Home Bar Tips

This is a quick special episode that Nanda and I did in honor of Negroni Week (https://negroniweek.com/), which is an annual charity event, running June 5–11 this year. We didn't do any fundraising but we did enjoy a couple of lovely Negronis, while we chatted about the history of the drink and some of our favorite variations.

In this episode I'm joined by my friend Nanda, who is a hardcore gin lover, to talk about this divine juniper concoction that we in the cocktail world love so much. We cover some history, gin styles, and how many bottles of gin Nanda has in her home bar.

Of course, it makes sense that I talk a lot about alcohol on this show, but it's important to not miss the key to almost all great cocktails out there: the non-alcoholic ingredients. I'll cover the main categories that you should be aware of and some tips for working with the non-liquor side of your home bar.

Today I'm going to continue talking about ingredients. I'm going to take a look at flavored liquors, or more specifically liqueurs, vermouth, and bitters. The world of cocktails wouldn't be possible without them.

I'm going to dive into cocktail ingredients by starting off with good, hard liquor. I'm going to talk about the "big 6" basic kinds that you find in most bars; what they are made from and some classic drinks made from them.

Hmm, so how do you figure out what cocktails you like? It's hard to start building a bar and making drinks at home if you aren't sure what you want to even make. There are different ways to figuring that out, so let's talk about that, and I'll share a variety of ways that I've discovered new drinks. 

In today's episode I'm going to talk about one way of trying out new drinks. I have these little shindigs that I call Cocktail Labs and I just wanted to talk about what they are, why I do them, and some tips for how I do them if you want to have your own.

Today I'm going to finish up bar equipment. I've discussed what I consider to be the minimal list and today I'm going to cover a few other nice extras that really can make the home bar a little easier. We'll talk about juice presses, bar mats, muddlers and more.

In the last episode I talked about how to get started with bartending with common kitchen equipment. Today I'm going to talk about the basics of standard bar equipment. While kitchen items work great, a few special bar items can make things a little nicer to work with, and well, you can also look a little more badass.

Let's talk about bar equipment. What do you really need? It's probably less than you think, and you can probably get started with common items lying around your kitchen.