all over the place while we shook the unit. Worse, if we forgot to hold back the top while straining, it fell off, imperiling both the drink and the glass we were trying to pour it into.
- Comfort: 2 stars out of 3.
- Security: NaN stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: NaN stars out of 3.
This overdesigned cobbler shaker used a bullet-shaped cover to try to hold in a poorly fitting strainer top and cap. Unfortunately, this ruse didn’t actually succeed With both copies we tested, the top and cap still came undone when we shook drinks, spraying liquid out from under the cover. And the strainer top was so loose that it fell into the glass every time we went to decant the drink.
- Comfort: 2 stars out of 3.
- Security: NaN stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability and Cleanup: NaN stars out of 3.
This cobbler’s strainer top was too loose, requiring us to hold it down tightly while shaking and straining in order to keep it from flying off. Even when we did manage to keep the two main parts together, a poorly manufactured, inexplicably insulated strainer cap never quite fit properly onto the strainer top of either model we tested, making the whole rig leak anyway.
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing.
Miye Bromberg
Miye is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She covers booze, blades, and gadgets of questionable value.
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