What kind of liquors should I have to have a complete home bar?!
What kind of liquors should I have to have a complete home bar?
Answers:
To get started, have vodka, gin, rum, tequila, brandy, and whisk(e)y for your liquors (don't worry about brands if you're just starting...it's too expensive to worry about). For mixers, orange juice, cranberry juice, club soda, tonic water, cola (reg or diet), and lemon lime soda and sour mix. Tomato juice is handy if you plan on doing bloody marys. Lemons and limes are indispensable for a twist here and there and for spiffy looking garnishes...a bottle of maraschino cherries is a nice touch, too. Olives are indispensable for martinis, but don't forget the white vermouth, too. Grenadine and simple syrup are handy for sweet drinks.
With that, you can mix up about 90% of anything people might want.
If you want to get more elaborate, you can start adding premium brands of the basic spirits. You can also start adding liqueurs for more interesting and exotic drinks:
Midori, irish cream, Kahlua, triple sec, and the list goes on.
Beer and wine are each a whole new can of worms :)
Hmm... Grey Goose Vodka, Tanqueray Gin, Southern Comfort, and Triple Sec (for certain mixed drinks) would be a good start.
Also, I don't know if you like tequila, but if you want to have that in your bar, make sure it's a good one. I like Milagro (I think that's how it's spelled). Don't get cheap tequilas... they'll give you a bad hangover and they taste awful!
Whiskey, Rum, vodka, Brandy, Gin and Tequila
you gotta have a mixture of wines and spirits. for wines, get both red and white, sweet and dry. for spirits, a few black labels would do and keep a bottle of blue label for special occasions. have a bottle or two of absolut vodka. you might want to get remy martin, XO or chivas regal for the men (these are all very expensive so use only during special occasions). you need liqueurs (different from liquors) also to complete the set. cointreau is good, and kahlua and baileys too.
Scotch, Gin, 100% Agave Tequila, Vodka, Cointreau, Vermouth, Rum, & Kahlua and any varieties of the above mentioned. I.E. - Bourbon, Whiskey, Malibu Rum, ... etc.
http://www.webtender.com/cgi-bin/imbsele...
Trid is right on the money.
Start with the four main spirits, vodka, rum, tequila, and whiskey. If you and your buddies drink a lot, the brands won't matter all that much. Otherwise, go with top shelf brands.
Mixers like sour mix, lemon juice, lime juice, cranberry juice, and orange juice are essential in my opinion. After that, evalutate what your favorite drinks are and purchase the ingredients to make them.
You'll eventually want to add Sour Apple Pucker, Triple Sec, dry Vermouth, Peach schnapps, etc to make the more popular drinks.
I believe that it depends on what your friends and family drinks. But the basics are:
Rum
Vodka
Tequila
Gin
Whisky
Triple Sec
Scotch
All of these can be basic middle of the road for price range. You might want to get a few higher end things for your friends and family if they like something in particular.
Also, don't forget:
Grenadine
Sour Mix
Lime Juice
Salt
Sugar
Good luck!