The Best Cocktail Shakers for Holiday Celebrations and Beyond

There are dozens ofbar toolsout there. But as much fun as an atomizer or an ice pick can be, as handy as a muddler or bar spoon are, and as beautiful as a cut crystal mixing glass is, the truth is you can get by with just three things in a bar set: a jigger, a strainer, and, most importantly, a cocktail shaker.

I’ve shaken a lot of drinks over the years, but I wanted some professional advice as I began to test the best cocktail shakers on the market. So reached out to Julia Momose, the force behind Chicago’s Kumiko and the co-author ofThe Way of the Cocktail, an exquisite guide to Japanese cocktail traditions and techniques. She emphasized one thing: The best cocktail shaker won’t be the same for everyone. Picking a shaker, she says, “starts with you as a human, as a person: How big are your hands? How strong is your grip? Do you suffer from arthritis?” It also matters who you want to make drinks for. Is it just you and your partner? Do you throwdinner parties? Do you have a weeklymargaritahappy hour where the neighbors all come over to vent about their kids?

Given that the single best cocktail shaker for me might not be the best fit for you, what you’ll find below is a carefully tested guide to the best-functioning shakers for home bartenders in a few different categories, so you can figure out which one meets your drink needs best. Read on for the top picks and how they were chosen.

Table of contents

Two-piece shakers vs. three-piece shakers

Best Boston shaker (best two-piece shaker)

Best cobbler shaker (best three-piece shaker)

Best beginner cocktail shaker

What I looked for

How I tested

Other shakers I tested

The takeaway

A crucial decision all cocktail lovers have to make when setting up their home bar is whether they’re a two-piece shaker person or a three-piece shaker person. The two-piece shaker, sometimes called a Boston shaker, is basically just two metal cups that nest together at a slight angle. They easily come apart when you smack the heel of your hand at the spot where the two pieces begin to separate. In the past, you’d more commonly see a version with one shaker tin and one pint glass—beginners should probably avoid these, since they require more strength to use than mixing a drink should, and can be a bit trickier to separate after shaking. While not super likely, shaking with glass means that you could end up with a fist full of broken shards while you’re trying to make a mojito.

Two-piece shakers are sometimes available in larger sizes than three-piece shakers are. Momose will use a larger two-piece shaker if she has to make several drinks at once. She also notes that the technique is a bit different: “When I use a two-piece shaker I shake more intensely,” she says, in order to properly aerate the drink inside. If you shake too softly, she says, you end up with something that is cold, but not aerated, which just won’t be as richly textured and nice to drink. The last thing to remember about a two-piece shaker is that you need to get a separate strainer (probablya hawthorne strainer) to keep all theextra iceand any other solids out of the glass.

The three-piece shaker (also called a cobbler shaker) is composed of a shaker tin, a lid with a built-in strainer and a top that goes over that strainer. These types of shakers come in a couple of sizes, around 300 milliliters (good for one drink) or around 500 milliliters. While they require less force to use effectively, three-piece shakers require you to use both hands when shaking, to make sure everything stays together—to do so, place a thumb over the cap while shaking. But Momose explains that because you don’t have to shake as hard to properly aerate the drink, you break less ice in the tin, which means the drink will be a bit less watered down. (If you’re starting witth a particularly high-proof mixture, you can simply shake for longer if more dilution is needed.)

I really love some of the pricier shakers below, but theLeopold Weighted Shakerfrom Cocktail Kingdom is, hands down, the best value cocktail shaker I tried. It's fairly flexible, which means it's easy to pull apart, even after the built-up pressure of shaking egg whites. Of course, there’s a downside to this bendability, too—you have to really smack the tins together to form a tight seal—so this may not be a great shaker for absolute beginners. The rimmed bottom of each tin isn't just decorative but a smart design feature. Those rims give you something to hold on to, adding both extra leverage and real comfort to the whole process. This shaker was so nice to use that it made me sad when I realized how many years I've had a rimless shaker on mybar cart.

Momose specifically recommended this cobbler shaker to me, and once I tested it, I could immediately see why. The Yukiwa shaker felt easy and comfortable to hold, especially for someone with smaller hands. It offered a tight seal, but still opened more easily than the other cobblers I tried. It also produced the best layer of egg white foam of any shaker, two-piece or three-piece, in apisco sour, which is a good indication that it aerates well. This shaker comes in three sizes, but unless you regularly make drinks for four or more people, I’d recommend the 500 milliliter option. Momose shared one helpful tip that applies to all cobbler shakers: After you fill the shaker, lift the cap a tiny bit to “burp” it and let some excess air out. That helps avoid leakage or explosions.

