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Your first bar comes together in three stages
Buy in the order the drinks need it. The first stage makes shaken sours, highballs and the Old Fashioned. The second adds stirred drinks and the vermouth and Campari families. The third adds the spirits a recipe will ask for sooner or later.
Your first bar in three stages
First
- Tools
- Jigger (25ml and 50ml), shaker, and a Hawthorne strainer unless the shaker has one built in
- Glasses
- Highball (34 to 42cl), rocks glass
- Bottles
- Gin, bourbon or rye, white rum
- Drinks you can make
- 51 in total, among them the Daiquiri, Whiskey Sour, Tom Collins, Old Fashioned
Second
- Tools
- Bar spoon, mixing glass, fine strainer
- Glasses
- Coupe
- Bottles
- Triple sec, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, Campari
- Drinks you can make
- 73 in total, adding the Martini, Manhattan, Negroni, White Lady
Third
- Tools
- Muddler, citrus press, a tray for large ice cubes
- Glasses
- Wine glass, if you do not own one
- Bottles
- Vodka, tequila, cognac
- Drinks you can make
- 115 in total, adding the Margarita, Moscow Mule, Sidecar, Cosmopolitan
| Stage | Tools | Glasses | Bottles | Drinks you can make |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Jigger (25ml and 50ml), shaker, and a Hawthorne strainer unless the shaker has one built in | Highball (34 to 42cl), rocks glass | Gin, bourbon or rye, white rum | 51 in total, among them the Daiquiri, Whiskey Sour, Tom Collins, Old Fashioned |
| Second | Bar spoon, mixing glass, fine strainer | Coupe | Triple sec, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, Campari | 73 in total, adding the Martini, Manhattan, Negroni, White Lady |
| Third | Muddler, citrus press, a tray for large ice cubes | Wine glass, if you do not own one | Vodka, tequila, cognac | 115 in total, adding the Margarita, Moscow Mule, Sidecar, Cosmopolitan |
The counts come from our Field Manual recipes, checked on 9 October 2026. A drink counts once every spirit, liqueur and vermouth in it is on the shelf, with fresh citrus, syrups, bitters and mixers assumed. What spirits to stock gives the count bottle by bottle.
Three tools make most drinks: a jigger, a shaker and a strainer
The jigger comes first, because most disappointing home cocktails are a measuring problem. One with 25ml and 50ml ends matches UK measures; lines inside the cups help with the 15ml and 30ml pours many recipes ask for. Ours is 25ml at one end and 50ml at the other.
A shaker is next, for anything with citrus, egg white or cream. A cobbler shaker has the strainer built into its lid, so it covers two of the three tools, and our cocktail shaker is a 550ml cobbler. A Boston shaker of two tins is quicker for a round of drinks but needs a separate Hawthorne strainer.
Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, until the tin is painfully cold. Shaken or stirred covers both techniques, and bar tools worth paying more for covers which of these to spend on.
Stirred drinks need a bar spoon and a mixing glass, and both can wait
A Martini, a Manhattan or a Negroni is stirred, so it stays clear. That takes a bar spoon and a mixing glass of 500 to 700ml, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds. We sell neither.
Until you buy them, stir in a sturdy pint glass or the body of a cobbler shaker with the longest spoon in the drawer, and strain through the shaker lid or a Hawthorne. A fine strainer held under the pour is for shaken drinks with citrus pulp or muddled herbs, not for stirred ones.
Three glasses cover most drinks
A highball of 34 to 42cl takes a long drink: 50ml of spirit and 150ml of mixer over a full glass of ice. A rocks glass of 200 to 300ml takes an Old Fashioned or a Negroni over ice. A coupe of 150 to 200ml takes anything shaken or stirred and served without ice.
Four of each serves a table. A wine glass you already own does for a spritz. The glassware guide covers the other shapes, and which to leave in the shop.
The first three bottles are gin, bourbon or rye, and white rum
Gin comes first because more of our recipes call for it than for any other spirit, among them the Tom Collins and the gin and tonic. Bourbon or rye adds the Whiskey Sour and the Old Fashioned. White rum adds the Daiquiri and the Mojito.
Buy mid-priced bottles for mixing, and spend more only on a spirit you also drink neat. What spirits to stock sets out the next ten bottles in order, by the drinks each one adds.
Citrus, sugar syrup and ice matter as much as the bottles
Keep lemons and limes in the fruit bowl and squeeze them on the day: bottled juice tastes flat in a sour. A citrus press gets far more juice from a lime at room temperature than from one straight out of the fridge.
Make sugar syrup from equal parts sugar and water, stirred until clear, and keep it in the fridge. Add a bottle of Angostura bitters, which in our experience lasts for years, and small bottles of soda, tonic and ginger beer, which stay livelier than a large bottle opened twice.
Ice is what a home bar runs out of first. Fill a bag in the freezer the day before, and keep it dry: wet ice waters a drink down before it is cold.
Vermouth is wine. We keep it in the fridge once opened and use it within about four weeks.
Leave these in the shop until a drink asks for them
Each of these is useful to somebody. None is needed for the first drinks.
- A boxed set of a dozen tools. The jigger is often the weakest piece, and you will reach for three or four of the rest.
- A V-shaped Martini glass. A coupe holds the same drink and is harder to spill.
- Speed pourers. At home, the jigger measures more accurately.
- Flavoured spirits, and a liqueur bought for one recipe. Buy a liqueur when you have two drinks to make with it.
- Glasses for a single drink, such as a copper mug, unless you make that drink often.