Would you love to have a home bar in your home? This post will help you ensure you have all the essentials for your new home bar, regardless of its size.
Do you love to have a drink, and would love somewhere to store all your different tipples? Even if you don’t have a whole room dedicated to a home bar, you could create a small area in your kitchen or dining room. You need to ensure your home bar is stocked with the correct home bar equipment and accessories.
The Home Bar Essentials Upgrades You Need to Make
You need to pick up the home bar essentials to get you up and running, from alcohol, mixers, non-drink items, and more. I love a cocktail, so learning how to mix cocktails at home is a must, but making sure you have the latest home bar setup will allow you to create your favourite drinks from home.
Ensure you have enough glasses, mugs, and tumblers for entertaining guests or simply enjoying a drink to wind down after your day.
Please ensure you are at least 18 years old to read this post, which is intended for individuals over 18 years of age.
Essential Home Bar Tools
Whether you have a small or large home bar set up, you need the basics.
Shakers
Cocktail shakers come in a variety of forms and sizes, but they all have one thing in common: they make fantastic cocktails! This is my favourite drink, and there are so many choices! Larger shakers enable you to prepare a larger quantity for serving multiple drinks that taste the same. Or if it’s usually just you, go for a small shaker to make just one portion at a time.
Long Handles Bar Spoons
With tall cocktails and large drink glasses, long-handled spoons are ideal for ensuring your drinks are well mixed. All the drinks are mixed. Great if you’ve hidden something yummy at the bottom of the glass for the end!
Measuring Cups
You need to ensure you’re measuring out the correct amount; too much will make it taste too strong, while not enough will make it tasteless.
Cocktail Strainer
Cocktail strainers are a must-have if you’re using garnishes and herbs, as you don’t want to end up with little bits in the drink, if the drink needs to make sure you only have liquids then the cocktail strainers are a must-have for your home bar.
What Type Of Glassware
Cocktail glasses come in all shapes and sizes, and the type of drink determines the size of glass you need. Here are some of the most popular types:
Highball Glass
Highball cocktail glass is tall, straight, and an idea for spirits and mixer mixes. They are often filled up with ice, and the drinks are poured over them.
Cocktail Glass
A cocktail glass is a tall, thin glass with a large bowl-like area to hold the drink. This usually means there isn’t any ice, but it is filled purely with cocktails. It can make the drink a little thicker to keep it in and prevent spilling, but it looks very pretty!
Lowball Glass
These lowball glasses are solid base glasses that are usually for drinks ‘on the rocks’ which means filled with chunky ice cubes and then the neat drink poured over them. These glasses are usually chunky and solid to hold.
Essential Liqueurs To Have For Your Home Bar
For a home bar setup, ensure you have some essential liqueurs in stock, as many famous drinks and cocktails incorporate these ingredients.
- Sweet vermouth and dry vermouth are two types of vermouth. They’re both required for making martinis.
- Bailey’s is a good example of an Irish cream liqueur. Of course, Baileys is the gold standard.
- Amaretto is a light almond-flavoured liqueur.
- Kahlua is the most well-known of these.
- Cointreau orange-flavoured liqueur
Base Spirits For A Home Bar
Whiskey
Having a couple of variations of Whiskey is essential, as some people prefer it neat over rocks in their lowball glass. Or a bottle of scotch whiskey for adding to your cocktails.
Vodka
Many cocktails contain vodka, so be sure to have a large bottle of it in stock. It’s not important to have a top-branded one for cocktails, as you’re mixing it with many other flavours that will overpower the vodka. You could even take a look at the different flavoured vodkas, I love a toffee one or raspberry vodka.
Gin
Adding gin to your cocktails is another essential standard mixer to have in your home bar, handy for making Martinis and Gin & Tonics.
Rum
Make sure you have both dark and white rum in stock; white rum is great for rum and cock, mojitos, and daiquiris. Dark run is good for anything tropical.
Ask your visitors before they arrive what their favourite drinks are, so you can ensure you have some options available on the night.
Having a fridge filled with white wine, beer, cider, and a selection of drinks for shots will make your guests feel very welcome and have plenty of options to choose from.
Essential Mixers
All cocktails have some mixer in with them, so have a fridge where you can store your different types of juices, soft drinks, ginger beer, and even some Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce to add a savoury touch