What Is a Jigger? Meaning, Sizes & How to Measure Cocktail Pours
Tips & Tricks · 2026-08-12 · 6 min read · by ExpertCocktails Editorial
A jigger is the small metal measuring cup behind almost every decent cocktail. It looks trivial, which is why beginners skip it. Then a Daiquiri gets an extra half-ounce of lime, an Old Fashioned gets a heroic pour of syrup, and two attempts at the same drink somehow taste unrelated.
The jigger fixes that. It gives you repeatable pours while you are still learning what a balanced drink is supposed to taste like. That is not a beginner crutch. It is the tool that lets you notice whether a recipe needs changing, rather than wondering which of your unmeasured pours went sideways.
What the two sides mean
Most double jiggers have a larger and a smaller cup. A common pairing is 2 ounces and 1 ounce, though you will also see 1.5 and 0.75 ounce, or internal lines for smaller measures. Read the markings on your own jigger before service. They are not standard enough to guess from its shape.
For a home bar, the best first jigger is the one you can read at a glance. A narrow Japanese-style double jigger is quick and tidy once you are used to it. An angled jigger with marked lines is slower but easier to learn on because you can see the liquid level without crouching over the glass. Either works. An unmarked shot glass does not.
How to pour accurately without turning it into a ceremony
Hold the jigger between two fingers near the narrow middle, pour at eye level when you are learning, and stop when the liquid reaches the line. Then empty it completely into the shaker, mixing glass or serving glass before measuring the next ingredient. A sticky half-ounce of syrup left inside the cup becomes a mystery error in the next pour.
With small measures, slow down at the end. Bitters, absinthe and high-proof liqueurs can change a drink fast, but they are also the ingredients most likely to be free-poured carelessly. Use a dash bottle for bitters and a bar spoon or marked jigger line when the recipe asks for a quarter ounce.
Start with two recipes that make measuring obvious
Make a Daiquiri and an Old Fashioned back to back. The Daiquiri teaches you why the spirit, citrus and sweetener relationship matters: change one side and the balance moves immediately. The Old Fashioned teaches the opposite lesson: a small amount of sugar and bitters has an outsized effect when there is no juice to hide it.
Once those feel steady, make the same drink twice without changing the brand of spirit or the ice. If the second one tastes different, do not blame your palate first. Check the measurements. Consistency is the whole point of the tool.
When to stop measuring
Not yet. Experienced bartenders sometimes free-pour in fast service, but they did not get accurate by avoiding a jigger. They learned a calibrated count, used the same bottles repeatedly, and still check themselves when a recipe is unfamiliar or exact balance matters.
Use the jigger until you can explain what each measure is doing. At that point you can make an informed adjustment. Before that point, improvising is mostly just making the same mistake with confidence.