Cocktails

I have a past experience, brief, as a bartender. Since then I developed a strong interest about cocktails and well-done mix of alcoholic beverages. I collected most of the main cocktail recipes plus many others I found interesting in their own repository.

Home bar

Setting up an home bar is a complex choice, with multiple possible bottles that can be added and, outside of a core of truly necessary ones, potentially infinite. A set of minimum bottles should be considered, split into a handful of categories

Core spirits

  • Cognac
    • St. Remy VSOP, Hennessy VSOP, Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royal, D’Ussé VSOP are all fair choices
  • Rye Whiskey
  • Bourbon
    • Woodford Reserve or Wild Turkey
  • White Rum
    • Barceló or Brugal, or a simple Havana Club (it is just for mixing after all)
  • Dark Rum
    • Havan Club 3 or Flor de Caña 7 or Appleton 12 or Goslings Black Seal. Any decently aged dark rum should do
    • Perhaps also a Rum with a funkier taste profile, like Kraken or one of the spiced Captain Morgan
  • Gin
    • Tanqueray 10 or Plymouth or Bols or Beefeater. There are many to choose from, some with hints of other botanicals, other quite simple. If only one is possible to have, go for a Dry Gin
  • Vodka
    • Definitely go for an unflavoured bottle. Wyborowa, Belvedere, or Chopin (I do have a preference for Polish brands)
  • Tequila
    • A Mezcal is fine as well. Del Maguey Vida Classico, Suerte, Siete Leguas, El Tesoro or a classic Jose Cuervo

Core liqueurs

Liqueurs are a world of bottles and flavours. It is very possible to have hundreds of bottles in your home bar and to not have covered all the available flavours out there. I will split this category in two, the core ones that are the most necessary in mixology, and the “nice-to-have” ones that are rarely used but interesting. The latters are totally optional.

  • Aperol
  • An orange liqueur
    • Cointreau or Grand Marnier are the safest choices here
  • Campari
  • White Vermouth
    • Dolin Dry or a Martini Dry or Cinzano Bianco. A sweet option is fine as well, if preferred, perhaps a Cocchi Americano
  • Red Vermouth
    • Dolin Red or Cinzano Rosso or Martini Rosso

Optional spirits and liqueurs

  • Absinthe
  • Amaretto
    • DiSaronno is the staple. Upgrade to must-have if a fan of the taste (I am but not a large amount of cocktails use an Amaretto so I left this as optional)
  • Amaro
    • traditional digestive, herb-based Italian liqueurs. Classic ones are Montenegro, Averna, Fernet Branca
  • Benedictine
  • Calvados
  • Chartreuse
  • Coffee liqueur
    • this can be a must have if plenty of coffee cocktails are desired
  • Creme de Cassis
  • Creme de Framboise
    • a French strawberry liqueur
  • Creme de Mure
    • a French blackberry liqueur
  • Curacao
    • Often easily substituted by an orange liqueur but if desired a decent choice is Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao
  • Drambuie
    • a Scotch-based liqueur
  • Maraschino
    • Nice to have as a few noteworthy cocktails use it. The classic choice here is Luxardo
  • Nocino
    • a walnut liqueur
  • Scotch
    • Avoid the weirdest choices, like an Islay, but go for classical taste profiles like a Chivas Regal
  • St.Germain
    • an elderflower liqueur

Bitters

  • Angostura bitters
  • Orange bitters
  • Peychaud’s Bitters

Tonics and other beverages

  • Ginger beer
  • Tonics
    • There are as many as you can think. Generally, avoid supermarket or global brands here, go for artisanal or local with a long tradition. There are an ungodly amount of flavours to choose from in this category but the bare minimum is a dry, high in quinine, tonic water to complete many cocktails