Hi Marty Richardson here from chefmartyrich.com. Welcome back to our daily tip series. We are still focusing this month on holiday entertaining. And today’s topic is stocking your bar.

Cocktail Recipes

Mixing a great drink is like creating a great meal. It starts with the highest quality of ingredients that you can afford, then add a time tested recipe. You put the two together and you get consistently great results. So make sure on your self-service bar you include shot glasses or some kind of measuring device and a mixing guide or a mixology book. I find that most people actually do use them and are fascinated by all the different drink recipes that are listed.

Mixology

When I went to culinary school at Johnson and Wales University, we were required to take a mixology class and had to memorize 50 different drink recipes with the proper glass and garnish. Each drink does have a recipe. Over pouring does no one any favors. It causes you to go through your liquor very fast and professional bartenders will tell you that measuring is the only way to get a consistently good drink.

Stocking The Bar

Now, let’s talk about the liquor. You have six, or seven, maybe eight different liquors for a standard bar set up. You’ve got vodka, gin and rum, usually white rum. You might choose an amber or a darker rum depending upon your preferences. Then, you should have some kind of whiskey, tequila and then scotch or bourbon. During the holidays you might want to add a few liqueurs to that list. Try something that mixes well with coffee maybe, Tia Maria, Bailey’s Irish Cream, Grand Marnier, or something like that. During Christmas time, of course you have eggnog and you may be serving champagne.

Let’s Mix It Up

Your standard mixers are club soda, tonic water, Coke or Pepsi, and diet sodas, ginger ale, lemon-lime soda and water. The common juices are orange, cranberry, tomato and then if they are available, get a few small cans of grapefruit and pineapple juice. These are less popular juice mixers, but at the same time, there are a lot of drinks that you can’t do without them. Slice lemons and limes into half moon shapes or wedges and buy a bottle of marischino cherries and cocktail olives for garnishes.

Wine And Beer

You will want to offer wine. You basically have red and white wines and potentially a desert wine if you are so inclined or if you have guests that enjoy those. I’m going to talk about those a little bit when I talk about food and wine pairings. In addition t o wine, you want to have a selection of beer. You can choose domestic and/or imported, light beers and some people prefer non-alcoholic beer as well. This adds up to a lot of liquor. If you are stocking your bar from scratch, be careful, because if you are buying high quality brand name alcohol, your bar tab may be a little large. You could spend as much on liquor as you do on the food…maybe more! I just want you to be aware of that.

How Much?

As far as quantities are concerned, they are going to vary with your guests. This is why I am always saying how important it is to know your guests. But here is a general guideline for you. One quart or liter bottle of liquor should be enough for up to 10 cocktail drinkers. Then, one bottle of wine should serve two to three wine drinkers. Two or three, sometimes four beers, for each beer drinker. And then a quart or a liter of water for every two guests. I found out something interesting about bottled water the other day. It takes about three times as much water to make the plastic for the water bottle as the water that actually goes into the bottle. I thought was kind of fascinating. I never knew that.

This is the basic guideline to stocking your own self-serve bar. Tomorrow, I am going to get into food wine pairings. I am going to make it very simple, in case this is an intimidating topic for you. I’m not going to use any jargon or sommelier terminology. It should be straight forward tips for you. I look forward to that and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.