A Bar Above vs. Cocktail Kingdom: Which Bar Tools Are Right for You?

 

Table of Contents

How We Compared A Bar Above and Cocktail Kingdom
A Bar Above vs. Cocktail Kingdom at a Glance
18/8 vs 304 Stainless Steel
Cocktail Shakers
Cocktail Jiggers
Cocktail Strainers
Mixing Glasses
Barware Sets
Selection & Specialty Bar Tools
Mixology Education
Price & Value
Which Brand Is Better for Home Bartenders?
Which Brand Is Better for Professional Bartenders?
Which Brand Should You Choose?
Final Thoughts
Frequently Asked Questions

If you’ve spent any time shopping for serious cocktail tools, there’s a good chance you’ve come across both A Bar Above and Cocktail Kingdom.

And if you’re currently trying to decide between the two brands, things get a little awkward because, well… you’re reading this on A Bar Above. Which means your reading about us vs one of our biggest competitors, who also happen to be maybe the biggest name in barware and a much bigger company than us.

So let’s just get this weird part out of the way. I co-founded A Bar Above, helped develop our barware, and spent years bartending professionally before we ever sold our first shaker. I obviously have opinions about our tools, and I’m not going to pretend this is an anonymous third-party review.

But I also don’t think it’s particularly useful to tell you that every tool we make is automatically the best choice for every bartender.

Cocktail Kingdom has been a major name in cocktail barware for years, with an enormous selection of tools and several products you’ll recognize from professional bars. In some categories, they offer options that we don’t and simply can’t provide as a smaller, family-owned brand.

So rather than declaring one company the winner, I’m going to compare the actual tools: shakers, jiggers, strainers, mixing glasses, and barware sets, along with price, selection, and some of the design differences that may actually matter when you’re making a drink.

Because you don’t need to become an “A Bar Above person” or a “Cocktail Kingdom person.” You just need bar tools you like using.

 

How We Compared A Bar Above and Cocktail Kingdom

Before we get into individual tools, a quick note on how I’m approaching this comparison.

I’m looking primarily at current product specifications, materials, capacities and measurements, design features, selection, and listed prices. When something comes down to personal preference, I’ll tell you that rather than presenting my preference as an objective fact.

Note about pricing: For Cocktail Kingdom products, we’re using specifications and pricing published on Cocktail Kingdom’s own website at the time of this publishing. I’m doing the same thing with the A Bar Above product pages. Prices in this article were checked in late October 2026 and can definitely change.

There’s also an obvious conflict of interest here: I helped start A Bar Above, and the whole company and all of our products are based on my personal experience as a bartender. So where I prefer one of our tools, I’ll explain specifically why. Where Cocktail Kingdom offers something we don’t, has more options, or simply makes a tool I think deserves credit, I’ll say that, too.

The goal here isn’t to decide which company is universally “better.” I don’t think that’s a particularly useful question because everyone has their opinions, and I obviously have some bias here. The better question is: Which company makes the particular bar tool that works better for you?

A Bar Above vs. Cocktail Kingdom at a Glance

 

 

A Quick Note on 18/8 vs. 304 Stainless Steel

You might notice if you look through A Bar Above’s catalog and then Cocktail Kingdom’s catalog that we use stainless steel 304 while they use 18/8. What the heck is the difference?

18/8 is a broader designation referring to stainless steel with approximately 18% chromium and 8% nickel, while 304 is a specific, standardized grade within the 18/8 family.

That tighter specification means 304 has defined composition requirements, giving manufacturers greater consistency in performance. It’s known for strong corrosion and oxidation resistance, durability, excellent weldability, and high formability—qualities that make it particularly well-suited to food-service equipment and barware that sees regular exposure to moisture, citrus, and repeated washing.

A Bar Above specifies 304 stainless steel, while Cocktail Kingdom lists its stainless steel as 18/8. Both perform very well, but specifying 304 gives you more information about the exact grade and the material standards it meets, and it’s generally considered a slightly more professional, durable, and flexible material. That’s absolutely why I chose it for our tools.

