One thing is clear, not all bar tools are made equal. We all have our favourites and here at the WFA we thought it would be worth sharing our own! When it comes to flair bartending any good bartender will tell you, actually you can flair with anything – it doesn’t even need to be barware. From baseball caps to shoes, we have seen it all used in pulling off a variety of flair moves.
Here are the WFA’s favourite flair tools and where to get them:
1. Flair Bottle
The first and maybe the most obvious choice is the flair bottle. It is the obvious choice as it is the WFA barware tool specifically designed for flair but it is also an irreplaceable tool for all levels of flair bartender. It is designed to be weighted exactly like a real glass bottle but without a glass bottle’s limitations, perfect!
Made from a very strong shatter-proof plastic this flair bottle is basically ‘unbreakable’ – so long as you are using it to practice flair bartending! It should survive many drops over many years. Check Marek out below demonstrating what can be done with this great bottle, on a beach…
2. Tin on Tin Cocktail Shaker
For us this is the best shaker combination for serious bartenders, from mixologist to flair bartenders, you can’t beat the tin on tin Boston can set. The tin on tin Boston can set seen above is made up of a standard 28oz Boston tin and a smaller 18oz Boston tin, both available individually from the WFA store. The 28oz Boston tin can be used for almost any shaker or bottle/tin routines and putting them together you get one of the best tools for Craft Flair.
Craft flair involves a whole host of new flair bartending moves designed specifically for use behind the bar and during service. As a result the flair moves are often less dramatic but more intricate – as behind the bar you are working with limited time and in a limited space! The tin on tin is perfect for this application and there are a whole host of new moves emerging both behind the bar and on stage as a result of this shaker combination. That’s what we love to see!
3. Professional Bar Spoon
The WFA professional bar spoon is perfect for working flair, not only is it very useful with a sympathetically shaped bowl one end and the multi-faceted disk at the other but it is also a great tool for flair behind the bar or on the stage. We have seen bartenders do all sorts with this bar spoon over the years, although not anything as groundbreaking as Nicolas Saint Jean in the below video.
4. WFA Steel Bar blade
You cannot beat the bar blade as the bartenders weapon of choice for popping bottle caps and impressing customers behind the bar. A fantastically handy tool the bar blade will almost always be the bottle opener of choice. The WFA stainless steel bar blade will hold up over time, without rusting or degrading – leaving you with a trusty bar blade to rely on when you most need it.
Although very useful behind the bar, bar blades can be harder to use in a flair bartending competition, there are generally other bar tools that you can make a bigger impact with, unless your name is Alibek Jaibergenov:
5. 28oz Black Vinyl Coated Boston Can
This is one special Boston can due to its vinyl coating. The vinyl coating gives you a great deal of extra grip, which makes this Boston can perfect for when you have wet hands behind the bar – or on stage! It is also fantastic for the whole range of body rolls performed with a shaker, such as arm rolls and chest rolls.
The vinyl coating allows the Boston can to grip your clothing better giving you much more stability when trying to perform what are already quite challenging and advanced flair bartending moves. This is by far the top Boston can for beginners and with time and an increase in skill we would advise moving on to the tin on tin Boston set as discussed at the beginning of this article.
You can see Flavius Lupo perform some of these moves below from 01:00 minute in, which are very hard to pull off: