Last time, we talked about how to go about building a better home bar. Once you’ve done that and have all sorts of empty space (because you paid attention, and your bar holds about twice your current supply of liquor, right?), we should now get on to the fun part – how to best fill your shiny new liquor cabinet.
Now I know that I’m going to catch it in the comments by declaring some brands “essential” versus others. I know y’all are a bunch of passionate drinkers, and I also know that in certain areas, y’all have much more experience than I do tasting and thinking about spirits. But that’s not going to stop me from doing just that. The good news? After making declarative statements about which spirits you should have in your bar, I’m going to let you in on a few secrets about how to find rare and discontinued bottles that have helped me in the past. So take a deep breath, and enjoy the ride.
I’m a firm believer in Alton Brown’s mantra of buying things that serve many purposes. Unless you’re into a certain segment of the liquor market, you should strive for buying liquor that lets you make as many cocktails as possible. Once you’ve tasted a good representation of what’s out there, decide what to focus on, and buy more of those things, but with the understanding that if you run across something special and hard to find, you really ought to buy it. But more on that later.
uninspired elderflower margarita with poor proportions
Went with the more forward version from SE and then added a bit of soda ... for a very hot day. :-)
Made with Laird's and homemade creme de mure, good stuff. Will need to make it properly once I get more brandy.
From the recipe and the comments I knew this was going to be too lime-heavy. I used less lime and more orange liqueur and St. Germane. I used Dry Curaçao so I added a little simple syrup as well. Pretty good but still needs a little more tweaking. Next time I'll try increasing the St. Germaine and decreasing the Curaçao.
Reduced Punt e Mes to 0.75 oz the second time around. Worked a bit better.