In short: 304 is a type of 18/8 stainless steel, but not everything labeled simply “18/8” necessarily tells you that it meets the more specific 304 standard.

 

Cocktail Shakers: A Bar Above vs. Cocktail Kingdom

The long-established bartender favorite: Cocktail Kingdom’s Koriko

Best for weighting options and a dishwasher-safe alternative: A Bar Above

This is probably the comparison most bartenders will recognize immediately: Cocktail Kingdom’s Koriko weighted shaking tins are well known in the bartending world. Cocktail Kingdom positions Koriko among its staple bartender tools at an accessible price point, with the silver stainless steel set of weighted tins selling for $26.98 at the time of this writing. Their copper set is currently $45.99 and their gold $70.99.

To briefly compare, our A Bar Above Boston Shaker starts at $23 in classic silver and is made from 304 stainless steel. Colored options range $22-30. We offer different weighting configurations: weighted/unweighted or fully weighted (which means both tins have a weights). The bottoms are circle-welded, and the tins are designed to be cross-compatible with one another.

While I’d say Cocktail Kingdom has the advantage here, offering 41 shaker products to our 5, there are three reasons why I consider the A Bar Above shaker to be superior to Cocktail Kingdom:

The weighted/unweighted configuration option. Plus, our weights are circle-welded so they won’t fall off, not just tacked on at a few points.
A Bar Above’s colored shaker tins are not plated, meaning they are dishwasher-safe and won’t chip. Our gold, black, and antique copper shakers are tinted with a treatment that infuses the color instead of plating it on top of the stainless steel. So you can throw them in the dishwasher without worrying that they’ll flake or fade. Cocktail Kingdom uses plated coloring, which is not dishwasher-safe. In my opinion, that’s a huge disadvantage, especially for busy working bartenders.
Our colored shakers are not only more functional than Cocktail Kingdom’s by being dishwasher-safe, but they’re also considerably more cost-effective. At the time of publishing, our gold Boston shaker is $29 for weighted/unweighted and $30 for fully weighted tins. Cocktail Kingdom’s Koriko gold shaker is $70.99, only comes as a fully weighted set without options, and is not dishwasher-safe.

This was also the product that launched our barware line in 2016, so it’s one I have a particularly long history with. And believe me, those differences mentioned above are not accidental.

 

My Hot Take

If you handed me either set and asked me to make a Strawberry Daiquiri, I wouldn’t complain. Koriko tins have earned their reputation, and I’ve used plenty of them. I personally reach for our A Bar Above tins because I like the weighting options– I specifically designed our Boston shaker as is because I wanted a weighted/unweighted set– and because we designed the seal, balance, and construction around the things I cared about after years behind the bar. But this is one of those categories where personal feel matters a lot.

The drawback with ABA: We don’t offer the sheer range of shaker designs and specialty options available through Cocktail Kingdom.

The drawback with Koriko/Cocktail Kingdom: If you specifically want different weighting configurations, ABA gives you options within the same core Boston-shaker design, while CK only offers full weighted tins. Koriko is also not as durable and easy to clean but is more expensive.

For a professional bartender who already knows and likes Koriko, I see no reason to talk you out of them– except for maybe the dishwasher issue for the color-treated barware. Personally, if I’m working a busy bar on a Friday night, the last thing I want to worry about is hand-washing a particularly dirty shaker. But for someone who wants weighting choices or likes the specific construction choices we made with our tins, I’d point you toward ours.

 

Cocktail Jiggers: A Bar Above vs. Cocktail Kingdom

Best for measurement markings: A Bar Above

Best for size, style, and design options: Cocktail Kingdom

This is where the differences become more concrete:

Jigger Measurement Comparison

Both: Double-sided jiggers with 1 oz and 2 oz capacities.

