Over the last 5 years I've been working on the design of a new Cocktail shaker. As I have said before, most cocktail shakers have been designed from the outside first. So much so that they will resemble Penguins or Torpedos even Skyscrapers. The inside of each of these cocktail shakers, and they are all very lovely, is exactly the same. Its always a flat cylinder where the ice starts and stops with the rare exception of the "Alessi" shaker that is indeed very beautiful.. Often the ice actually punches through the top and the bottom of the shaker creating a slightly rounded effect. In this shaker, designed and created by Colin Field and Denis Servais, the ice never really stops. It glides around the shaker permitting the bartender to make a Dry Martini with a certain mouvement and a Gin Fizz with another. Here are a few of Denis technical drawings.

I get the idea, then I draw something that I want, Denis then takes over and makes the whole thing happen.

This is the way we worked on the cocktail tweezers, that Denis code names "the cobra". This was an idea that came from the old Asparagus tongs that you shall see in a picture. It was Gilbert Scatena, one of my first Head Bartenders in 1982 that gave me my first asparagas tweezers. The problem is that they are very fragile. "The Cobra" that you see in the picture is made with one piece of aliminium. Its therefore completely solid and by all accounts practically unbreakable although I'm still testing the hinge!

The ice spoon was born of the need to have a light but powerful hitting spoon for those bags of delivered ice that jam up into one heavy mass. There is even a hammer on the hand end.
The strainer is very simple. I don't need a long handle and the idea came to me whilst looking at a Mamalade jar one morning over coffee.

So this is our work for the moment. Still lots to do though, I'll keep you posted.