Entertaining

Making good cocktails at home is mostly about having the right tools. You can have top-shelf spirits and fresh citrus, but if your shaker leaks or your jigger has wrong measurements, the drink falls apart. We tested twenty-two cocktail shaker sets and individual bar tools over four weeks. We made over 150 drinks — mostly daiquiris, margaritas, and Manhattans — to find out which tools actually make the process better and which ones just look good on a shelf. ...

A frozen drink machine feels like an indulgence until you own one. Then it is the thing you reach for every warm afternoon. We tested 12 machines over three months, making frozen margaritas, strawberry slushies, and boozy milkshakes. A few of these machines produce drinks as good as any bar. Others just could not freeze anything reliably. The machines fall into two categories. Single-serve machines freeze and serve one drink at a time, usually in under 60 seconds. Batch machines have a built-in freezing chamber that keeps a full pitcher of liquid slushy and ready to pour. Each has its place. ...