Art of Cocktail Making: Essentials For Your Home Bar
from spirits to essential tools, and the basics for cocktail connoisseurs
Now that spring is here, I’m ready to start inviting people into my home again for al fresco gatherings. Hosting at home has always been at the core of everything I do, and over the years I’ve mastered a few things that elevate the experience; like artful cocktails. My garage is like a mini-mart for entertaining, I have a prohibition-worthy stockpile of spirits, liqueurs and vermouths leftover from events & catering, and too many plates to count. So with hosting on the horizon: what are the essentials you actually need to make an artful cocktail when the doorbell rings?
Spirits
When it comes to spirits think of this as your canvas for your cocktail. It may be subtle at first, but you’ll become attuned to the flavor profiles of spirits and how they change the exact same recipe for a cocktail. It’s all part of the experiment and excitement of making them at home.
I have preferred spirit varieties and brands for specific cocktails, and created a guide by cocktail in this article. This is purely based on my own palette so play, and adjust to your liking.
On your home bar you should have one to three varieties of the common spirits: gin (London dry and one that is floral, citrus or woodsy) vodka, tequila (blanco and anjeo), mezcal, whiskey (rye and bourbon). Depending on your preferences: rum, cognac, and amaro. I sip them as a digestif, and it’s a thoughtful touch to offer friends at the end of the meal.
Liqueurs, Vermouths & Bitters
The shelf space for artisan liqueurs, vermouths and bitters has grown tremendously in the last ten years. As with all major brands comes a short-cut over quality and many of the heritage brands of liqueurs and vermouths have sneaky ingredients like dyes, high-fructose corn syrup and massive amounts of sugar. So when it comes to my home bar I reach for the small-batch artisan brands for this reason. Most of these companies are using almost forgotten recipes and techniques to make them. What I would do to time travel back to Florence to have a Negroni at Caffé Casoni in the 20’s.
If you learn one thing from this article:
Vermouth is wine and must be refrigerated once opened! It has a short shelf-life of four weeks, without refrigeration it turns rancid and resulting in subpar cocktails.
If the spirit is the canvas, liqueurs, vermouths and bitters are the paint. They accentuate and aromatize the liquor, and with the perfect ratio equal an artful cocktail. So WTF is the difference between them all?
Liqueur is a spirit composed with a high condensation of fruits, herbs and spices, and sweetened (with sugar).
Vermouth is a fortified and aromatized wine, infused with herbs, botanicals and spices and sweetened (with sugar). P.S. Vermouth is wine! It must be refrigerated once opened, and it has a short shelf-life of four weeks. Without refrigeration it turns rancid and resulting in subpar cocktails. Will it make you sick, not at all, does it make your cocktail taste like crap, definitely.
Bitters are highly concentrated botanicals, roots, and spices with alcohol.
Garnishes
For the most your garnishes should be fresh: herbs, fruit, citrus peels and wheels. Or jarred: olives, onions, brandied cherries. A catering hack is using dehydrated citrus; we have limited time to set up our bar, hate waste, plus, they look gorgeous in the glass. So I’ve taken this trick into my home and keep dehydrated orange, lime, lemon wheels, as well as pear, apple and persimmon slices on hand. Coffee beans, a snip of fresh herbs are all elements I use to decorate cocktails.
Glassware & Accessories
Linking all my favorite glassware and must-have tools here.
If spirits are the canvas, and liqueurs and vermouths the paint, consider the glassware the frame. The right cocktail glass is vital to each serve and honing your at-home cocktail craft. My go-to resource is Crate & Barrel and CB2, they translate tabletop trends into affordable glassware and if one breaks because you’re having a great time – don’t fret they are easily replaceable. RW Guild has an incredible collection of glassware that makes my heart skip a beat but these pieces are an investment. Field & Fort in Summerland, CA. also has a beautiful selection but sadly not available online.
Tools
A concise set of tools makes your task as in-house mixologist easier. I recommend having a cocktail shaker and mixing glass, more often I use the mixing glass over the shaker to mix and dilute my drinks. Secondly, a cocktail stirrer (fits in the mixing glass) Y-peeler (perfectly peeled garnishes) and citrus squeeze are tools I use often. Finally, oversized ice molds, cocktail picks, and aperitivo napkins make your cocktail look fancier.
These styles of glass are essential for your home bar: martini or Nick & Nora, a double old fashioned or rocks glass, and a slim high-ball.
Here is a free article that I published last summer with my Top 5 Summer Cocktail recipes. Below is a shopping guide for spirits, liqueurs, vermouths & bitters, and the cocktails I mix them with.
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