There comes a time in every cocktail drinker’s life when they start dreaming of putting together their home bar. I started in my early 20s, and had a duffle bag filled with bottles, bar tools, and pourers. I’d bring that with me to parties I was invited to and set up in a corner. Now, the pourers are sitting in storage, the duffle bag has long since been lost, and the number of bottles would no longer fit in a tote.
It all has to start somewhere though, so how does one get started building up a home bar?
Start with the basics
Everyone has preferences when it comes to drinks, and nearly everyone has a preference for a base spirit. As my shelves likely indicate, I lean towards gin and whisk(e)y. So, start with a bottle that reflects your favorite. For myself, I go with the following as baselines:
- Gin – Tanqueray is my preference, but there’s plenty out there in the same range. There’s also a wide range of expressions and different primary flavors. London Dry being the most well known juniper forward style, but there’s also citrus forward, botanical forward, anise forward, and even saffron based gins.
- Rum – Bacardi/Morgan is my default, here you may want to get several bottles to cover dark, light, and spiced.
- Tequila – I prefer mezcal when it comes to agave spirits, but Sauza usually has a place on my shelf for Tequila.
- Vodka – If this is your favorite to mix with, you may not be ready to start up the home bar yet. I have disdain for vodka as a base ingredient because it adds no flavor or aroma to the drink, just alcohol. I do generally keep a bottle of Tito’s or a locally produced vodka for the few times I need it.
- Whisk(e)y – This gets complicated fast. If you’re looking for a whisk(e)y collection guide, this isn’t going to be it. I generally lean towards Bulleit for my mixing, as well as Tullamore when it comes to the Irish. Scotch, I like big, bold, strongly flavored, and smoky.
In the cocktail world, the ‘clear spirits’ (gin, rum, tequila, vodka) are generally able to be swapped between each other in drinks. There may need to be some other flavor adjustments, and sweetness adjustments, but in general, it’s safe. From this, once you’ve gotten a bottle or two in your preferred baseline spirit, branch out into an adjacent one.
Now, once you’ve got your base spirits and feel comfortable with the selections you can offer, let’s start looking at what we’ll need next:
Accent Bottles and bitters
Now that you’ve got your base spirits, this is the time to start acquiring the accent and flavor bottles that are used in cocktails. Here, I would suggest that you look at bottles that show up frequently in drinks that you’re a fan of (or are interested in). A very important thing to realize about accent bottles is that any wine based bottles (such as vermouth) should be refrigerated after opening, and won’t last forever on the shelf. More people have been turned off on Martinis due to old, stale vermouth than should have been. Think Maraschino, elderflower liqueur, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, Campari, and Aperol.
You’ll also want at least a bottle of bitters, for a default one, it’s hard to go wrong with Angostura aromatic bitters. After that, the next type of bitters I would suggest would be orange bitters. At that point, there’s a whole world out there of different bitters. You can find bottles with flavors all over the place, including some out there flavors such as root beer.
That leaves us with the final piece:
Where to store it.
As I mentioned above, any wine based bottles should be refrigerated. Other bottles will do best stored in a cool, dry, dark, place. The standard stashing places of cabinets above the stove or fridge are terrible places to store bottles. While they’re dark and generally dry, they are warm, and have fluctuating temperatures which can degrade the bottles.
Once you’ve got all of this together, the last bit is to pick up citrus and mixers. With those on hand, it’s time to invite some friends over for a quite evening of cocktails.
And you don’t need a liquor license!
When speakeasys started to spring up in the late 90’s-early 2000’s, many of them started life as recurring cocktail parties.
Powers Gold Label is the best Irish whiskey I’ve ever had that wasn’t a blend. If you like blends, Paddy’s is the best. My garage bar usually has Powers, Proper Twelve, Bushmills, Jamesons, Quiet Man and of course Paddy’s
Adventures in stakeholder populism
The road to passing this legislation was not straightforward. Former Tonight Show host and prominent car enthusiast Jay Leno threw his weight behind Senate Bill 712—the original version of the smog exemption bill—in 2025, but it didn’t go far. Senate Bill 712 was quietly killed in the California Senate Appropriations Committee later in 2025. Then, on February 20, 2026, Senator Cortese and Senator Grove introduced Senate Bill 1392, reworking the emissions testing exemption legislation to allegedly appease stakeholders at the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Car enthusiasts in California have widely praised the legislation, citing costs upwards of $200 and wait times as long as eight months to get vintage vehicles emissions certified. Even executive members of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile lobbied for its passage. Leno praised Governor Newsom in a statement on Wednesday for sticking with California’s classic car community.
Maybe Leno can convince him to allow oil from existing offshore rigs to be brought to market.
So rich people get exempted from the rules that the little people enthusiastically support in order because utopia. Figures.
It’s more than just “rich” people. CA has a good number of middle class people in the collector car hobby. However, it most certainly is a “want” and not a “need”.
I was snarking.
For most of my life those were the generation of rigs I could afford, and be able to maintain.
CA getting a do your own thing on the clean air act lead to CARB being able to ounish people. 70s and 80s rigs are mostly pretty boring and across most of the west coast still affordable to buy and maintain. But crushed like crazy in CA because they can’t pass smog.
The fine print:
Governor Newsom’s office balanced classic car appreciation with environmental concerns when announcing the legislation. Collector car insurance or driving fewer than 1000 miles per calendar year are requirements for the smog exemption, and the Governor’s office noted that the number of vehicles that qualify represents “a very small share of California’s overall fleet.”
Don’t pretend you can daily that 440 six pack Barracuda now.
A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers and says “Five beers please!”
Et tu, R.J.?
My problem with starting a home bar is that I drink the bottles I buy…
You’re supposed to drink the liquid, not the actual bottle.
That’s where I keep going wrong!
Relevant.
Well, all of ’em except the Deep Eddy Lemon that’s my girlfriend’s go to. That one is safe from me.
Solerno is one of my favorite accent liqueurs – I used in to replace Triple Sec/Cointreau in cocktails and also as an easy trick to make simple Sangria when entertaining (mix with even a low-cost red and add fruit, top with ginger ale when ready to serve).
Preach it. Not as sickly sweet as most other orange liqueurs. Its what I use in margaritas.
Is it much different than Grand Marnier?
That’s what I use for margaritas.
Lighter, not as sweet. Its calls for a decent tequila, though, because it doesn’t slather itself all over the whole flavor profile. Give it a try.
Enhanced driving experience
Shifting via the steering wheel-mounted shift paddles is where the fun really begins. When you pull a paddle for an upshift in S+, Honda says it briefly puts the motor into regeneration mode. This instantly drops the revs of the internal combustion engine and obviously drops the output of the electric motor, simulating the interruption in acceleration you’d expect from upshifting with a traditional transmission. Even the sound is trying to be faithful to the sensation, as Honda uses its Active Sound Control system to play the noises you’d expect to be hearing over the Prelude’s four speakers. These interruptions are also why the Prelude is slower to 60 mph by 0.8 second when in S+ mode.
Sexxxxy,
+ 1 Del Sol. The CRX replacement nobody asked for.
I’ve read a fair bit about the new Prelude. Honda went into it knowing it was going to be an expensive non-seller. It’s essentially an experiment how to make a “fun car” that can still comply with increasingly more stringent global emissions and safety requirements. So this particular “fun” feature is part of that.
It’s the reason for the hybrid, automatic only drivetrain. It’s the reason it gains you essentially nothing over the Civic that it is based upon and you pay a penalty for its looks. I’m still not sure what valuable data they will get from creating such a thing, but the design was intentional.
I loved my CRX. 🥺
didn’t they try that with a CR-Z. Same concept, but the hybrid battery dies and then it drains you 12V battery leading to needing a jump regularly if you don’t get it replaced.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CR-Z
I forgot about that. That was CARB car too. At least you could get a manual with that.
I seem to recall people K swap those because they are lightweight with lots of aluminum body parts and structure.
The CRX looked fun.
Brother of a friend of mine had a DelSol.
I will keep my manual 5 speed truck and car.
I pray that I never have to buy replacements.
“anise forward”
More like anus forward. That stuff’s terrible.
Spirits:
I’m a rum snob. In my book, the Captain is only suitable for basic high-school girls to drown with Coca-Cola, and Bacardi Silver isn’t even good for that (although I did use a bottle of 151 in my camp stove one time…)
For white rum, I really like Planteray Three Stars unless a recipe calls for a particular expression. I think I have six different rums in my liquor cabinet at the moment, tied for first place with the whisky.
One of the best things about rum is that it covers an incredibly broad range of flavors, and most of it is pretty cheap. It’s worth experimenting.
I’m with you re: Bacardi and the Cap’n. My favorite low-cost rum is Flor de Cana, though their longer-aged versions aren’t exactly cheap. Got any recommendations for black rum outside of Gosling?
For blackstrap rums, if you’ve never tried Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black rum, you should treat yourself.
I like Pussers for that “hey, this stuff really is made out of molasses” flavor.
Thanks gentlemen. Those are a *bit* more expensive, but certainly not crazy, and available nearby. Not my usual store (Spec’s), but Total Wine ain’t far.
I have more bottles of rum than anything else and none of it is Bacardi or Captain Morgan.
Like EvilSheldon, I am also a rum snob.
My wife is the gin person and she likes Botanist and Empress 1908 blue gin.
For tequila we buy Don Julio blanco.
I haven’t noticed a problem with my Campari, which sits on a shelf.
Don Julio, eh? Fawncy.
The Don Julio has a much better flavor than Jose Cuervo, and while it’s pricey, it’s not as bad as Patron.
When I run out of the Grand Marnier, I’ll give the Solerno a try.
I have a problem. I don’t drink, but I love pretty bottles, and some of that stuff comes in gorgeous bottles. (See: Jim Beam and Jeannie’s bottle.)
So where should all these boozers send pictures of their emptied decorative bottles to see if you want them? 🙂
My mom hoarded decorative bottles.
Fuck that shit.
You’re supposed to make a house out of the bottles Ted
I have a lovely empty cognac bottle I turned i to a citronella lamp.
Clear alcohols are for rich women on diets.
– Ron Swanson
My wife has just made 8 bottles of ginger simple syrup for friends and family. She asked me to buy 2 lbs of ginger at the store and I questioned what the hell she was thinking of making. It is really good and simple to make. If you like ginger ale, make the syrup and add to any flavored seltzer over ice. If you are a boozer, add a juiced lime and vodka for a mule.
Homemade ginger simple syrup sounds wonderful right about now.
As for the vodka, when we were younger, we used to do White Russian nights sometimes. (I would drink White Russians and she would drink Kahlua and milk), now I have a bottle of Absolut for her occasional Long Island Ice Teas.
I love an occasional White Russian, mostly for desert. I make them with espresso-infused vodka, which is fun and easy to make at home. Get a large clean airtight jar, pour a bottle of Titos of similar neutral-tasting vodka into it, and add an ounce of coarse-ground coffee beans, then put the lid on and stash it in a cool, dark place for 24 hours. After 24 hours, sample the result, and if the coffee flavor is strong enough, filter it through a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter and recant it back into the bottle.
1) Tequila is gross. I’ve tried Patron, if that counts as top-shelf. It’s just a shitty flavor. It doesn’t impart ‘magical’ intoxication. (see 3)
2) “I have disdain for vodka as a base ingredient because it adds no flavor or aroma to the drink, just alcohol.” Correct. Vodka has no taste. That’s fantastic!.. cuz it’s just booze. Add whatever shitty mix, coke (zero!), Gatorade, orange juice, etc. Anything ya actually WANT’ to drink, favor-wise, as ya get drunk. That’s the purpose of vodka. Simple. Cheap. Effective. (Disgusting on it’s own.)
3) No alcohol gets you drunk differently. The speed ya drink spirits v beer/wine, etc, along with how much you’ve had to eat, is the ‘trick.’
4) Whisk(e)y is actually tasty. See also: Rum, gin. Tanqueray has a nice flavor to it. Hendrick’s, also, especially, but $$.
Wisdom, I bring.
If you just want flavorless ethanol to add to whatever, why waste money on vodka when you can get Everclear?
I’ll overlook your disdain for tequila because you have, in fact, taken a blow to your head.
Congrats on your anniversary, BTW. Well done.
Harsh, but fair.
I second the congrats, you need to take care of yourself.
