I Wrote a Cocktail Book and This Is the Surprisingly Practical Tool I Use to Take the Guesswork Out of Measuring
Although I have a good selection of bar tools and shot glasses on my bar cart, when I was developing the recipes for my spritz cocktail book, there was one surprising tool from my kitchen that I couldn’t live without — the OXO Good Grips Mini Angled Measuring Cup.
Real bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts would likely scoff at my tiny 2-ounce measuring cup — but that’s ok with me. Most pros use double-sided jiggers to measure spirits, with 1 ½ ounce capacity on one side and ¾ ounce capacity on the other. And, sure, after using a jigger day in and day out, you get pretty familiar with pouring precise measurements into it. But I’m not a bartender, so eyeballing, say, 1 ounce or ½ ounce isn’t easy for me, even if there are graduated markers sneakily etched onto the sides.
However, this little OXO cup takes all the guesswork out of measuring just the right amount of liquid, even if it’s as small as ¼ ounce of lemon juice or vanilla simple syrup. Since I was creating precise cocktail recipes for others to follow, getting accurate measurements was a non-negotiable while creating my book. As a bonus, the markings on the OXO cup are angled, allowing me to easily read them from the top while I pour instead of having to raise the cup up to eye level each and every time I wanted to double-check my measurements.
As much as I adore OXO’s 2-ounce measuring cup for mixing cocktails, it comes in handy when I’m cooking, too. It has measurements in ounces, tablespoons, cups, and milliliters (great for recipes with metric measurements), and features a precise pour spout that means you’ll never lose a drop whether you’re pouring melted butter into a batter or drizzling a demi-glace atop a steak. When I’m making something that requires lots of splashes of this and that — especially stir-fry recipes — I pull out this cup instead of my measuring spoons.
Like many of OXO’s other useful kitchen gadgets, this measuring cup is lightweight, dishwasher safe, and practically indestructible. The only thing I don’t love about it? It’s not quite as sexy-cool as a metal jigger. So, while I won’t be putting my little OXO cup on display on my bar cart, you can pretty much guarantee it’s never far from my reach — and I have a hunch you’ll feel the same way, too.
Buy: OXO Good Grips Mini Angled Measuring Cup, $6.99