12 Unique Mini Gadgets That Can Upgrade Your Home Whisky Or Cocktail Bar

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As well as helping you be more productive while you're sitting at your office desk, gadgets can also help you make the most of your time off when you're trying to unwind. Enjoying a beverage is one of the easiest ways to relax, but the process can easily be spoiled if you realize you've forgotten to prepare correctly beforehand. Perhaps you remember that you don't have any ice to make your favorite cocktail or chill your whiskey, or you left your favorite white wine or prosecco on the counter rather than in the fridge.

There are plenty of gadgets to help solve all of these common problems, and there are plenty of others that can help take your drink-making experience to the next level too. If you've ever wanted to create proper bar-style cocktails but you can never get the proportions of ingredients right, or you want smoke or lights to add some flair to your next cocktail creation, there are gadgets to help you do all of those things and more. We've gone trawling through the depths of Amazon to bring you 12 cool mini gadgets, each of which receives consistently positive feedback from reviewers on the platform.

Whether your drink of choice is whiskey or a cocktail, you'll probably want to keep some ice on hand to ensure that it's served at the perfect temperature. Some refrigerators utilize clever tech and offer built-in ice makers, but if your refrigerator doesn't, you'll need to get your ice from a different source. Anyone with some spare space on their cocktail or whiskey bar could pick up a mini gadget that means they always have access to a steady ice supply, like the Euhomy countertop ice maker.

It retails for $89.99 on Amazon, and like all of the gadgets here, it's well liked by reviewers. The ice maker is available in a variety of colors to suit virtually all bar styles — buyers wanting a discreet gadget will probably want to opt for the black colorway, while anyone with a brighter, tropical-themed bar might want to pick the green or rose-colored versions.

The brand says that the ice maker can produce up to 26 lbs of ice in 24 hours, with each piece being bullet-shaped so it sticks together less than a conventional cube. If you've forgotten to fill the device, you shouldn't have to wait around long for your evening drink, as the brand claims that the ice maker will produce its first pieces just six minutes after it is refilled. Even if your bar isn't near an outlet, there's no need to worry, as the gadget features a carry handle so you can easily transport it around the house or out into the yard.

Professional mixologists are not only experts at blending the perfect proportion of ingredients, but they're also able to add a bit more flair to the cocktail making experience than most people do at home. Some cocktails might arrive in unique glasses, some might be infused with smoke, and some might even be lit on fire before they're served. It's probably easier to leave the fire starting to the professionals, but the other two things aren't difficult to achieve at home with the right equipment.

Amazon is a great place to find that equipment, and if you're looking for a smoking gun to give your cocktails some pizazz, the Breville BSM600SIL smoking gun is a good place to start. The gun retails for $109.95, and it includes wood chips so you can try it out right away. There are two different smoke settings on the gadget, gentle and intense, with the latter being the best option for a more distinctive change in flavor. The gun runs using a set of four AA batteries, which Breville helpfully includes alongside the device. When they run out, you'll need to replace them, although it's probably best to make sure you replace all of them with batteries from the same brand.

Plenty of cocktail recipes involve soda, and to keep that soda cool, you'll want to keep it in the fridge. Rather than heading back to your kitchen every time you need a new can, the Cooluli mini fridge lets you keep your soda chilled without needing to leave your bar. Unlike a larger refrigerator, the Cooluli can be powered in multiple different ways, either using AC, DC, or USB power. The necessary cords for all three power types are included with the fridge.

It has a capacity of 4 liters, which should be enough to stash multiple soda cans with room left over for some cocktail garnishes. Its small size and versatile power options also mean that it can be picked up and taken with you on the go when you're not using it to keep drinks cool at your home bar. Various color options are available, with the black color option retailing for $59.99. That's a relatively small investment considering that some mini fridges can last for a decade or more.

Finding the right lighting setup can make a big difference if you're looking to recreate the atmosphere of a night out at your home bar. You'll need to consider not only how the room is illuminated, but also how certain objects and parts of the bar are lit. Cocktail glasses, wine glasses, and bottles can also be given their own lighting if you buy a set of Ahiier LED bottle sticker lights.

A 12-piece set costs $14.99, with each piece providing lighting for up to 24 hours according to its maker. Although reviewers generally like the set, one common complaint is that this claimed battery life is optimistic. Some reviewers claim the lights only last for a couple hours, a few say that some pieces in the set can fail earlier than others. A single set includes seven different light colors.

The lights can be stuck to the bottom of bottles and glasses using the included adhesive, with each one containing four LED bulbs to illuminate the drink from underneath. Many drinkers will likely prefer to leave the lights on their steady illumination mode, but they can also be switched to their fast or slow flashing modes if needed.

Wine aerators promise to give you the benefits of letting a wine breathe without needing to wait like you normally would. There are plenty of potential upsides to aeration, like enhancing its flavor and softening tannins, but wine experts recommend that some wines be left alone for several hours between uncorking and drinking. The Higfra wine aerator, on the other hand, won't keep you waiting for hours. The $36.99 device attaches straight to the top of most common shapes of wine bottle, and it pours aerated wine straight away.

It isn't just useful for maximizing flavor, either. If you're making cocktails where wine or prosecco is an ingredient and you can never seem to pour the right amount, the one-button operation of the aerator can potentially help you dispense the drink more precisely. When it's out of battery, the gadget can be recharged using a USB cable, which is included alongside a velvet storage bag and a pair of flexible guide tubes.

Enjoying cocktails is one thing, but enjoying the process of making them is entirely different. Plenty of people like one and not the other, and if you prefer the drinking part to the making part, you shouldn't overlook the Bartesian Duet cocktail maker. Bartesian does the hard work for you, measuring out all of the necessary ingredients of a range of cocktails before squeezing them into a capsule.