More markings, more ways to measure. A Bar Above adds ⅛ oz (1 bar spoon), 1¼ oz, and 1¾ oz measurements, plus a convenient 1 oz marking on the larger side—so you can measure 1 oz from either side of the jigger. Our stainless Japanese Jigger is currently $16.

That sounds like a lot of numbers for a very small piece of metal, but those extra markings are exactly why I use it. I always wanted a jigger with more markings… So I made one.

Cocktail Kingdom’s standard stainless Japanese Style Jigger is currently $13.49. Their catalog also includes other jigger designs and capacities, including Leopold and Koriko models, so they give you considerably more choice if you’re particular about the size, weight, shape, or style of your jigger. They even offer all their jiggers in ounces (oz) or milliliters (ml). I actually really like their stepped jigger, which has the measurements on the outside, making it a great choice for beginners.

But again, just like the shakers, their colored jigger options are not dishwasher-safe and are priced much higher than our color-treated jiggers.

We dug into this pretty extensively for our Best Jiggers for Home Bartenders guide, and I think the fairest answer remains the same: If you want one Japanese-style jigger with a lot of useful measurement increments, I prefer ours. If you want to browse a much larger range of jigger styles and configurations, Cocktail Kingdom wins.

 

The drawback with ABA: Our jigger collection is intentionally smaller. We currently focus on Japanese and bell styles rather than offering a huge number of capacities and shapes.

The drawback with Cocktail Kingdom: Their standard Japanese style jigger doesn’t give me every measurement I personally want in one tool.

This one really comes down to whether you value more markings on one jigger or more jiggers to choose from.

 

Cocktail Strainers: A Bar Above vs. Cocktail Kingdom

Best for ergonomic design and price: A Bar Above

Best for strainer selection and established specialty designs: Cocktail Kingdom

This category is more interesting than I expected.

Our standard stainless Hawthorne Strainer is currently $15. It uses 304 stainless steel, a tightly coiled removable spring, and a weld-free handle design. We designed the shape with ergonomics in mind, particularly reducing hand and finger strain during repeated use.

Cocktail Kingdom’s stainless Koriko Cocktail Strainer (Hawthorne style, though they don’t call it that) is currently $21.99. It uses heavy-duty 18/8 stainless steel, has a wide body and tight coil, and it was developed with bartender and all-around really interesting human, Don Lee.

 

They also offer a pretty impressive range beyond that one strainer. Their current Hawthorne collection includes Koriko, Buswell designs, and  antique-style Hawthorne strainers (six Hawthorne designs in total). They also offer one mesh strainer option and one julep strainer, both in various finishes.

A Bar Above offers two Hawthorne strainer designs, a julep strainer, and a fine mesh strainer, all in multiple finishes.

So I would split this category.

If someone asked me which single Hawthorne strainer I’d buy, I would choose ours. I’m biased, obviously, but I can point to the specific reasons: the ergonomic shape, weld-free handle (which CK does also feature, to be fair), tight removable coil, and current lower price.

If someone told me they wanted to shop a bunch of different Hawthorne designs, historical-inspired options, finishes, or specialized strainers, Cocktail Kingdom gives them way more to work with.

The drawback with ABA: Smaller selection.

The drawback with Cocktail Kingdom: More choice can mean more decision-making, and their Koriko Hawthorne– which is the most comparable to our standard Hawthorne– currently costs more than ours.

Neither of those tells you which one will feel better in your hand, which is ultimately one of the most important things about a tool you’re going to pick up repeatedly. So if you’re able, I do suggest trying both to see which feels better. I don’t think the Koriko and our standard 2-prong Hawthorne are dissimilar enough to make one or the other a clear winner.

 

Mixing Glasses: A Bar Above vs. Cocktail Kingdom

Best for a heavy-duty, straightforward mixing glass at a lower current price: A Bar Above

Best for mixing-glass selection: Cocktail Kingdom

This may be Cocktail Kingdom’s clearest win when it comes to variety.

