The Best Jiggers and Measuring Tools for Cocktails

Measure because cocktails are small. Add an extra 1/4 oz to a 3/4 oz pour of lime and you have a third more lime in the drink. You will taste that.

Most jiggers hold what they say. America’s Test Kitchen found nearly every model it reviewed was accurate at its marked volumes, so the errors tend to come from the person holding it. That is why a clear line beats fancy steel.

Hold the jigger level over the tin, not over the glass, so any drips land in the drink. Fill to the line, check it at eye level and tip it in. Keep doing this even once you feel good, because free pouring takes real practice.

Pour the citrus and syrup first and the spirit last. If you slip, you have lost some lime, not the good whiskey.

No jigger? A tablespoon is 1/2 oz, so two make 1 oz. A teaspoon handles the smallest pours, since a recipe that says a bar spoon means about 1 tsp (5 ml). You can also use any small cup for a whole drink, as long as the ratio between ingredients stays the same.

A double jigger is two cups back to back, and it suits most home bars. Look for 1 oz on one end and 2 oz on the other, plus inside lines at 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and 1 1/2 oz. That set covers nearly every classic recipe, from a Daiquiri to a Negroni.

Bell or Japanese is mostly a matter of feel. A bell jigger has a wide shape that sits steady on the counter. A Japanese jigger is tall and slim, so a small slip in height is a smaller slip in volume. That is a real edge, but a small one.

Check two things before you buy. Some doubles stop at 1 1/2 oz with no 2 oz line, which is a pain if your recipes use it. And look for marks that will survive the dishwasher, since printed lines can fade.

An angled measure lets you read the pour from above, with no crouching at the counter. A slope inside the cup shows the marks as you look straight down. If you hate squinting at a line, start here.

OXO’s two versions differ in their units, so pick by that. The steel Angled Jigger is marked in ounces and tablespoons, and the plastic Mini Angled Measuring Cup adds ml. Both hold 2 oz. America’s Test Kitchen named them co-winners and found little between them.

The trade-off is speed. A bartender can flip a double jigger without looking. At home, nobody is timing you.

Buy the units your recipes use. Recipes in ounces want ounce lines, recipes in ml want ml lines, and if you read both, buy a tool marked with both.

One ounce is about 30 ml, and bars round it that way. So 1/2 oz is 15 ml, 3/4 oz is about 22 ml and 1 1/2 oz is 45 ml. The exact figure is 29.6 ml, but rounding is fine, because balance comes from ratios, not totals.

Watch out for 25 ml and 50 ml jiggers, which are common in UK bars. They work well, but 25 ml is not 1 oz, so measure every ingredient in a drink the same way. A mix of units in one drink is how a sour goes wrong.