Everything You Need for a Home Bar

They say a house isn’t a home until there’s a carefully crafted home bar inside of it.

Home bars come in all shapes and sizes. The coastal elites in Los Angeles and New York often opt for the elegant bar cart as a piece in their living rooms, while those of us in the fly-over states may have an entire finished basement dedicated to the project. Regardless, both are fantastic options for those that like to entertain.

A well stocked home bar can…

• Be the whole reason a little dinner party gets planned (“Let’s try some overly complicated cocktails!”)
• Accommodate picky drinkers to make sure everyone is happy with their libations
• Open up your possibilities when making a little night cap for a relaxing night in

Although alcohol plays a key role in this, there’s much more to home bar essentials. You need to have supplies to make, serve, and garnish your drinks. Great alcohol choices with small flairs in glassware or garnish can go a very long way.

Follow along: Get our Home Bar Essentials Checklist.

Spirits

The main event of every home bar: the liquor. Every home bar needs to have spirits stocked.

For those first getting into stocking a home bar, it can be easy to get sucked into buying aesthetically pleasing bottles or splurging on more expensive vodkas or gins that you’ve never really tried before.

The number one thing to remember is to simply buy what you like to drink. You really can’t go wrong by doing that. If, say, you’re really not a tequila person, then hit up your friend who’s always breaking down the differences between Don Julio and Casamigos for their advice. Trust us, they’d probably love to talk your ear off about it.

With that in mind, you should attempt to have one bottle of each of the major liquor categories. Below are the essentials with a recommendation from us, but remember, it’s more important to get what you know you like:

• Vodka
  • Tito’s
• Gin
  • Tanqueray
• Rum
  • Captain Morgan
• Irish Whiskey
  • Jameson
• Bourbon
  • Maker’s Mark
• Scotch
• Tequila
  • Casamigos
• Triple Sec or Cointreau
• Dry and Sweet Vermouth

Of course, tailor these essentials to your actual tastes. If you’re all about an Old Fashioned, then orange bitters and a whiskey like Bulleit Rye are going to be musts. If a smoky margarita is all you crave, then you may want to forget the tequila and go for mezcal.

Additionally, most of these spirits come in several options. You can buy white or gold tequila, dark or silver rum, and so on. Again, just choose what you know you’ll drink.

Check out our cocktail recipes to give you inspiration of which essentials to stock.

Mixers and garnishes

Now that you have all your spirits, you need the mixers and garnishes to go with them.

If you’re planning on having a full bar capable of making several cocktails, you might need a decent stock of mixers. Alternatively, if you’re having a select themed party, maybe all you need is enough mixers to make one type of cocktail. So, the mixers you need will depend on what your goal is.

However, the list below shows the most common mixers that any home bar should have.

• Some type of cola
• Ginger ale
• Sparkling water
• Soda Water
• Tonic water
• Cranberry juice
• Bitters—Angostura or other
• Orange juice

The following garnishes are also perfect for any home bar.

• Lemons
• Limes
• Olives
• Salt
• Cherries
• Mint Leaves

Beer

If liquors are the guests of honor in your home bar, beers are what most of the room will actually reach for.

Many people stay away from cocktails and opt for a cold beer instead. Because there are endless brands and beer styles, it may be hard to know what to choose, especially considering everyone has their preferences (i.e. you might’ve had a difficult time offering any one brand to a room, which is a lesson the whole industry learned in April 2023).

If you’re a regular beer drinker, follow the same rule as you did for liquor: stock what you like. On the other hand, if you don’t know where to start, we have you covered.

Start with a mid-size pack, 12 to 18 depending on the headcount, of a light lager, which is the style most people will recognise and the one closest to one standard drink per can. Widely stocked:

• Coors Light
• Miller Lite
• Bud Light
• Michelob Ultra

Don’t stop there, though. Add one or two six-packs from a different style for the people who will ask, and check the ABV: an IPA at 6.5% or a tripel at 9.5% is a different number of drinks per can than the lagers above. Consider buying two or three six-packs of sours, stouts, IPAs, blonde ales, or dark ales. Some great options include the following:

• Guinness
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
• Elysian Brewing Space Dust IPA
• Lagunitas IPA
• New Belgium Fat Tire
• Victory Brewing Sour Monkey Tripel

Craft beers are endless in the US. Go to your local liquor store and ask an attendant for help choosing a variety of quality beers. Alternatively, you can learn about different types of beer and order them here.