Our Cocktail Mixing Glass is currently $20-26, available in 4 etched designed, all being 18 oz in capacity. It’s made to do the basic job most home and professional bartenders need from a mixing glass: give you a stable vessel for properly stirring drinks like Martinis, Manhattans, and Negronis. It’s seamless, like many of Cocktail Kingdom’s, and has a really heavy base so it doesn’t slide around.

I did also design our mixing glass and bar spoon to fit each other’s curvatures perfectly. Sometimes it’s the little things I’m most proud of!

Cocktail Kingdom currently lists 26 products in its mixing-glass collection. That includes Yarai, Paddle, Sokata, footed glasses, extra-large versions, and even stainless stirring tins. Current listed capacities run from common 17- and 19-ounce glasses into larger 23-, 25-, 28-, and 33.8-ounce options. Their standard 17-ounce Yarai is currently $32.99, while seamless versions and larger models cost more.

Bottom line: If you want a good-looking mixing glass without having to think too hard, our mixing glass is a straightforward choice. Personally, I love the new botanica design the most, but the diamond etching is very classic and classy.

If you have “Opinions with a capital O” about the exact shape, capacity, base, pattern, or style of your mixing glass, Cocktail Kingdom gives you a lot more options.

The drawback with ABA: We simply don’t offer anywhere near that breadth of mixing-glass designs.

The drawback with Cocktail Kingdom: You may pay more depending on the model you choose, and the sheer number of choices is probably unnecessary for someone who just wants to stir an Old Fashioned. But for selection, Cocktail Kingdom wins this category.

 

Barware Sets: Which Is Better for Building a Bar?

Best for a straightforward all-in-one kits: A Bar Above

Best for building a highly customized setup: Cocktail Kingdom

This is one area where I don’t think a simple product-to-product comparison tells the whole story. While A Bar Above and Cocktail Kingdom both currently offer six unique bartender kits in a variety of finishes, none of the kits contain the same items as each other across companies. So you have to look at each kit and see what it includes and what your personal bar needs.

A Bar Above currently sells multiple bartender kits and sets, including our 14-piece stainless bartender kit at $98-122, depending on color. Our catalog is deliberately built around giving home bartenders and working bartenders access to the core tools they’ll actually use, so most of our kits include the basics, and then you can add specialized tools piece-by-piece.

Or you can use our “Build Your Own Bar Set” feature to get whatever you want and get a discount for bundling.

Cocktail Kingdom currently lists an Essential Cocktail Set, which only includes 5 items, at $139.99, but the bigger advantage of its catalog is the ability to build a setup from a very broad range of individual tools, styles, sizes, and finishes.

A Bar Above vs. Cocktail Kingdom Bar Sets

 

If you’re buying your first serious set and want someone else to make most of those decisions for you, I think a well-designed kit makes a lot of sense, and honestly, both brands offer that. We offer larger sets with more “get you started from scratch” offerings, while many of Cocktail Kingdom’s include more accessories and niche products– which is great for making all kinds of cocktails. Just depends on what you already have and what you want to make.

If you already know that you want this specific jigger, that particular Hawthorne, a 23-ounce Yarai, and a certain length of bar spoon, Cocktail Kingdom’s broader catalog becomes a real advantage.

The drawback with a kit: You give up some customization.

The drawback with building à la carte: Suddenly you’ve spent an hour choosing a bar spoon. Sets also tend to be less expensive than buying piece-by-piece.

(Ask me how I know.)

 

Selection & Specialty Bar Tools

Best for sheer selection: Cocktail Kingdom

No hedging required here.

Cocktail Kingdom has a very large barware catalog with multiple versions of tools that A Bar Above tends to offer in a more focused range. If you click on “All Bar Tools” on their site, you’ll see 305 products, including sets, replacement pieces, and color variations.

That matters if you already know exactly what you like. Different jigger capacities? They’ve got them. Multiple mixing-glass sizes? Absolutely. Historical-inspired strainers, specialty finishes, and alternate bar spoon lengths? This is Cocktail Kingdom’s lane.

