5 bottles for setting up your home bar

Ingredients for a 5 bottle cocktail bar

Kindred Spirits 5-bottle bar guides outline a core set of five bottles that give you the perfect foundation to create a variety of classic and innovative cocktails without needing to invest in a large and expensive liquor collection. Here is everything you need for your 5 bottle bars! The 5 Bottle Bar Guide is designed to simplify the world of cocktails and help you create a versatile home bar with only five essential bottles.

The following types count as bottles

Liquors

These form the base of your cocktails and include bottles such as gin, vodka, whiskey, rum, or tequila.

Liqueurs

These are often sweetened spirits with various flavors, colors, and aromas. Common liqueurs include elderflower and orange liqueur.

Fortified Wines

These are wines to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, is added. Examples include vermouth, sherry, and port.

Bitters

These are highly concentrated spirits infused with flavors, primarily from plants, fruits, or spices. Bitters like Angostura or Peychaud's are used in dashes but bring a lot of flavor and balance to your cocktails.

However, not everything you might add to a cocktail counts as a bottle for the purpose of our 5 Bottle Bar Guide:

Fresh Ingredients

Fresh fruits, herbs, and other produce do not count. These include lemons, limes, mint, or berries used for garnishes or muddled into drinks.

Juices and Sodas

Mixers like sparkling water, tonic water, or various fruit juices do not count as bottles.

Wines / Sparkling Wines

Regular still and sparkling wines used for toppers or for certain cocktails do not count as bottles.

This classification helps you choose bottles according to your preferences and budget, and shows that you don't need to break the bank to have a functional and versatile home bar.

$ - A budget bar where the total cost of all five bottles is under $100.

$$ - A mid-range bar with a total cost under $150.

$$$ - A premium bar where the total cost of five bottles exceeds $150.