The Complete Home Bar Product Guide

I own some Schott Zwiesel wine glasses and can attest that they are awesome based purely on the fact that I do not have to wash them by hand. They are some strong and sturdy vessels, made of a non-lead combination of titanium oxide and zirconium oxide called Tritan crystal. After a year of use, my set is intact, and has zero chips or cracks.

By comparison, I won an 8-piece set of Riedel glasses a few years ago, and bought the Schott Zwiesels after 3 broke in the first month for no reason. It was like they just saw the faucet turn on and sponge coming towards them, and snapped in half in protest.

Sure, you could use a knife, or the foil cutting blade on your waiter's corkscrew, but in my experience this leads to anything from mild frustration to a blood-spewing finger. A foil cutter shows a bottle of wine who's boss by strangling its neck and then, in an easy twisting motion, slicing a perfect circle through the condom keeping you from the cork, and the sweet nectar beneath it.

Beneath the arms of this style of foil cutter are a set of sharpish wheels, in tracks to make the twisting part easy. The one shown here is from Edgy, though a ton of different companies make them for the same money or less.

From a qualitative perspective, some of the cheaper ones will have or get warped wheels, and not work. But I also had a nicer foil cutter from Le Creuset whose wheels came apart, out of the tracks after a couple years, so YMMV.

Arm yourself for survival in the open bar. With a name as clever as its purpose, the Bar10der is a cocktail-slinging multi-tool for everyone from mixologists to party hosts who don't want to buy and keep track of 10 different implements for EDC (Exceptional Drink Concoction.)

As implied, the Bar10der contains 10 handy tools conveniently compacted and stored, with easy fold-out access when it's time to unwind with a martini or whoop it up with a mojito. The collection includes a muddler, knife, reamer, stirrer, channel knife, strainer, jigger, corkscrew, zester, and bottle opener.

And you thought getting the occasional squirt of lime in the eye from your friend Cornelius' Corona was bad. Juice Bruce spends his entire useful life getting doused in the acid of citrus fruits.

The handsome Bruce is made of solid organic wood. He promises to head butt and corkscrew out every last drop of juice from your lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruits without giving you splinters or digging uncomfortably into your hand. Apparently, the notch at his mouth creates an ergonomic grip that is pleasant even for the kiddos to grasp. And good on Juice Bruce for that, because I think at least by age 5 all children should learn how to turn lemons into lemonade.

How better to toast your guests than with a nice bottle of Jameson or Jack chug-a-lugging out the tap on an urban harvested Ohio hardwood tree? A father and son team at the Ohio WoodWorking Shop handmake each of these Log Liquor Dispensers to order. They use all-natural woods from their hood, so no two are alike. Dispensers stand around 8" tall and measure between 4" and 6" in diameter; they hold any standard size booze bottle. The guys treat the logs with a waterborn clear finish, and route liquor through a food and beverage safe PVC conduit that pours out a brass spout. Dispensers come with both wood and metal interchangeable handles.

I like "Flip-It" Wine Aerator, but Menu actually calls their invertible / revertible carafe the Winebreather. Though similar to a decanter in shape - and in function if you choose to use it that way - the aerator distinguishes itself with a bottle-neck-hugging top lined with an accordion of water(well, wine)tight rubber. Place the Winebreather over the mouth of an open bottle of wine to create a seal, and then Flip It! The wine pours from the bottle to the carafe, aerating it along the way.

From there you can remove the bottle and serve your wine straight from the decanter. Or! You can Flip It! again and send the wine back into the bottle for aerated service straight from the source. The second option is especially handy if you need to decant several bottles of wine, and want to do it in advance of your guests arriving, or before you sit down to enjoy a Syrah-laced Star Wars marathon all by yourself.

Listen, opening a bottle of bubbles is an eye safety hazard no matter which way you do it. And at least Menu's Champagne Sabre gives your average showboating yahoo a little more panache than the cork wriggle'n'wrestle before the pop'n'fly.

This sabre features a large, curvy body and, most importantly, a blunt edge. Kind of like the baseball bat or ladies' self-pleasure toy of flashy bottle openers. It's made of a single piece of polished stainless steel that, should you wield it correctly, will hack off a Champagne bottle's entire neck in one clean, elegant swipe.

Should you wield it incorrectly, I'd like to propose a toast: To 2018 and drinking fizzy shards of glass, my friends!

I myself prefer Snakebites to Black and Tans, but really I just like straight whiskey. Less filling and makes it slightly more bearable to be around all the microbrew snobs who insist on "crafting" their layered drinks only from local beers boasting hard water that's been filtered 978 times and hops grown fertilized with unicorn poo. If you're one of them, or if you're just a normal, chill person who enjoys an aesthetically pleasing half-and-half at home every now and then, the Perfect Black and Tan tool will help you create the perfect, pub-style layered beer drinks in your kitchen.

The stainless steel Black and Tan disc funnels and slows the release of your top stout layer through a ring of small holes, allowing it to land gently on and stay afloat of the ale/lager bottom. According to The Perfect people, mastering the skill of layered drink creation requires no skills whatsoever with their Black and Tan tool.

If you actually drink Appletinis and Mai Tais, the Bibo Barmaid is the gadget for you. If you don't, hey, an automatic cocktail machine. When you're the bartender, you still gotta entertain your guests, your girlfriend, and maybe your tequila-swiggin' mama. Bibo has a margarita mix pouched up as one of its 6 cocktail flavors.

Bibo takes the mess, and the messing up, out of mixed drinks by replacing your untrained / distracted / lazy hand with its own smart tech and tidy countertop design. Bibo cocktails take about 4 steps and 20 seconds to create: 1) Turn the machine on and fill its back reservoir with water; 2) Insert your desired Bibo Cocktail Mixer (the whole pouch) into the slot underneath the machine's lid; 3) Add liquor to your glass and place it under the machine; 4) Hit the Mix button.

The Portland natives of GrowlerWerks, tired of not being able to get their favorite microbrews in bottles, and unhappy with the fast flatness that goes with opening a take-home glass growler full of limited-release double IPA, sought to create a growler that works the way beer fanatics want it to. They designed the uKeg to maintain beer's freshness, prevent air infiltration, and keep contents cold for hours at parties, tailgates, and in your friend Cornelius' basement during the LoTR movie marathon.

uKeg makeup includes vacuum insulation, an ergonomic handle, a bar-style tap, and an extra special tiny carbonation system. Carbonation technology is essentially a CO2 cartridge integrated into the growler's regulator cap. Once inserted, users turn the cap to activate their desired level of carbonation, from 0 to 20 psi. According to GrowlerWerks, using the uKeg is as easy as using a seltzer bottle or refillable whipped cream dispenser.

Coravin siphoning systems were created for fancy wine owners, fancy wine collectors, and fancy wine-shilling restaurants. It's a tool for pouring out a glass, or even just a taste, from a bottle of wine without pulling the cork. Whatever remains in the bottle post-Coravin remains just as preserved as it was before, so you don't have to commit to drinking all 750mL of vino at once. Wine lovers will appreciate this option to taste, but not down:

• Wines they've been cellaring for years.
• A wine a drunk guest is bugging you to try but that you know s/he won't even be able to taste, much less remember at this point.
• A bottle they want just one glass from with breakfast.
• Multiple bottles they want small pours from for more precise food pairings.
• Wines they've been given as gifts so they know which ones to re-gift.