Your Own Home Bar

Everybody wants their own home bar. Whether you only have space for a cabinet, or space for a whole room devoted to being your home bar, there is a solution to fit. Half the battle of creating a home bar is choosing the right alcohol to suit any occasion. The other half is making sure you know how to mix of few basic drinks to entertain your guests.

Let’s talk about making a home bar with a low-budget and little space first. That you know that you can make most cocktails by stocking your bar with only nine kinds of alcohol? Once you have the nine basics, all you need are a few mixers, some bar tools and your favorite beer and wine.

So what are the nine basics? Bourbon, gin, light rum, scotch, tequila, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, triple sec and vodka are the basis for any bar. You want to choose brands that meet a variety of taste expectations without breaking your budget. Unless you have specific favorites that cost more, expect to spend between $15 and $30 per 750 milliliter bottle.

In addition to the nine basic types of alcohol every bar needs some basic bartenders tools and glassware. You don’t have to invest in a full set of glasses for each kind of cocktail. Just having a selection of high-ball glasses, pint glasses and wine glasses should do the trick. You can find these for under twenty dollars at many discount stores such as Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target.

If you don’t have a separate bar cabinet designed for and dedicated to alcohol storage and glassware, you can set aside one of your regular kitchen or rec room cabinets for the purpose. You got even have to spend a lot of money on bartender tools. You can pick up a basic set that includes a knife, swizzel stick, strainer, shaker, corkscrew and can opener for under ten dollars in most places.

Once you’ve got the basic alcohol purchased, the tools you need for mixing drinks and the glasses to pour them in, it’s time to learn a few basic drinks. The internet can be a valuable and free resource for drink recipes. Even so, I highly recommend picking up a copy of a book called “The Bartenders Bible”. This is a book with a black cover and a spiral binding to help it lay flat. Unlike Mr. Boston and other home bartending guides, The Bartenders Bible has recipes for drinks that are true to what you will get in a club.

Now that you are faced with making actual drinks it’s time to get your mixers and some garnishes to keep on hand. I usually don’t worry about restocking the mixers and garnishes until I’m ready to have people over. They are perishable and you want them to be as fresh as possible.

So what mixers are essential? Regular cola, ginger ale or lemon-lime soda, soda water, and tonic water are all key ingredient in a variety of cocktails. The nice thing about sodas and fizzy water is that you can buy 12 ounce cans and small bottles, only using what you need and preventing waste. Another mixer that you can keep on hand for longer is something called bitters. This comes in a small bottle, and you use very little at a time.

Fruit juices such as cranberry juice, grapefruit juice and orange juice should all be purchased close to the date of your party, or as concentrate in your freezer. Many drinks call for an ingredient called simple syrup. If you have white granulated sugar, some water and a small saucepan you can make your own simple syrup right before any party. Perishable garnishes such as green olives, cocktail onions, maraschino cherries, lemons and limes should be is fresh as possible.

You will find as you throw more parties that your collection of alcohol, mixers, glasses and tools expands. The basic alcohol, tools, glasses and other ingredients listed here will get you started with your own home bar for under 250 dollars – a bargain at any price! So now that you are good to go, unique to learn a few drinks. I’ve included a recipe for a vodka martini to get you started.

Vodka Martini

1.5 ounces vodka

.75 ounces dry vermouth

olive garnish

Shake vodka and vermouth over ice in a shaker. Pour through a strainer into a chilled martini glass, garnish and serve.