Designed by Giulio Iacchetti together with mixologist Oscar Quagliarini, Alessi’s The Tending Box collection reinterprets the traditional tools used to prepare cocktails, resulting in objects that combine aesthetics and functionality.
The Form & Function of Cocktail Preparation
“The project moves within three guidelines, namely translating Oscar’s requests into a coherent form, exploring the archetype and its reinterpretation, and finally studying typologies to innovate, albeit with small shifts forward, the set of tools for cocktail preparation,” explains Giulio Iacchetti.
In a balanced synthesis of form and function, the most classic tools of the trade are reinterpreted – cocktail stirrer, mixing glass, bar strainer, cocktail scoop, mixing spoon, and bar whisk all take on new technical features and refined aesthetic details.
Inside Alessi’s The Tending Box
“The Tending Box” meets the needs of professionals and novices alike in a line that combines styling with high performance. The “Parisienne” cocktail stirrer doesn’t slip out of hand, the tumbler with its weighted base facilitates stirring, and the mixing spoon follows the mixologist’s movements elegantly, sinuously, and silently.
The Quadri Combo Jigger scoop synthesizes in a single object all the versatility of this must-have accessory, the “Baton lelè” whisk, with tips of different lengths, recreates the naturalness of the original tool, yet it is perhaps the apparent simplicity of the jigger that encapsulates the true complexity of the design with its double spring that allows the bartender to choose the optimal filtration quality to fully enhance the cocktail,” specifies Oscar Quagliarini.
All products in The Tending Box collection are made of 18/10 stainless steel and are offered either individually or in two different sets to build, expand, or rethink one’s personal mixologist’s equipment.
In line with trends in contemporary mixology, the “Parisienne” cocktail stirrer is reinterpreted by Giulio Iacchetti and Oscar Quagliarini, defining a new, surprising standard of manageability. The soft design of the upper glass dialogues by contrast with the thin line of the knob, balancing its composition and giving confidence to the mixologist’s grip.
The Mixologist’s Tools
The mixing glass presents an essential design in harmonious synthesis with extreme functionality – a mixologist’s must-have.
The double bar passer hides high professional and aesthetic features in an innovative design. Equipped with two springs, easily identifiable thanks to the crescent-shaped openings, it allows for a choice of desired filtering. The knob enables for adjusting the pressure of the strainer on the glass, further regulating the filtering capacity of the springs, as well as facilitating one-handed operation and providing safe and hygienic support on the work surface.
For the cocktail scoop “Quadri Combo Jigger,” Giulio Iacchetti and Oscar Quagliarini compose around a ring the four sizes commonly used in cocktail preparations, rethinking in its design the very gesture of dosing: in its harmonious swirling between the fingers, the Quadri Combo Jigger blends organically with the fluid movements of the mixologist.
Every mixologist’s kit then cannot lack the classic mixing spoon. The collaboration with Oscar Quagliarini led to the development of an object with professional characteristics, where weight, length and shape are the product of a careful study of the type and its uses.
Finally, made traditionally with a sprig of Quararibea turbinata, a typical Caribbean plant, is an original reinterpretation of the “Bâton Lélé” bar whisker that crystallizes in stainless steel.