Home bar from scratch: 5 bottles that give 10 cocktails
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Updated
The most common question I get, not behind the bar but at parties, is: 'Where do I start with a home bar?' And almost always, the person has already made the biggest mistake — they bought seven colorful liqueurs on sale that now sit in the cupboard for years. The truth is, a working home bar isn’t thirty bottles, it’s five: vodka, gin, white rum, bourbon, and tequila. Five basic spirits cover about eighty percent of the world’s classics.
Then there’s the 'accessories' that you buy as needed: tonic, ginger beer, soda, cola, fresh limes and lemons, simple syrup (made at home in five minutes: sugar and hot water in a one-to-one ratio). For tools, a jigger will be enough to start — a measuring cup, because cocktails break not on expensive alcohol, but on 'I poured by eye' — a shaker or a jar with a tight lid, a bar spoon, and a freezer full of ice.
Below is the route: five bottles, with two cocktails for each from the catalog 24cocktails.com — one simple, for the evening of purchase, and one a bit more serious, for growth. Some of these recipes you may have seen in our collections — here they are gathered as the minimum program for a home bartender. I give the proportions and steps exactly as they are written in the recipes on the site.
The first bottle — vodka. The most honest spirit: it doesn’t argue with anything, which means it’s ideal for cocktails where other ingredients take the lead.
1. Moscow Mule
The cocktail for the first evening: three ingredients, a glass with ice, one minute of time. Vodka provides strength, lime adds acidity, ginger beer gives character and the 'kick' that earned the Mule its name. The copper mug is a beautiful tradition, but not mandatory: the point is in the icy presentation, and any chilled glass will do. If after this cocktail you want to keep going — congratulations, the bar has been established.
Ingredients
- Vodka — 50 ml
- Lime juice — 20 ml
- Ginger beer — 120 ml
How to make
- Fill a copper mug with ice cubes.
- Pour in the vodka and lime juice.
- Top it off with ginger beer.
- Gently stir.
- Garnish with a lime wedge and a sprig of mint.
Tip: ginger beer is non-alcoholic, but go for the spicier ones: sweet lemonades 'with ginger flavor' give you a punch instead of a Mule. Lime — only fresh: 20 ml is the juice of about half a fruit.
2. Espresso Martini
A vodka cocktail 'for growth' and the main star of home parties in recent years. Here comes the first technique — a real shake: fifteen seconds of vigorous shaking with ice gives you that creamy foam that distinguishes a proper Espresso Martini. Coffee liqueur will be the sixth purchase for your bar — and you won't regret it: it will also come in handy for a White Russian and layered shots.
Ingredients
- Vodka — 50 ml
- Kahlúa — 25 ml
- Simple syrup — 10 ml
- Plus a shot of espresso — it gets added during the preparation
How to make it
- Brew a shot of espresso and let it cool slightly.
- In a shaker with ice, add vodka, Kahlúa, syrup, and espresso.
- Shake vigorously for 15 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled martini glass.
- Garnish with three coffee beans.
Tip: You need espresso — from a coffee machine, a stovetop espresso maker, or a barista to go; filter coffee and instant won't give you the foam. Let it cool for a couple of minutes: boiling water in the shaker instantly melts the ice.
The second bottle — gin. Juniper, citrus, and herbs: a spirit with built-in aromatics that makes cocktails more interesting without any effort on your part.
3. Gin & Tonic
Yes, everyone knows it — and that's exactly why it's here. Gin & Tonic is the benchmark test for a home bartender: three components, and not one where you can cut corners. A full glass of ice — not half. Tonic — icy and good. The ratio — one to three. Make it right once, and you'll understand what sets a bar apart from 'splash and top up' — this skill carries over to all the cocktails on the list.
Ingredients
- Gin — 50 ml
- Tonic — 150 ml
How to prepare
- Fill the highball glass with ice cubes to the top.
- Pour in the gin.
- Carefully pour the tonic down the side of the glass.
- Gently stir with a bar spoon.