To make a cocktail, all you need to do is put the capsule into the cocktail maker, ensure that the device has an adequate supply of liquor, and select the strength of cocktail you want on the screen. The maker then does the rest, and can accommodate mocktails as well as light and strong alcoholic cocktails. There's not even any need to select which cocktail you'd like to make, as the device can identify the capsule you insert automatically. It's no small investment with a retail price of $299, and you'll also need to factor in the ongoing cost of replacement capsules, but if you want bar-style cocktails without needing to make them, it doesn't get much easier than this.

A bottle of wine won't fit in most mini fridges, and so keeping it cool while it's sitting on your cocktail bar will require a different approach. You could always opt for the trusty bucket of ice, but if you want some more control over exactly how cold you're keeping the bottle, you could use the Cobalance wine chiller instead. It fits a single bottle of wine so it won't take up much space on a bartop, and it's capable of keeping that bottle cold for up to 24 hours.

The $99.89 chiller features a display that allows you to set the precise temperature that you'd like the bottle to remain at, which can be anywhere from 41-64 degrees Fahrenheit. An LED light lets you know when that temperature has been reached, at which point, the wine is ready to be consumed either on its own or as part of a wine cocktail.

The Smokpub electric whiskey smoker kit is a cheaper alternative to smoking guns from brands like Breville, although it's not as versatile. It retails for $39.99 and it's designed to fit to the top of a standard size drinks glass, including most common whiskey glasses. Unfortunately, it's not compatible with all styles of cocktail glass, so anyone wanting to regularly smoke both whiskey and cocktails will probably want to look to Breville's pricier rival instead.

Just like the Breville smoking gun, it uses real wood chips to impart a smokey look and flavor. However, Smokpub's smoker features a built-in rechargeable battery, which can be topped up via a USB cable. The brand claims that a full charge should be enough to initiate up to 130 ignitions. Once the wood is lit, Smokpub says that it only takes a few seconds for the infusion process to start. The fire is automatically extinguished when the smoker is opened up, and any one of the six included types of wood chips can then be switched out ready for the next glass of whiskey.

Brightening up a dull whiskey or cocktail bar doesn't have to be a complicated process. The Heliwey USB mini neon bar sign is a simple but effective way to add a touch of personality without needing to worry about wall mounting a traditional, larger neon sign. However, it does feature hook holes to mount the sign to a wall if you prefer. 

The mini sign will sit on a bartop, casting a glow onto the surrounding bottles and glasses, without taking up too much space. At fewer than 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, it can serve as a backdrop for the bar or be placed on a corner or side if you have more unused room to fill. To power the sign, you'll need a USB outlet or adapter, but thanks to the included 78-inch power cable, the outlet itself doesn't need to be right next to it. The sign is available for $23.99.

Pouring accurate measures of cocktail ingredients is tricky, and there are multiple ways to eliminate bad pours. Of course, there's always the option of skipping the pouring process altogether and letting an automated cocktail maker like Bartesian's cocktail making machine do all of the work. However, if you'd prefer to improve your skills rather than hand the task off entirely, the Barsys smart drinks coaster 2.0 is a better bet.

The coaster uses a precise weight sensor to judge exactly when you need to stop pouring, and it'll give you easy-to-follow instructions via its built-in color-changing light and its accompanying smartphone app. You can use the app to find the recipe for the cocktail you want, and then the coaster can help make sure you pour the exact right amount of each ingredient. Any friends that also have the coaster and the app can send you their favorite recipes and custom creations. The device retails for $69.99, and it's available in three colors — black, blue, and silver — so it'll blend right in with your existing bar setup.

Jimmy Buffett fans will have to travel to Orlando to see his famous plane, but they won't have to go anywhere near as far to experience the cocktail that the musician is famously associated with. Buffett's Margaritaville brand sells a Key West frozen concoction maker which can sit on a bartop at home, and it's available on Amazon for $229.87. As you would expect, the concoction maker is a great way to make a margarita cocktail, but it can also be used to create plenty of other famous cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks too.

According to the brand, the key thing that separates Margaritaville's frozen concoction maker from the rest is its use of shaved ice rather than crushed ice, which results in a drink texture that's closer to what you might find at a tropical bar. The maker can be used to create up to three servings of drinks at once, so if you've got friends over, they won't have to wait long to be served with an ice-cold cocktail.

Most modern lighting and display units use LED lights because they're efficient and can emit a wide array of different colors. Switching between those colors can be as simple as either using a remote control or smartphone app, if you have a display unit like the Mesailup LED bottle display shelf.

Various sizes of the shelving unit are available, but anyone with a small home bar is most likely to want the mini version that features two 16-inch shelves. It's available for $64.99. If you have an especially large bottle or a very large amount of bottles to display, the unit is available with up to four shelves in lengths of up to 60 inches.

The remote control that's included with the unit lets you easily switch between not only different lighting colors but also different pulsing light speeds. Plus, you can control the brightness of the light and set a sleep timer for between one and three hours. The unit can either be run using a standard 110V wall power or a portable 12V power supply, and it comes with a power adapter included.

To narrow down the thousands of mini gadgets that are aimed at whiskey and cocktail drinkers, we relied on feedback from users on Amazon who have put each product to the test. In order to be included, each pick needed to have a minimum of 400 reviews on the retail platform with an average rating of at least 4.2 out of five stars across them. We also focused on small, compact gadgets that are easily portable or that wouldn't take up too much space on your bartop.