Bar Spoon
A good bar spoon is a very necessary tool for any good bartender. Besides being handy for extracting an olive from a gar, or aid you in layering a pousse café, it also shows that you understand that not all drinks are to be shaken.
These days is seems like there is only a single design of bar spoon being provided, the common cheap steel with twisted handle and a red plastic knob on the end can be seen everywhere. The twist of the metal along the shaft of the spoon is intended to aid you in twirling the spoon by simply holding the shaft between your thumb and fingers and "rolling" it. However this motion really doesn't do a good job of stirring a drink with ice, so as a design feature it adds little except for a little visual appeal. The red knob on the end is also intended to double as a little muddler that you can use for some drinks, but it is way too small for many tasks, and it usually comes off so easily that it might get lost in the drink! So again, the design proves to be of little merit. Over in the UK I've seen a slightly modified version of this same design, which instead of the red plastic knob, it has a flat metal disk. This not only works better for some of the lesser muddling tasks, but it also works better then the bowl of the spoon for layering a pousse café.
My favorite bar spoon is an old antique spoon that is part of a spoon/muddler set I picked up several years ago. You can see it pictured up on the top of this page, and clearly it is both a shorter spoon, as well as a smaller bowl then the traditional bar spoon.
Where and What to Buy
Currently, there doesn't appear to be much choice in bar spoons. They all seem to be stamped out of the same mold, so it's best to simply pick up the cheapest one you can. However if you can find a nice, and perhaps unique, bar spoon, it will make a great addition to your set.
Instawares.com