OXO’s three-piece shakercomes with some training wheels in the form of dishwasher-safe silicone gaskets for the lid and the top, making it essentially leak-proof. It’s big for a cobbler shaker though—24 ounces—which makes it a little less appealing for one or two cocktails at a time. The daiquiri I made ended up getting a little watered down, I think because the ice banged around inside so much. The spout is also narrower than the spouts of much smaller shakers, which I found wasn’t the best for pouring the shaken egg white of the pisco sour. The cap doubles as a jigger and is measured in ¼ ounce increments (necessary for lots of cocktail recipes), so theoretically this could be the only piece of bar equipment you own.

Did the shaker feel weighty enough to contain the drink, but light enough to maneuver? Did it fit well in my hands? The models above worked best for me, but my hands are on the smaller side. If you have particularly large hands you may want to go with a bigger shaker.

This was my primary concern going in. There is nothing worse in cocktail making than a leaky shaker. I have had bad luck, particularly with cobbler shakers, with leaks and sticky messes all over the counter.

Momose gave me a couple of signs to look for that might suggest a shaker was poorly constructed. For example, she said that if you feel around the rim and it’s unfinished, the shaker is likely shoddily produced. Ideally, you want finished edges and weighty bottoms.

I wanted drinks that came out properly (but not overly) diluted and well-aerated. Shakers got docked if they produced flat results or too much dilution.

For these tests, I made a few different types of cocktail in each shaker. To determine how well the shakers fared with egg whites, I tried ourfavorite recipe for a pisco sour. As the egg white expands and foams during shaking, it can build up a lot of pressure, so if a shaker was prone to leaking this would show it. I also madedaiquirisin each shaker, mostly because I like to drink them, but also because a properly shaken daiquiri can show off how well the shaker can aerate a drink.

Usagi Cobbler Shaker: This is a nice, heavy cobbler shaker that performed well, and I really liked the indentation in the cap to set my thumb in during shaking. It didn’t open as easily as the Yukiwa, though.

Koriko Weighted Shaking Tins: The Koriko was the most flexible two-piece shaker that I tried; it was very easy to pop apart. The flip side of that, though, is that it can leak. I would recommend using two hands and avoiding any Tom Cruise flair bartending tricks. But the pluses outweigh the minuses here. It ran a close second to the Leopold for me and is a choice of a lot of professional bartenders for good reason.

Crafthouse by Fortessa Boston Shaker: This is a handsome set that, like the Leopold, had a rim on the larger of the two shaking tins. Unlike the Leopold, however, the rim was sharp instead of rounded, making it quite unpleasant to use. This shaker held its seal tightly, but I couldn’t get over the way it dug into my palm.

A Bar Above Premium Cocktail Shaker Set: This shaker was in-between in terms of stiffness and flexibility. Unfortunately it leaked during the pisco sour preparation, and was hard to separate in both tests.

Piña Barware Stainless Steel Commercial Boston Shaker Set: This was far and away the stiffest shaker I tried. It was also the heaviest. It felt quite nice to use, and didn’t leak. It was so stiffly constructed, though, that I cut myself a little while getting it apart. If you’re bigger than I am, and can put a little more weight into this one, it would probably work great for you.

Tovolo Stainless Steel Cocktail Shaker: Tovolo makes a lot of products I like, but this unusual shaker didn’t work for me. Technically, this is a three-piece shaker, but the design is flawed. The lid screws on and has a huge plastic cap, which is supposed to double as a jigger, but is only measured in whole ounces making it effectively useless for most cocktails. It also has a detachable citrus reamer that clips into the strainer but again, doesn’t allow for accurate measurements. It’s trying to be an all-in-one tool but wasn’t designed for anyone who is precise about their drinks.

Crate & Barrel Fenton Cocktail Shaker: While stylish and easy to open and close, this cobbler shaker never sealed well during my tests, and leaked several times.

Cocktail shakers aren’t a one-size-fits-all piece of equipment. If you are a smaller person and often make one drink at a time, consider a three-piece shaker like the Yukiwa. If you prefer to put more muscle into shaking, love popping open two tins, or have a lot of dinner parties, get the Koriko. And if, above all, you don’t want any leaks, rest easy with the OXO steel.