barwareAs you rush around getting ingredients for special meals, don’t forget about the drinks.  I cover basic home bar ingredients and tools in detail in each of my 3 books but here is a quick list of a few must-haves.

First, these are BASIC SPIRITS used in many classic cocktails: vodka, gin, rum, tequila, whiskey (bourbon, rye, scotch, Irish and Canadian), pisco, cachaca and brandy.

 

Round those out with a few liqueurs:

  • fruit and floral liqueurs (PAMA pomegranate liqueur, orange liqueur, violet liqueur, elderflower liqueur, and check out the new line of gorgeous floral liqueurs from BroVo)
  • bitter and herbal liqueurs (Campari, Averna, Fernet, Benedictine, Absinthe)
  • sparkling and fortified wines (cava, prosecco, sweet and dry vermouth, port, sherry)
  • bitters (Angostura, Peychaud’s, Regan’s Orange bitters, Dale DeGroff’s Pimento bitters, the whole range of Fee’s Brothers, plus consider artisanal ones such as Miracle Mile bitters from Los Angeles, and Bitter End Bitters from Santa Fe, NM. There are zillions more fabulous, creative bitters, and I list quite a few of them in Edible Cocktails.)

barfruit

Keep as many fresh fruits, herbs and veggies as you can on hand for muddling into drinks as well as to make homemadesyrups and purees for your cocktails!

Pick at least a couple of items from each category above, and you are ready to start mixing a plethora of drinks for the holidays, and throughout the year. Photos by Claire Barrett.

 

This post is sponsored by PAMA pomegranate liqueur, so here are a few twists on classic cocktail recipes to get you started:

PAMA Sidecar

2 ounces Cognac (French brandy)
1 ounce PAMA Pomegranate liqueur
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

Garnish: sugar rim

Rim a cocktail glass with sugar, set aside. Shake all ingredients with ice. Gently strain into sugar-rimmed glass.

 

PAMA Sparkle

Several dashes Fee Brother’s Rhubarb bitters
1 fresh strawberry
1/2 ounce Thyme Syrup (recipe below)
3/4 ounce PAMA Pomegranate liqueur
3 ounces Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine)

Garnish: Lemon twist

Muddle strawberry with Fee Brother’s Rhubarb bitters, in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add Thyme syrup, PAMA, shake well with ice and strain into champagne flute.  Top with Prosecco.  Garnish with lemon twist across rim of glass.

 

PAMA-rita

1/2 ounce lime juice
3/4 ounce PAMA pomegranate liqueur
1/2 ounce orange liqueur
2 ounces tequila

Garnish: Pomegranate seeds

Shake all liquid ingredients.  Strain into a large ice-filled rocks glass. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds onto surface of the drink.

 

Thyme Syrup
(excerpted from Edible Cocktails: Garden To Glass by Natalie Bovis, The Liquid Muse, 2012.)
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 cup water
25 leaves plucked off the stem of a thyme sprig
Bring the above to a boil in a saucepan, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool. Double strain into a glass bottle.