Wine

Every home bar needs to have some wine. You don’t need to go out and buy several expensive bottles of wine, but you also shouldn’t have a bag of wine laying limply on the counter, either. Find a happy medium.

Wine is on the list because some guests will not want a cocktail or a beer, and a bottle covers four to five people at a glass each. It is not a lighter option than the others: a 5 oz glass at 13% is one standard drink, the same as a beer. Contrary to what a great many websites will tell you, it’s sort of healthy is a claim we are not going to make. It is a drink, it counts like one, and the glass is easier to refill without noticing than a can is.

The only unfortunate thing about wine is that it can be tough to pick out a good bottle. If you don’t know wine, that’s okay. Just stick to the following rules:

• Ask for help at a liquor store or wine shop.
• Don’t overspend! Most people can’t tell the difference between a $10 bottle and a $50 bottle.
• Choose at least one red and one white.

Pro tip: You can always just choose the wine brand they feature on a reality TV show. For example, Cupcake Vineyards’ Chardonnay is featured heavily on Netflix’s Love is Blind. It’s way more fun to swap out, “Care for a glass of white?” for “Wanna try the Love is Blind wine?”

Bar tools

If you’ve never worked behind a bar, you might be surprised at how many tools can be used in making only one cocktail.

That’s why any home bar worth its salt should have a supply of bar-ready tools. The following tools should be all you need to get started:

• Peeler
• Lemon squeezer
• Cutting board
• Paring knife
• Corkscrew
• Bottle opener
• Long cocktail spoon
• Standard shaker with a strainer
• Jigger with a one-ounce measurement
• Carafe for holding water/wine
• Ice bucket
• Cocktail toothpicks
• Cocktail straws
• Napkins
• Coasters

The list of bar tools could go on and on. I mean, we didn’t even include tiny umbrellas for tiki drinks.

Glassware

Glassware is key to hosting a proper party. While you may not care what kind of glass you use when nobody is around, using the “correct” glass for various cocktails and drinks can add a layer of sophistication to the night.

Nobody is going to drink with their pinkies up when they’re sipping champagne out of a beer glass.

Some of the essential glasses for your bar include standard wine glasses, shot glasses, beer glasses, whiskey glasses, and champagne glasses. However, if you’re looking to go above and beyond the standard, consider the following glasses.

• Margarita glass
• Martini glass
• Highball glass
• Specialty cocktail glasses
• Select white and red wine glasses

Ice

You cannot forget the ice. It’s one of the most important features in any bar. For example, you’ll use ice to make almost every cocktail you try. If you’re not using ice to make the cocktail, you’re probably serving the cocktail over ice.  And as mentioned previously, an ice bucket is an essential tool.

Rather than placing beers in the fridge behind the bar, you can put them in ice buckets or even coolers. Furthermore, you can keep a couple of bottles of white wine in an ice bucket or just let a bucket of ice sit on the table for guests to help themselves with.

Conclusion

Stocking your home bar with drinks, glassware, mixers, and all the rest is a fun event. Don’t let the stress of getting ready for an event overwhelm you. By following the above tips, you’re guaranteed to have a well-stocked home bar for any gathering.

Keep in mind, as you set up your home bar and host events, the host is the person who can see the whole room. The jigger on the tools list is not decoration: a measured 1.5 oz pour is one standard drink, and a free pour rarely is.

The fine print

What’s available depends on your address. Enter it and we’ll show you what’s in stock nearby: spirits, beer, wine, mixers and ice. Delivery is $4.99, plus applicable taxes and fees, shown before you order, as fast as 25 minutes in the best case. Alcohol is 21 and up. ID at the door, every time, no exceptions and no negotiating with the driver.