A Bar Above has a more concentrated catalog built around core cocktail tools, sets, accessories, glassware, and– here’s our big differentiator– education. Our current catalog includes 105 products overall, but that also includes things like courses, gift cards, glassware, accessories, and sets rather than dozens of variations of every individual bartender tool.

So if maximum choice is the goal, I would send you to Cocktail Kingdom.

 

Education & Learning: A Bar Above Goes Well Beyond the Tools

Best for cocktail education: A Bar Above

This is probably the biggest difference between A Bar Above and Cocktail Kingdom that has nothing to do with the physical tools themselves.

Cocktail Kingdom does have a YouTube presence, with a small collection of videos featuring different bartenders and cocktail personalities, but education isn’t a major part of its current offering. There are no online courses or educational blog to go along with the barware.

For us, education has been part of A Bar Above from the beginning. We don’t just care about making a good shaker, jigger, or strainer. Although we do care a lot about the quality of our tools, we care just as much about helping you understand what to do with it once it arrives.

Our YouTube channel features more than 1,000 videos, including hundreds of cocktail recipes along with technique tutorials, bar-tool guides, ingredient deep dives, and practical bartending education. We also offer nine comprehensive online courses covering different skill levels and specialty topics, plus hundreds of articles and recipes here on the A Bar Above blog.

That’s an important distinction if you’re new to cocktails, but I don’t think it’s only valuable for beginners. Bartending is one of those subjects where there’s always another technique, ingredient, classic recipe, or weird little rabbit hole to explore. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’m still learning.

That’s really the philosophy behind A Bar Above: We pour ourselves into the details of our tools, but we also deeply care about helping you use them. (Pun mildly intended.)

Education at a Glance

A Bar Above
Cocktail Kingdom

YouTube
1,100+ videos
22 videos

Instagram
Reels, recipes, & insider info
Reels & insider info

Online courses
9 comprehensive courses
None

Educational blog
Hundreds of articles & recipes
None

Structured learning
Beginner through advanced & specialty topics
Not currently offered

The drawback is that not everyone shopping for barware wants an educational ecosystem. If you already know exactly what you’re doing and simply want to choose from a huge catalog of specialized tools, Cocktail Kingdom’s strength in selection may matter much more to you.

But if you want the tools and a place to learn how to make better drinks with them, this is one category where the two companies are very different.

 

 

Price & Value: Is A Bar Above or Cocktail Kingdom Cheaper?

This is where I really don’t want to make a sweeping statement.

Prices change. Products aren’t always directly equivalent. And comparing the least expensive item from one company to a completely different tool from another doesn’t tell you much.

So here’s a snapshot of several roughly comparable stainless-steel products as of October 2026:

Current listed prices support those figures, but these aren’t identical products and shouldn’t be treated as though they are. The jiggers have different markings, the strainers have different designs, and Cocktail Kingdom offers many mixing glasses beyond the Yarai used here (all at higher price points, for what it’s worth).

And notice something interesting: A Bar Above isn’t cheaper across the board. Cocktail Kingdom’s standard Japanese Style Jigger currently costs less than ours. That’s exactly why I don’t want to reduce this comparison to “ABA is the more affordable one.”

Price matters, but so does what you’re getting for that price. Compare the particular tools you want, the features you’ll actually use, and how much those differences matter to you.

 

Which Brand Is Better for Home Bartenders?

I don’t think being good for home bartenders means making less-serious tools. Your kitchen counter doesn’t somehow require a worse shaker than a cocktail bar.

For a home bartender, I tend to prioritize versatility, useful measurements, comfortable tools, durability, and not buying five things when one well-designed thing will do the job.

That’s where I think A Bar Above does particularly well.

Our Japanese Jigger, for example, has enough measurement increments that I don’t need another measuring tool for a 1/4-ounce pour. Our core tools are designed to work for someone learning at home without becoming something they’ll immediately want to replace if they get more serious about cocktails. Because all our tools are designed with pro bartenders in mind, since I was one for so long.

