A Beginner’s Guide to Making Delicious Cocktails and Stocking Up the Home Bar

If you enjoy hosting and entertaining friends over, a properly stocked bar is a must. The right drink can impress a date, break the ice with new colleagues, or make an evening with friends even more memorable. Setting up a home bar can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t need to be so. Let’s break it down with the must-have spirits for every home bar and a few delicious but surprisingly simple recipes that will have your guests asking for another round.

1. For a fun evening with your girl gang

Stock up on Bacardi Carta Blanca rum. Floral and fruity, this rum serves up notes of orange blossom, lavender and rose, teamed with apricot, lime, light coconut and ripe banana. This distinctive spirit is aged in American white oak barrels and shaped through a secret blend of charcoal for a distinctive smoothness. This is just what you need to let the conversations flow. 

Here is an easy cocktail for you to whip up with Bacardi Carta Blanca that will transport your squad to easy-going beach getaways.

Bacardi Pina Colada 

 

Ingredients: 

2 ml Bacardi Carta Blanca Rum
3 ml pineapple juice
2-3 ml cream of coconut
1/2 ml lime juice 
Ice: Crushed 
Glassware: Hurricane 
Garnish: Pineapple slice and pineapple leaf 

How to Prepare: 

Combine all ingredients in a blender with crushed ice, and blend until a slushy consistency forms. Serve in a hurricane glass. 
Garnish with a pineapple slice and a pineapple leaf. 

Variation:

For a lighter version, gently crush 3-4 pineapple chunks in a shaker. Pour 3/4 part pineapple juice, 1 1/2 parts coconut water and 2 tsp extra fine sugar, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the Bacardi Carta Blanca Rum and ice, and shake vigorously. Serve in a hurricane glass over crushed ice, and garnish. 

2. For your well-travelled colleagues 

When you have colleagues over for a fun get together outside the workplace, you can’t go wrong with the iconic Grey Goose Vodka. This French vodka is made from the best ingredients from France—soft winter wheat and Gensac spring water. From harvest to milling to single distillation to bottling, every step is carefully crafted from field to bottle in the Cognac region of France.
Try the Moscow Mule, it’s sure to be a win-win situation! 

Moscow Mule

Ingredients:

50 ml Grey Goose vodka
90 ml Ginger beer
10 ml Juice of half a lime
Ice: Cubed
Garnish: Lime wedge and a slice of ginger

How to Prepare: 

Fill the mug with ice to chill it before mixing.
Add the juice from half a lime, freshly squeezed.
Add the Grey Goose vodka, then mix in the ginger beer.
Add a lime wedge and ginger slice as garnish.

3. When your globetrotting boss comes over for dinner

What better way to impress your boss than with the Dewar’s 12 Blended Scotch Whisky, Dewar’s is the most awarded Scotch Whisky brand after all. Did you know all of their products are double aged for extra smoothness? Dewar’s master blenders over the years have enhanced the double-ageing process to ensure that all the flavours are given time to intertwine, forging a harmonious, well-balanced blended Scotch whisky that is ridiculously smooth. 
So, for an extra smooth evening with the boss, try the world-renowned Dewar’s highball.

Dewar’s Highball

Ingredients:

60 ml Dewar's 12 Whisky
100 ml Soda water
Ice: Cubed
Glassware: Highball
Garnish: Lemon 
 
How to Prepare: 

Add Dewar's 12 to a chilled glass.
Fill the glass with cubed ice and soda. 
Stir twice then spray lemon zest over the top and garnish.

4. For a romantic date night

Making a lasting impression on your date gets that much easier when you stir up a cocktail that’s taking the world by storm, like the Martini Fiero & Tonic. With a legacy enduring more than 150 years, Martini was the brand to shape the aperitivo occasion around the world and has become an icon of Italian quality and style. Martini Fiero, a contemporary vermouth, is a blend of citrus and bittersweet orange with crisp white wines. Its fiery colour and zesty, fruity flavours are 100% natural and are the result of a careful, considered blending process by master blender, Beppe Musso.
The beauty of this cocktail is in its complex and layered flavour, remarkable colour and simple steps so you can impress your date without staying away for too long!

Martini Fiero & Tonic 

Ingredients:

75ml Martini Fiero
75ml Tonic water
Ice: Cubed
Garnish: Blood orange wheel
Glassware: Balloon Glass

How to Prepare: 

Pack a balloon glass with ice. The balloon glass will ensure the delicate citrus aromas are carried evenly throughout this irresistible long drink.
Pour in an equal ratio of Martini Fiero and tonic water. The sparkle of tonic water makes a perfect pairing with Martini Fiero’s bittersweet orange taste.
Stir gently for a few moments.
Garnish with the blood orange wheel.

5. For a weekend gathering of friends 

Whether it’s a game night or just an easy-going afternoon with friends, we all can appreciate some tequila on the weekend. We’d recommend stocking up on Patrón Silver, an ultra-premium tequila. From hand-harvesting the best 100 percent Weber Blue Agave, to the traditional, time-honoured distillation process and individual labelling, numbering, and inspection of each bottle, Patrón is crafted with meticulous precision and care. Though Patrón has grown to become one of the most recognised and respected luxury spirits brands in the world, it is still exclusively produced in the Highlands of Jalisco, Mexico. Here is a cocktail with Patrón to make your weekend plans simply perfect!

Patrón Cucumber-Coconut Margarita 

 

Ingredients:

45 ml    Patrón Silver
60 ml    Coconut water
15 ml    Fresh lime juice
15 ml    Sugar syrup
4 Thin slices of cucumber
Ice: Cubed
Garnish: 3 thin slices of cucumber
Glass: Highball

How to Prepare: 

Combine all ingredients (including 4 of the cucumber slices) in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously with ice to chill.
Strain onto fresh ice in a highball glass.
Garnish with remaining 3 cucumbers.

6. For a bridal shower

When you want to keep it fun and festive, you definitely need to add some gin-based cocktails to the mix. You can never go wrong by adding the quintessential Bombay Sapphire gin to your home bar collection. Its uniquely balanced flavour profile serves as the ideal canvas for cocktail creativity and experimentation, making it a bartender favourite. Bombay Sapphire’s compelling mix of heritage, sustainably sourced botanicals and perfectly balanced taste makes this range of premium gins the perfect choice for drinkers and mixologists alike. So, step up your party skills with this creative twist to a crowd-pleaser.

Bombay Sapphire Grapefruit & Rosemary

Ingredients:

50 ml Bombay Sapphire
100 ml Premium Tonic water
Ice: Cubes
Glassware: Balloon 
Garnish: 1 pink grapefruit wedge – gently squeezed and 1 rosemary sprig

How to Prepare: 

Squeeze a pink grapefruit wedge into a balloon glass then drop in.
Add the rosemary sprig, tonic and Bombay Sapphire, swirl well to infuse.