- Garnish with a lime wedge.
Tip: get into the habit of freezing ice in advance in large molds: a big cube melts slower and doesn't turn your cocktail into water. Ice is the bar's number one consumable; there should always be an indecent amount of it.
4. Negroni
The first 'grown-up' cocktail on the route — and the reason for the seventh and eighth bottles: Campari and sweet vermouth. No regrets: this pair opens up a whole family of cocktails from Americano to Boulevardier. The Negroni itself is perfect balance: a third gin, a third bitter, a third vermouth, no shaker — just ice, a spoon, and thirty seconds. Bitter, spicy, red like a sunset; an aperitif after which dinner seems twice as tasty. If it becomes a habit — you’re officially a person with a home bar.
Ingredients
- Gin — 30 ml
- Campari — 30 ml
- Sweet vermouth — 30 ml
How to make it
- Fill an old-fashioned glass with ice cubes.
- Pour in gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.
- Stir with a bar spoon.
- Garnish with a slice of orange.
Tip: measure equal parts with a jigger honestly — the signature balance of a Negroni lives within five milliliters. Open vermouth goes in the fridge, and try to finish the bottle within a month: after that, it dulls.
The third bottle — white rum. Light, herbaceous-sweet, it’s responsible for everything fresh and summery at the bar.
5. Daiquiri
Three ingredients that you probably already have at home by this point: rum, lime, sugar. The Daiquiri is a cocktail benchmark: bartenders use it to check each other because there’s nowhere to hide here—just the balance of sour and sweet and the temperature. It’s served without ice in a chilled glass, sipped icy and quickly. Master the Daiquiri, and you can consider yourself to understand sours as a category: after that, the Margarita and Whiskey Sour will seem like relatives, which they are.
Ingredients
- White rum — 1 1/2 oz
- Juice of half a lime
- Powdered sugar — 1 tsp
How to make
- Pour all the ingredients into a shaker with ice cubes.
- Shake well.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Tip: 1 oz is about 30 ml; this scale is usually on jiggers. Put the glass in the freezer about ten minutes before assembling: a warm glass kills a Daiquiri faster than any mistake in proportions.
6. Mojito
The cocktail that guests will ask for most often—so it’s best to know how to make it. This is where the second bar technique comes in—muddling: you gently press the mint in the glass to release its aroma. The key word is gently: over-muddled mint turns to mush and gets stuck in your teeth. After that, it’s simple: lime, syrup, crushed ice, rum, soda. Summer, green, cheerful—and it all comes together right in the serving glass, the shaker gets a break.
Ingredients
- White rum — 50 ml
- Lime juice — 30 ml
- Simple syrup — 20 ml
- Mint — 8-10 leaves
- Soda — 60 ml
How to make
- Place the mint leaves in the glass and gently muddle them with a muddler.
- Add the lime juice and simple syrup.
- Fill the glass with crushed ice.
- Pour in the white rum.
- Top it off with soda and stir gently.
- Garnish with a sprig of mint and a lime wedge.
Tip: A muddler can be replaced with a rolling pin or the handle of a wooden spoon, and crushed ice can be made from ice cubes in a towel plus a couple of whacks with the same rolling pin. Give the mint sprig a clap between your hands for a burst of aroma as you bring it to your face.
The fourth bottle – bourbon. Corn sweetness, vanilla, and caramel from the barrel: the whiskey to start with for whiskey cocktails.
7. Old Fashioned
A cocktail that justifies having a home bar. The formula is older than the word 'cocktail': spirit, sugar, bitters – and nothing extra. Here you’ll buy your ninth bottle – Angostura, tiny, with an excessively large label; it’ll last you for years, and there’s nothing to replace it. The Old Fashioned doesn’t tolerate haste: it’s stirred slowly with a spoon, over large ice, and sipped the same way. An evening drink, unhurried, the most meditative number on the program.
Ingredients
- Bourbon — 60 ml
- Simple syrup — 10 ml
- Angostura bitters — 2-3 dashes
How to make it
- In an old-fashioned glass, place a large ice cube.