Cocktail Kingdom is also perfectly appropriate for home bartenders.

In fact, if the home bartender in question already knows exactly what they want and/or enjoys choosing between lots of sizes, styles, and specialty tools, Cocktail Kingdom may be the more interesting place to shop.

So my answer is: For a straightforward core bar setup, I lean A Bar Above. For maximum choice and customization, I lean Cocktail Kingdom.

 

Which Brand Is Better for Professional Bartenders?

This is the part where I’m going to disappoint anyone looking for a dramatic showdown: Both companies make tools that can be and are used behind a professional bar. I see our products out in the wild all the time. I also see Cocktail Kingdom’s. And if I’m bold enough to ask, usually the bartenders are happy with what they have.

Our Boston shaker, Hawthorne strainer, and other core tools were explicitly designed with professional bartending in mind, not as decorative home-bar versions of professional equipment. And Cocktail Kingdom has its own long-established bartender-focused lines, including Koriko, and its catalog gives professionals an enormous number of choices in capacity, configuration, and style.

Once you’re working professionally, personal preference becomes even more important because you’re using these tools repeatedly. A slightly different grip, weight, spring tension, jigger shape, or shaker balance that seems trivial after one drink can become considerably less trivial after 150 drinks.

So I wouldn’t tell a professional bartender to choose a company. I’d tell them to choose their tools.

 

Which Brand Should You Choose?

If you’ve made it this far hoping I’ll dramatically declare one company the winner, you realistically already know I’m not going to do that.

I obviously have a horse in this race. Julia and I built A Bar Above around the kinds of tools I wanted to use behind the bar, and there are specific design decisions in our jiggers, shakers, and strainers that I genuinely prefer.

But Cocktail Kingdom has been an important name in modern cocktail barware for a reason. Their Koriko tins are well known, their catalog is huge, and in categories like mixing glasses and specialty barware, they offer considerably more choices than we do.

So here’s how I’d actually make the decision:

Choose A Bar Above if you want a more focused selection of core cocktail tools, particularly if features like our jigger markings, shaker weighting choices, or ergonomic strainer design appeal to you.
Choose Cocktail Kingdom if you want the broadest possible selection and enjoy choosing among multiple capacities, designs, finishes, and specialized tools.

Or do what bartenders have been doing forever: Buy the individual tools you like from whoever makes them. Nobody is checking whether your jigger and shaker match.

Chris’s Take

If a friend asked me which brand to buy for their home bar, I’d obviously tell them why I use the A Bar Above tools I personally designed. But I’d rather explain those differences than pretend Cocktail Kingdom doesn’t make good barware. They do. I think the better way to build a bar is to look at the individual tools, think about how you actually make drinks, and buy the things that solve the problems you care about. If that’s all A Bar Above, fantastic. If you end up with tools from three different companies, your Martini will survive.

 

The Tools Matter More Than the Logo

I have spent enough time behind a bar to know that bartenders can get very attached to their tools. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Once you find a shaker that breaks exactly the way you like, a jigger that sits naturally between your fingers, or a strainer that doesn’t annoy you after a hundred drinks, you develop some loyalty. But I don’t think you need brand loyalty to build a good bar.

A Bar Above and Cocktail Kingdom both make legitimate cocktail tools. We make some things differently. Cocktail Kingdom offers things we don’t. And there are individual categories where I think one company has a clearer advantage than the other.

The rest comes down to what feels good in your hand, what fits your budget, and what you actually need to make the drinks you love. Because at the end of the day, nobody has ever taken a sip of a properly made Daiquiri and said, “Hang on. Do all your bar tools come from the same company?”

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is A Bar Above a Good Alternative to Cocktail Kingdom?

We’re obviously biased, so here’s our honest take: A Bar Above and Cocktail Kingdom both sell cocktail tools suitable for home and professional bartending, including shakers, jiggers, strainers, mixing glasses, and barware sets.

