The Four Styles of co*cktail Shaker—And How to Decide Which Is Right for You (2024)

The co*cktail shaker is arguably the most important tool in a bartender’s (b)arsenal. It's used to craft some of the world’s most beloved co*cktails and serves one primary purpose: to combine an array of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic ingredients—ice being the constant—through vigorous agitation as a means to create one cohesive drink that’s properly aerated, chilled, and diluted.

At the bar, nothing gets guests more excited for their drinks than hearing the rhythmic rattling of ice and the sloshing of liquid in a bartender’s shaker as their co*cktail nears its pinnacle of temperature and dilution. It adds to the atmosphere of a room and is as much a part of the show as any flamboyant garnish or service touch.

And bartenders know as well as anyone that not all shakers are created equal.

Aside from the differences in quality between manufacturers, there are also four different styles of shaker that bartenders and enthusiasts can choose from for shaking their drinks: the glass-on-tin or tin-on-tin Boston shaker, the Cobbler shaker, and the Parisian (or French) shaker.

To decide which shaker fits your needs best, here’s everything you need to know when comparing the lot.

Tin-on-Tin Boston Shaker

For the modern, everyday co*cktail bar, this set of stainless steel shaking tins is the gold standard. One tin is small and the other is large—typically 18 and 28 ounces respectively—and they’re loved for their relative durability and efficiency. This style of Boston shaker usurped the glass-on-tin style (large metal tin and glass pint glass) in the early aughts during New York City’s co*cktail renaissance.

Like the glass-on-tin Boston shaker, the tins create a vacuum-tight seal when pressed together, keeping the contents of the vessel secure and ready to be shaken without spilling. They can also easily fit within one hand so that a bartender can double shake (i.e a set of tins in each hand) when service is bustling. But unlike the glass-on-tin Boston shaker, the tin-on-tin shaker can’t smash into bits when dropped or hit too hard.

For longevity, durability, and overall efficiency the tin-on-tin shaker is your best bet.

Look for tins that are weighted at the bottom for balance, such as bar industry-standard Leopold or Koriko weighted shaking tins from co*cktail Kingdom. Our only piece of advice is to avoid buying the cheap sets found at homeware stores as they don’t always seal properly, and the cheap metal edges become sharp after some wear. Otherwise, tin-on-tin shakers are your guaranteed workhorses.

Glass-on-Tin Boston Shaker

An early style of the Boston shaker was one-half tin and one-half pint glass that fit together to form a tight seal while shaking. The simple two-tin construction came about soon after, but many still believe that it’s the glass portion that defines the Boston shaker as such.

In bars where free pouring is standard, this style of shaker adds an advantage because it’s easy to see the volume of the liquid being poured into the clear glass. It can also double as a mixing glass. It’s the reason why you’ll still see the bartenders mixing co*cktails into pint glasses as opposed to tins at some notable co*cktail bars where co*cktails are free-poured instead of jiggered, such as New York’s Employee’s Only.

Shaking with this style of Boston shaker also makes for a more visually appealing experience for anyone watching, as the contents of the shaker can be seen sloshing around in real time as opposed to being hidden within opaque tins.

The drawbacks to this style of shaker versus the tin-on-tin version are that the pint glass is heftier than metal and is prone to shattering, and glass doesn’t retain temperature as well as stainless steel. As such, the contents of the shaker won’t get as cold as they would if they were shaken in a set of tins (thermodynamics, y’all).

Over the years, the glass-on-tin Boston shaker has fallen so far out of fashion that few reputable brands actually produce them anymore; but if you’re keen on sourcing a set, Amazon is probably your best bet.

Cobbler Shaker

The cobbler shaker was officially invented by Edward Hauck in 1884 and has very much stood the test of time. It comes with three pieces: a tin, a top for the tin with a built-in strainer, and a cap to top the strainer while shaking so that guests don’t get an unsolicited co*cktail shower.

It was named after one of the most popular styles of co*cktail at the time, the Cobbler. Since its invention, this style of shaker has become a revered tool by Japanese bartenders, in particular, who have harnessed the cobbler shaker to develop a distinct style of shaking called the hard shake.

The cobbler shaker design is very sleek, and the shape and average size of the shaker lends itself to a slightly frothier shaken co*cktail. It’s also quite fussy, which is why very few bars stock cobbler shakers.

After shaking a co*cktail vigorously, a vacuum is created within the shaker from the ice, causing a significant temperature drop. Taking apart a three-piece shaker after having mixed a co*cktail can prove to be something of an impromptu wrestling match. The actual strainer of the cobbler shaker is also composed of perforated holes, which don’t catch as many solid particles as a spring-fit Hawthorne strainer. This causes many bartenders to rely on fine strainers to double-strain co*cktails.

The cobbler does have some benefits, and it’s definitely one of the most stylish shakers, but it’s not one you’ll find at a high-volume bar where efficiency is the name of the game. Brands such as Usagi (bought via co*cktail Kingdom) and Birdy by renowned bartender Erik Lorincz of Kwãnt in London are a couple of the best-in-class examples of contemporary cobblers. Artisanal producers such as Tepotzli are hand-crafting pieces that are as much art as they are tools for mixing exceptional co*cktails.

Parisian Shaker (a.k.a. French Shaker)

The Parisian-style shaker, also known as a French shaker or continental shaker, falls somewhere in between a cobbler shaker and a tin-on-tin shaker. Like both, it is made purely of stainless steel or another metal. Similar to the cobbler shaker, it includes a metal top and a large base tin, but it does not include a third piece with a built-in strainer.

Though they’re aesthetically pleasing and effective in mixing a fine co*cktail, Parisian shakers are less efficient than tin-on-tin shakers, as they require two hands to operate when shaking and can only produce one co*cktail at a time. As such, most bars don’t use them. At home, they tend to serve more as pieces to look at on the bar cart than practical mixing tools.

That said, if you value style over efficiency at home, the Parisian shaker is worth genuine consideration. The brand Viski sells sexy, time-capsule-looking Parisian shakers that get the job done, as does designer Tom Dixon. The latter is more of a statement piece for the home bar, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to what you’re looking for.