You finally have that space to build the home bar you’ve always wanted. Don’t disappoint your friends when they come over for the first time by not having a properly equipped bar to handle their requests. These are home bar essentials you’ll need to offer your friends the most popular and common types of cocktails.
Alcohol Essentials:
- Gin: Beefeater or Hendricks
- Rye: Bulleit
- Rum: Appleton 12, Flor de Cana Extra Dry 4
- Tequila: el Tesoro
- Vodka: Titos
- Cognac: Remy Martin VSOP
- Vermouth (Dry)
- Triple Sec
- Campari
- Cointreau
- Grand Marnier
- Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
- Cocchi Americano
- Bitters (in order of appearance, Angostura, Peychaud’s, Regan’s Orange, Fee Bros. West Indies Orange).
Tools of the Trade
Boston Shaker – If you’re looking for a basic cocktail shaker to mix drinks without making a mess, this Boston Shaker Set creates a tight seal that still breaks apart easily.
Jigger – Precision is key. Craft cocktail recipes are calibrated to deliver a delicate balance of flavors, so accurate measurements are important. When using a jigger, be sure you know what size you have in hand and always fill it to the very top to ensure you’re not shortchanging your pour.
Cocktail Strainer – The Hawthorne is your go-to tool for separating cocktails from extraneous ice and ingredient remnants as you pour from a mixing glass or shaker. It fits against the rim of the mixing glass like a lid.
– 12.5 inches is the standard length for your standard-sized mixing glass. Too short and your sleeve cuffs will be taking alcohol baths.
Muddler – A muddler crushes tasty things to unlock their goodness, like mint leaves or sugar cubes.
Handheld Citrus Press – Get a juicer for fresh lime and lemon juice, which go into many cocktail recipes. Fresh is key; bottled lime and lemon juice does not taste as good.
Cocktail Mixing Glass – A decent glass will be thick enough that a metal bar spoon banging around inside won’t shatter it. It should it have a pour spout so that when you serve the drink, you empty it all into a glass and not onto the rug.
Rocks glasses – A rocks glass is going to be for anything neat or any spirit on the rocks. The ideal single rocks glass is somewhere between eight and ten ounces.
Highball Glass – These tall, chimney-shaped glasses are good for gin-and-tonics, vodka and club sodas, and whiskey and gingers — but also can be repurposed for tiki drinks made with crushed ice.
Coupes glasses – Coupe glasses are good for cocktails served “up,” meaning it’s been shaken or stirred with ice and then served chilled, without ice — like a Martini.
Ice Cube Mold – Large ice cubes are generally more for the serving part of your cocktail experience, rather than the building part. They come into play when you’re serving a strong drink that you want to be on ice so it stays chilled, but you don’t want further dilution because you’ve already stirred it.
Cocktail Codex – Thorough and engaging explanation of the major cocktail families. More than just a collection of recipes – this explains the frameworks and how the different ingredient categories interact, with examples.
Bar Cart