Cocktail Kingdom is a much bigger company with a far wider catalog. We’re a small, family-owned company that makes a focused set of tools. In our opinion, we sweat the details more than anyone, because our I (Chris, the co-founder) spent years behind the bar noticing every small thing that slows a bartender down.

If you want the widest choice of styles, start with Cocktail Kingdom. If you want tools where every detail was obsessed over and built to survive a high-volume bar or to sit in your home bar long enough to hand down to your grandkids, we think ours are the ones to get.

Is Cocktail Kingdom Better Than A Bar Above?

Not necessarily and definitely not across every category.

But for some things, yes: Cocktail Kingdom has far more mixing glasses and specialty barware than we do, for example. If you need something unusual, they likely carry it. A cocktail shaker shaped like a literal bell? They have it. Why? I really don’t know, but it does look cool.

Where we think we’re stronger is in specific design choices we made on purpose. For example, our Japanese jigger has extra measurement lines so you can pour small amounts accurately without guessing or needing a second tool. Our Hawthorne strainer has a weld-free design that we think is more comfortable in your hand over a long shift. Our color-treated barware is also dishwasher-safe, unlike Cocktail Kingdom’s, which is plated and must be hand-washed.

But as a small, family-owned company, A Bar Above’s selection is naturally smaller. Rather than comparing the brands a a whole, we recommend looking at the specific tool you’re buying. No one says you can’t mix-and-match.

Which Makes Better Cocktail Shakers?

Both A Bar Above’s Boston shaker and Cocktail Kingdom’s Koriko tins are designed for serious cocktail making.

Koriko is a long-established weighted Boston-shaker option. However, A Bar Above offers multiple weighting configurations and circle-welded 304 stainless-steel tins designed to seal securely and separate easily. All colors of the A Bar Above line are also dishwasher-safe while Cocktail Kingdom’s are not.

But which feels better in your hands comes down largely to personal preference! I suggest trying both if it’s in your budget, and then you can really see for yourself which you prefer.

Which Brand Has Better Jiggers?

For a Japanese-style jigger with a wide range of useful measurement markings, I prefer the A Bar Above Japanese jigger. It includes measurements down to a bar spoon and 1/4 ounce along with intermediate measurements every 1/4 ounce up to 2 ounces.

Cocktail Kingdom wins on overall jigger selection, with more styles and configurations available, but their jiggers offer fewer measurement markings, and their colored options (gold, black, etc.) are not dishwasher-safe, while A Bar Above’s are.

Which Brand Is Better for Home Bartenders?

For someone who wants a straightforward collection of core bar tools that are dishwasher-safe and built with a slightly more durable material, I lean toward A Bar Above. Again, I created A Bar Above, so it’s natural for me to choose my own company, BUT I made the choices I made in how to create these tools in direct response to issues I had with other barware on the market. I’m trying to be objective here, though, and Cocktail Kingdom is a great company and a big name in hospitality.

For a home or professional bartender who wants to choose among a much larger number of designs, capacities, and specialized tools, Cocktail Kingdom has the advantage in selection.

However, both companies sell tools appropriate for making serious cocktails at home. Each has it’s advantages and drawbacks. One simple suggestion is to mix-and-match companies based on which offers a particular tool you like. Just because you have an A Bar Above jigger doesn’t mean you can’t get a Cocktail Kingdom strainer.

Can Professional Bartenders Use A Bar Above Tools?

Yes! All of A Bar Above’s tools are explicitly designed for both professional and home use. The Boston shaker uses commercial-grade 304 stainless steel, for example, and the Hawthorne strainer was designed with repeated professional use and hand comfort in mind.

Before I (Chris) co-founded A Bar Above, I was a professional bartender and bar manager for nearly 15 years, so I design our tools with professional use in mind but work to make them as easy as possible to use so that everyone at every skill level will love them.