If you’re just getting into making cocktails, you’ve probably realised you need quite a few ingredients. Sure, with an unlimited budget you can just buy one of each type of spirit, modifier, and mixer, then you can make every cocktail! But you need to start somewhere… so, where to start is the question!
What bottles should you get that allow you to make the most amount of cocktails? What do you absolutely need and what do you not need? Should I buy that bottle of something weird just to make one cocktail?
Let’s go through it all (and more) to figure it out.
Getting Started With Cocktail Making and Building an Ingredient Collection
Firstly, let’s talk very basics. As mentioned, you need to start somewhere, even if it’s just a bottle of Gin and some Tonic Water. From there you can buy an additional bottle of something that looks and expand what you can make. And after that, your collection of cocktail making ingredients will grow!
Before concentrating on what you should get, take a look at what you already have. Take what you have and plug it into our cocktail builder. You may be surprised at what you can already make! If you’re happy with the selection of what you can make, maybe you can stop reading here. Hopefully there’s at least three or so cocktails you can make that will be fun to try.
From there, you can also play with the cocktail generator to see what else you can make with additional ingredients or you can even click on the link in the search results to see what you can make with just one more ingredient. Again, you may be able to plan out your bar without even taking our suggestions!
Minimal Ingredients for a Home Cocktail Bar
If you’re starting from scratch, we do have some suggestions on what to begin with when starting your home cocktail bar. Basically speaking, we’re going to be suggesting one or two base spirits, a few common modifiers, and bitters. Then don’t forget mixers and fruit juices!
So, where do you start?
Minimal Spirits Needed For Making Cocktails at Home
Start your home bar with Gin and Bourbon.
You can get away with having just one base spirit, but we’d suggest two. While ultimately it’s up to you what spirits to start with, we’d suggest a bottle of Gin and a bottle of Bourbon.
Why? Well just check out our list of Gin cocktail recipes. Then check out our Bourbon cocktail recipes. Some purists will hate us for this, but if you have Bourbon, you can use it to make Rye cocktails as well; the cocktails won’t be exactly right, but if you’re just getting started and want to get the general idea of a recipe, replacing Rye with Bourbon will work.
Why aren’t we suggesting Vodka, Rum, or Tequila?
While these are great spirits, there are just so many great cocktails out there that you can make with Gin and Bourbon. They’re just a little more versatile.
Vodka is a great spirit for cocktails, but it’s often just used to add alcohol to either a simple recipe or a complicated concoction. Vodka cocktails are often either very simple or more complex. You’ll get more milage with Gin if you’re going with a white spirit.
Rum is again an amazing spirit and Rum cocktails are some of the best. If you want to get into Tiki cocktails, you need a good selection of Rums. That being said, there are many many different Rums out there beyond the simple distinction between white, golden, and dark. To really get into Rum cocktails, you need all three of these (and maybe more), so you lose the versatility of Gin and Bourbon.
Tequila, like the other spirits mentioned here, goes well in cocktails, but Tequila cocktails very much tend to be a “type” of cocktail in a lot of ways. Tequila cocktails are great and there are some iconic ones out there (like the Margarita), but you’ll have a lot more different flavours with Gin and Bourbon.
Take our advice or don’t, but we’d say start with Gin and Bourbon!
Modifiers Needed For Making Cocktails at Home
Beyond the basic spirits for making cocktails, and before we talk about mixers and juices, let’s talk about modifiers: additional alcoholic ingredients that are in a cocktail recipe. As you grow your home bar, you’ll find that it’s the modifiers that you end up collecting, not the base spirits. Why? Because base spirits are just that, base.
For base spirits, most of the time we’re just talking about Whiskey, Gin, Vodka, Rum, and Tequila. There are others out there like Mezcal, various Brandies, and more, but you’ll encounter the five listed most often. From there, most cocktail recipes you’ll encounter are just different modifiers (and mixers, juices, syrups, and bitters).
So let’s look at the modifiers you need for your home bar:
- Sweet Vermouth: many modern and classic cocktails use Sweet Vermouth, so having a bottle will open yourself up to quite a few great recipes.
- Cointreau: Cointreau can be used as listed or as a replacement for generic Triple Sec. Technically Cointreau is a Triple Sec, it’s just a nicer one.
- Maraschino Liqueur: this may seem like a weird one, but it’s used in a lot of classic cocktails. And the classics are a good place to start.
- Absinthe: again, Absinthe is great for the classics. You usually only need a dash so get a small bottle.
Other modifiers to consider in your home bar:
You may want to consider adding these bottles as well if you can.
- Dry Vermouth: Dry Vermouth is used in a lot of variations of the Martini, but is used quite as often as its sweet cousin. It’s worthwhile having though.
- Campari: it’s not quite as versatile as some of the ingredients here, but you can use it to make a Negroni, which is a great “go to” cocktail.
Don’t Forget Bitters
Bitters in cocktails is like salt in food. You need it to add that little bit extra. At a minimum, get yourself a bottle of Angostura Bitters. Get a bottle of Peychaud’s Bitters as well if you’re feeling fancy.
Mixers, Fruit Juices, and Syrups
There are dozens of mixers and fruit juices out there, and these generally aren’t a problem in terms of budgeting for a new home cocktail bar. Compared to the other ingredients listed here, these are relatively cheap and easy to get. But here are the most common:
- Tonic Water
- Soda Water
- Lemon Juice
- Lime Juice
- Simple Syrup (here’s a Simple Syrup recipe you can make yourself)
In terms of mixers: buy small individual bottles so they don’t go flat.
In terms of juice: juice your fruit fresh. It’s better that way!
And Then Common Household Ingredients
A lot of cocktails have some pretty common ingredients like Egg White, Sugar, and Salt in them that we’re not going to list here. Don’t forget to add those to our cocktail generator!
The Final List of Ingredients For A Starter Home Cocktail Bar
So, after this relatively long article, if you haven’t kept track, here’s an easy list of what to get at the store:
- Gin
- Bourbon (use it to replace Rye)
- Sweet Vermouth
- Cointreau
- Maraschino Liqueur
- Absinthe
- Angostura Bitters
- Peychaud’s Bitters
- Tonic Water
- Soda Water
- Lemon Juice
- Simple Syrup
We went ahead and plugged the above ingredients into our cocktail builder (as well as some more common household ingredients) and have come up with more than 15 cocktails you can make, not to mention the dozens more you can make by adding just one more ingredient.
For two bottles of spirits and some other minor ingredients, that’s a pretty good result! With all those recipes, you’ll stay pretty busy for awhile before having to get anything else for your home bar.
