Everything You Need for a Simple Home Bar

One of the best things about having your own place is hosting parties . A great party—whether it’s a big party or a fancy dinner for a few close guests—is a great way to keep in touch with old friends, make new ones, and show off a little.

Of course, parties can be stressful too. It’s easy to worry that people won’t like the food or that the conversation will stall . And if you’re not a big drinker, it’s easy to worry that your cocktail-loving friends might be disappointed because you don’t have experience mixing drinks. Building a home bar may seem like an expensive and complicated project, but you can make it much easier by emulating a common strategy used in real bars: a well.

How to create a “well” at home

In a bar, the well is a small area just behind the bar stocked with basic spirits and mixers. It’s always at the bartender’s fingertips, so he can quickly create a short list of popular cocktails. Since these drinks are quite simple and use cheaper alcohol as ingredients, “good drinks” are the cheaper options. If you order a simple rum and cola cocktail without specifying the brand of liquor, you will get a good drink.

And there is nothing wrong with that! While well drinks at real bars can be complex, most well drinks don’t require any special bartending skills, and you can actually make quite a wide range of delicious two-ingredient cocktails using this method, which makes the process simple and accessible. This means you can put together a simple yet effective home bar on a budget and still satisfy almost any preference.

No, you won’t start the Commonwealth with a simple home well (honestly, if a guest asked for a 71-ingredient cocktail, we’d advise throwing it out immediately), but you can serve everything up. Whatever your guests’ alcoholic beverage preferences, you can prepare something they’ll enjoy.

What’s in the well

Start with the base of all cocktails, the liqueur itself . To start, you will need five bottles: whiskey, rum, gin, vodka and tequila. You can get fancy and use different styles and expressions (like bourbon, rye and scotch), but if you’re into keeping things simple and cheap, just stick to the basics.

• Liquor: When shopping for bottles, research inexpensive and adaptable spirits. A great way to find out is to simply go to a bar when it’s relatively empty and check what they have in the well (or just ask the bartender). ) and take some notes. If you cannot do this, choose the most famous brands. Either way, everything will be mixed, so you don’t necessarily want the most subtle flavor profile. Mass market quality is fine.

• Mixers: To make a well bar successful, the key to success is flexibility, and that means mixers. You just need a few basics:

  • Juices. Cranberry and orange juice (for screwdrivers ) are fundamental. Add a little grapefruit juice and you can cook greyhounds with a little extra flair. Adding lime juice allows you to make a simplegimlet (which technically should include some simple syrup, but you can do without).

  • Carbonated drinks. Having cola on hand is key to the obvious: whiskey and cola or even an ersatz Cuba Libre (whatever rum and cola you have on hand). Ginger ale goes well with many things and is a great option.

  • Club sparkling water and tonic, for scotch and soda, vodka soda and gin or vodka and tonic.

  • Vermouth. For a classic martini, you’ll need dry vermouth.

  • Liqueurs. For a more advanced option, stock up on liqueurs (spirits flavored with sugar, fruit or herbs):

    • Kalukha to gather black Russians . You can cheat a little and have some milk on hand for the White Russian too.

    • Orange liqueur (aka Triple Sec or Curacao) for making a simple margarita . A bit of a cheat since you also need some lime juice, but it’s still pretty simple and a crowd pleaser.

• Side dishes. Side dishes aren’t just for visual effect; they also enhance the flavor of a good cocktail (though often subtly). Obviously there is a long list of things you can use as side dishes and you should have them all if you want. But you can get away with just a few on hand: olives, lemons, and limes will get you through most cocktail situations. Add some cocktail onions and Maraschino cherries for added variety.

Armed with these basics, you can whip up a long list of two-ingredient cocktails. Whatever your guests are into, you’ll be able to offer them something in your wheelhouse, and you won’t need to know anything more than a few simple rules on how to mix drinks (especially if you err on the side of more liquor). and less mixer).

More…