Essentials for a Home Bar

Home entertaining is easy when you start with a few essentials. Pick out a few of your favorite drink recipes and start mixing!

Furniture

If you don’t already have a bar area built into your home, you can find a mini-bar furniture piece that will work nicely. Make sure it has room for all your bar tools, some glasses and some liquor bottles. You can also find a bar cart with a few shelves that is great for displaying glasses and wine bottles.

Glassware

Start with some basic glassware. Make sure to have wine and martini glasses on hand. I like highball glasses for mixed cocktails. After you get your essentials, it’s also good to have a few beer mugs, champagne flutes and shot glasses in your collection.

Tools

The easiest thing to start a home bar is to buy a bar tool set with a shaker. It should come with all the basics, such as a shaker, strainer, jigger and bottle opener. A corkscrew or other wine bottle opener is necessary. And it’s nice to have a muddler and ice bucket on hand as well. When you start making more complicated drink recipes, you can look into more advanced bar tools and pull out the blender for frozen cocktails.

Stocked Bar

Your liquor collection is really dependent on what you like to drink most. My bar never gets low on vodka, rum, wine and beer. You may also have tequila, whiskey and gin in your basic collection. When you start trying out different drink recipes, add a few liqueurs and champagne to your bar. Orange, pomegranate and coffee liqueurs are delicious in many drinks. I also try to have club soda, cranberry juice and plenty of limes in the fridge. If you are entertaining, it’s good to have regular soda, ginger ale, and a couple different fruit juices available for mixers.

Recipes

Mixed drinks are mostly quick and easy to make. Start with two or three-ingredient recipes. Some basic cocktails include Vodka Soda, Gin and Tonic, Rum and Coke. To step up your bartender skills, learn how to make a great Martini, Cosmopolitan and Margarita. The best part of practicing is the tasting!