Basic drink recipes & a list of the essentials liquors, mixers, ingredients, glasses, & tools need for a bar.
Essentially you only need a nine-bottle bar to meet a myriad of your cocktail needs. This will allow you to make hundreds of various cocktail recipes. Just add some beer and wine and you’ll be cooking with gas folks.
The Liquors
Here is the list of 9 liquors needed to start a basic bar.
- Bourbon (i.e. whiskey)
- Cointreau $$$ (or Triple Sec $-$$) - you’re mixing it in, only the highly educated pallet and soberest of people can tell the difference
- Gin
- Rum (light)
- Scotch (blended)
- Tequila (white)
- Vermouth (dry)
- Vermouth (sweet)
- Vodka
The Mixers
The list that will let you make most common cocktails without to much fuse. And remember if you are featuring a specialty cocktail you need it’s special ingredients.
- Cola, ginger ale, sprite, club soda, sparkling water, & tonic water,
- Lemons
- Limes
- Cranberry juice
- Orange juice
- Angostura bitters
- Simple syrup - sugar water, see recipe below.
- Garnishes – other then the fruit already listed have those thins required for special drinks, such as pearl onions, mint, cane-sugar, etc.
- Green olives (pitted) with or without pementos.
- Lemons
- Limes
- Kosher salt
- Maraschino cherries
The Hardware
Well folks you will need some things to prepare all the ingredients with, but remember some substitutions are possible. Use your common sense…
- Bartending handbook, see below for some recommendations
- Bottle opener
- Cocktail napkins
- Cocktail spoon, long
- Cocktail toothpicks
- Corkscrew – buy a good one you thank me later.
- Cutting board, wood or plastic (never ever use glass or stone or tile it dulls the blade in 2 shakes of a labs tail)
- Jigger – 1 1/2 ounces (jigger-shot) on one side and a 1 ounce (poney-shot) on the other. The jigger lets you quickly measure out this amount of liquor for a recipe, a jigger (1 1/2 oz. is equal to 3 tablespoons)
- Juice squeezer
- Paring knife (Watch your fingers!)
- Peeler
- Standard shaker - is a metal bottom, metal lid with a built-in strainer. This is great for the beginner. If you don't want to invest in a shaker use any food-safe container that can be sealed a shaken.
The Glassware
- Martini glasses — nothing says “cocktail” like this glass.
- Highball glasses
- Wineglasses, all-purpose
The Cocktail Recipes
1 1/2 ounces vodka,
3 ounces cranberry juice
lime wedge garnish
Serve over ice in a highball glass.
Cosmopolitan:
1 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce Cointreau/Triple-sec
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce cranberry juice
lime wedge garnish
Shake with ice and server strained in a martini glass.
Gin fizz:
2 ounces gin
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 dash simple syrup
club soda
Serve over ice in a highball glass.
Gin rickey:
2 ounces gin
juice of 1 lime
2 dashes simple syrup
club soda
lime wedge garnish
Serve over ice in a highball glass.
Manhattan:
1 1/4 ounces bourbon
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
maraschino cherry
Stir with ice and server strained in a martini glass.
Martini:
3 ounces gin or vodka
dry vermouth to taste
lemon twist or olive as a garnish
Stir with ice and server strained in a martini glass. Yes you can shake it and say “Bond, James Bond!”
Old-fashioned:
2 to 3 ounces bourbon
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash simple syrup
lemon twist & maraschino cherry garnish
Serve over ice in a highball glass.
Tom Collins:
2 ounces gin
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 dash simple syrup
club soda
maraschino cherry garnish
Shake this with ice and the whole thing into a highball glass.
Whiskey Collins:
2 ounces bourbon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 dash simple syrup
4 ounces club soda
Orange slice & maraschino cherry garnish
Shake this with ice and the whole thing into a highball glass.
Whiskey sour:
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce lime juice
1 dash simple syrup.
Orange slice & maraschino cherry garnish
Shake this with ice and the whole thing into a highball glass.
The Other Recipes
Simple Syrup:
Heat 1 part sugar and 1 part water in a saucepan. Simmer, do not boil, until the sugar dissolves. Simple syrup keeps at room temperature for a couple of weeks; eventually it will crystallize. In a pinch, superfine sugar can be substituted. You can simply reheat it to desolve the crystals.
