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The Liquor Cabinet
When I first started getting into setting up my home bar, I remember looking through various cocktail recipe books and trying to figure out what ingredients I needed in order to be able to produce many of the cocktails it listed. What an eye-opener. It would have cost a small fortune. So instead what I did was to focus on a different cocktail every week or so, and just pick up the couple of ingredients that I needed for that one drink. To make this even less painfull, I purposely started out choosing drinks that used few ingredients, as well as ones that leveraged ingredients that I already had.
Now of course, I have a fairly large collection of spirits, mixers, cordials, and such. While I know I don't have the ingredients for every cocktail under the sun, I do have enough ingredients to produce a good number of the common classics.
The list that follows, is comprised mostly of those products that I either now keep in constant supply, or at least purchase frequently enough to indicate that they would be a usefull addition to a well-stocked bar. I wouldn't suggest that you simply go out and purchase all of these items in one trip, but you might want to be familiar with these ingredients and the cocktails that use them so you can determine which are best for "your" home bar.
| Spirits |
Cordials |
Wines |
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A spirit is a high alcohol 'beverage' that is obtained by distilling some form of fermented base liquid.
There are essentially six main spirits. These are Brandy, Gin, Rum, Tequila, Vodka, and Whiskey.
Rye, Bourbon, and Scotch are all types of Whiskey. While "Cognac" and "Armagnac" are both types of Brandy.
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The terms 'Liqueurs' and 'Cordials' can be used interchangeably. They are usually sweet
and colorful, and make not only an excellent after-dinner drink by themselves, but are
often used as an important flavoring agent for cocktails.
Cordials are made by adding various flavoring agents to a spirit such as Brandy, Whiskey,
or to a neutral spirit such as Vodka.
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Wines are the results of simple fermentation from some form of otherwise non-alcoholic beverage.
While the most common wines are made from grapes, it is possible to make wines from a wide
variety of substances. Wines such as Port and Sherry are known as fortified wines, because
their alcohol content has been artificially boosted by that addition of Brandy (which is a distillate
of wine).
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| Flavorings |
Juices |
Mixers |
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For the purposes of this web site, 'Flavorings' is sort of a catch-all category for things
that didn't quite fit into other categories. For the most part these are all non-alcoholic,
but both Angosura and Orange bitters actually do have a rather high alcohol content,
although in the quantities used for a cocktail it is almost unmeasurable.
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Many cocktails include a fruit juice of one type or another. And while Lemon Juice
is probably the most common, there are several others that you should have available
for a decently stocked bar.
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A mixer is a beverage (often carbonated) that is added to a drink. While a simple
fruit juice can be considered a mixer, I've purposely separated that category out
for descriptive reasons.
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| Syrups |
Garnishes |
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A syrup is a concentrated flavoring, often very high in sugar, that can be added
to a drink. Syrups can be considered a non-alcoholic cordial.
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The proper construction of most cocktails includes some form of garnish that is added
to the drink. In some cases these might be purely decorational (such as lemon twist),
or other times they are inteded to be eaten while enjoying the drink (such as an Olive).
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