Any word from the new job?
“why waste money on vodka when you can get Everclear?”
1) Fire hazard ’round smokers
2) Suspicious, guilty high-school purchase, look like a booze hound, which isn’t to be advertised
3) Not significantly cheaper, IIRC
4) Most importantly: Far more hassle with mix amounts
5) So Much for the Afterglow is a fantastic album by folks who can barely play music (particularly the drummer)
6) This list isn’t properly ranked. (2 is likely most important)
21) Thank you!
Interestingly, I saw a bottle of that the other day. I just checked and sure enough, it is banned in every other state I have lived in before a month ago – which explains why I have never seen it before.
I honestly am not sure how to handle that much horsepower. WTF do you do with it?
I always carried a small bottle while backpacking. We’d dilute it 1:1 with water, and add Gatorade mix. It’s a lot of hooch for a little weight, and as I mentioned above, it can wear a second hat as emergency stove fuel or wound disinfectant.
Sure, it tasted terrible. But it got the job done, and really everything tastes better when camping out.
I made Apple Pie Moonshine once. Wisconsin wouldn’t allow the liquor store to sell me 2-1.75l bottles of Everclear, but they had no problem selling me 4-1l bottles.
Liquor laws are stupid.
Just go to Portland in the summer.
Everclear is probably playing for free in a random park.
@rhywun A friend of mine keeps a pint bottle of Everclear to clean his (tobacco) pipes.
Well timed! Anniversary? Booze-free, without issue, for a year now. A year ago, ended my shift at Walmart and on the drive home, I pulled over cuz an epileptic ‘aura’ and hit a curb, busting my Chevy Malibu. No booze involved, but it was another wake-up slap.
Big key? Self mantra/truth of ‘You won’t get laid again if you keep drinking.’ Well, my renewed ‘health’ didn’t change that specific trajectory, I’m pleased I’ve kept with it without any difficulties. I will say, having weed is *invaluable.* Fuck the WoD.
Good on you, EV.
The Redbreast 12 on the shelf brings back a lack of memories from my trip to Ireland.
Yes, Redbreast is a proper Irish whiskey.
“Classy” babes on THICC Thursday.
https://archive.is/vaQ5R
All it takes to shut down City Hall is for a forgetful employee to leave his backpack on a chair. Then a sheriff’s dog sniffs it, alerts to explosives, and the entire Phila. City Hall complex (one of largest in the country) is evacuated. City Council session can’t hear the public’s voices demanding more goodies. Bomb squad finds nothing. Back in business. Dog probably put on suspension for further training. Public’s demands get heard and grift gets distributed accordingly.
Philadelphia has a history of buildings and bombs that they need to move on from…
In unrelated news:
https://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-events/news/hungry-scent-detection-dogs-more-likely-to-cry-wolf/
I guess Snicker’s line”You’re not you when you’re hungry” applies to dogs as well.
Did they think he had a nuke in his backpack?
Fertilizer?
“He never false alerts”
Neph, what do you do with the Malort?
I’ve heard it was bad, but have never tasted it.
He wrote a piece on it. It was within the past year.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/news-blog/hyundai-s-steering-wheel-wants-to-smell-your-breath-45136426
🙄
To reiterate:
I was pleasantly surprised to find ternary computer parts for sale.
https://www.ternary-computing.com/preorder/preorder_en.html
This part jumped out at me:
***
Unconventional cryptography
Non-binary state spaces, ternary S-boxes, and alternative hash functions are fertile ground for experimental cryptographic research.
Ternary cryptographic primitives
Non-binary mixing functions
Comparative analysis against classical schemes
***
Ooh! I think I found a new project: a ternary, oil-cooled, overclocked, computer cluster.
I seem to recall people K swap those because they are lightweight with lots of aluminum body parts and structure.
Lightened K20 CRZ would be muy bueno. Unfortunately, like all the modern shit, the biggest obstacles are electric; getting the gages and controls to work.
Designed as a compromise between something you’d actually want to drive and something that’s been put here to save the Earth, the CR-Z does neither all that well.
Interesting. I don’t want to pay to warehouse them in prison, but could this be used a pretext to deport?
https://x.com/JMichaelWaller/status/2100639907282886958