- Add the simple syrup and bitters.
- Pour in the bourbon.
- Gently stir with a bar spoon for 20–30 seconds.
- Express the oil from the orange peel over the glass, garnish with the peel and a cocktail cherry.
Tip: A ‘dash’ is a quick, short shake from the bottle, about a milliliter. Use a vegetable peeler to cut the peel into a wide ribbon and squeeze it over the glass with the shiny side down — the oil splashes on the surface are half the aroma.
8. Whiskey Sour
The second facet of bourbon: the same spirit, but in a sour frame — lemon, syrup, and, if you like, egg white, which turns the cocktail into silk with a white frothy cap. Here, you'll practice a dry shake — shaking without ice, after which the egg white whips into a stable foam. The Whiskey Sour is the most 'restaurant-style' cocktail in the home repertoire: serve it to guests with an orange slice and a cherry on a skewer, and there will be no more questions like 'can you really do this?'.
Ingredients
- Bourbon — 50 ml
- Lemon juice — 25 ml
- Simple syrup — 15 ml
- Egg white — 1 white (optional)
How to make
- Do a dry shake (without ice) with the egg white — for 10 seconds.
- Add ice and shake for another 15 seconds.
- Strain into an old fashioned glass with fresh ice.
- Garnish with a slice of orange and a cherry.
Tip: if you don't want to mess with egg white — just skip it, the cocktail will remain a classic. Want foam without the egg? Two teaspoons of aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas) work like a charm.
Bottle five — tequila, definitely with the words '100% agave' on the label. Plant-based, peppery, alive — and unjustly slandered by college parties.
9. Margarita (Margarita)
The main tequila cocktail of the planet and a worthy finale to the first season of your bar. Here comes the tenth and final bottle of the journey — orange liqueur triple sec, and again, it's reusable: it appears in dozens of recipes, from Cosmopolitan to Margarita. The Margarita itself is a sour in formal attire: tequila, liqueur, lime, and a salted rim, which is not just decoration but an ingredient — the salt dampens the sharpness and highlights the lime.
Ingredients
- Tequila — 50 ml
- Triple Sec — 25 ml
- Lime juice — 25 ml
How to make it
- Run a lime wedge around the rim of the glass and dip the edge in salt.
- In a shaker with ice, add tequila, triple sec, and lime juice.
- Shake vigorously for 10-15 seconds.
- Strain into the glass and garnish with a lime wedge.
Tip: Salt the rim before assembling the cocktail and only on the outside of the glass. Use coarse sea salt, not 'extra': fine salt melts instantly and drips salty trails inside.
10. Paloma
And for something sweet — the cocktail that Mexico actually drinks its tequila with. Paloma is half as complicated as a Margarita: tequila and grapefruit soda over a mountain of ice. No shaker, no technique — just the right proportions and an icy presentation. It’s the perfect 'Tuesday cocktail' when you want something real without the fuss — and the best proof of the main lesson of the whole journey: a good cocktail isn’t about complexity, it’s about precision.
Ingredients
- Grapefruit soda — 90 ml
- Tequila — 45 ml
How to make it
- Fill a Collins glass with ice.
- Pour in the tequila.
- Top it off with grapefruit soda.
- Gently stir.
- Garnish with a lemon wedge.
Tip: Squeeze a lime wedge into the glass and toss in a pinch of salt — you'll get the 'Mexican' version, which is why you should keep grapefruit soda in the fridge at all times.
The final tally: five basic bottles, plus along the way — Kahlúa, Campari, sweet vermouth, Angostura, and triple sec. Ten bottles that don’t gather dust but actually work: behind them are ten cocktails from this article and a good hundred more in the catalog. Don’t buy everything at once, but rather one cocktail at a time: a bar built around what you actually drink is the only one that makes sense. And keep your freezer stocked with ice — it’s the only ingredient that always runs out at the worst time.
All cocktails are in the catalog →
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