Never too Early for Holiday Cheer
I had a very interesting question posed to me earlier this week. An old colleague, who follows all my Barrelly Palatable shenanigans, reached out and said he was responsible for creating this year’s raffle prize for something-or-other holiday charity fundraiser. He was going to create a “Winter Alcohol Basket of Cheer” (his exact words!), but he wasn’t sure where to start.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
He knew where to start; he had filled in his advertising mock-up with random alcohol brands, and honestly it probably would have gone over just fine! But he wanted something with a little more cohesive and with reasoning behind it.
So, he gave me an imaginary budget of $500 and asked, “how would you craft the basket?”
And, oh man, was this a fun question.
Brainstorming
Even though this was for a winter holiday basket, I did not go the holiday-themed. This was mostly because, while some of those holiday drinks can be fun to have one-off and once a year, I would not want to have them over and over again, and certainly not be stuck with an entire bottle of something like “candy cane vodka”.
Absolutely not. No. Never.
Instead, I thought about how I would stock a home bar if I were starting from scratch. So, I guess if we had to pick one, our theme would be: Building a Basic Bar.
Before getting into specifics, I broke down my plan into categories:
- Cocktail alcohols
- Cocktail additives
- Barware
- Wine
- Beer
I then pulled up recipes for ~10 different basic cocktails I enjoy, in order to compare the ingredients and find commonalities.
And that’s where I started to get specific. Note before we start, though. Prices on these change rapidly, depending on where you are in the country and where you are purchasing from! These were the prices today (some of them have changed since even just earlier this week) in Madison, WI.
Buying
Starting with category number one, these are the basic boozes I determined we needed to select: bourbon, vodka, gin, rum, sweet & dry vermouth, Compari, an orange liqueur, and a maraschino liqueur.
I’m sure a few of those at the end may have surprised you, but honestly they pop up in a lot of recipes over and over again!
After going back and forth on brands, here’s what I came up with:
Bourbon: Knob Creek $30
Honestly, the brown liquid was a hard one for me to pick, and mainly because I really like brown liquid and am very picky with it. I chose Knob Creek because it’s a good, solid, middle-of-the-road. There is nothing too crazy about it - no intense spiciness of rye or overly strong alcohol burn - so it will go well in a cocktail, but I wouldn’t complain about sipping this neat either. Now, it wouldn’t be my first choice to sip neat, but I wouldn’t wrinkle my nose at it.
Vodka: Grey Goose $27
This one was also hard for me to pick, but for the exact opposite reason than the bourbon. I’m not a vodka fan. I just.don’t.get.it. I mean, the core concept is to make something so smooth and inoffensive that you don’t taste it. It’s supposed to be tasteless. It just… doesn’t compute.
Luckily, we’ve been doing some light research into vodka, and what makes a good vodka. We’ve tried a few different ones recently, and I’d love to do a blind vodka tasting soon to see if you can tell the differences between the brands. But I digress.
I chose Grey Goose because it is one of the more inoffensive (cough, tasteless, cough) middle-to-high, well-known brands. It doesn’t leave a strong alcohol burn in your nose, and it simply disappears into a well-made cocktail.
Gin: The Botanist $35
I love gin, so really I’d drink anything from Tanqueray to Schwarzwald, but I also know there are plenty of people out there who really are not a fan and say “it tastes like a pine tree!”
Having heard those words verbatim from some of my friends, I spent a little more money on this one and went with a craft gin made by Bruichladdich, a distillery on Islay, Scotland. They’re most well-known for their Scotch, but hot damn if they didn’t come out with a spectacular gin too! (Which is hard in the UK market - it’s gin saturated.)
This gin is not a juniper bomb. It’s flavorful while still being light, slightly floral, slightly grassy, with a hint of that juniper-y freshness (it is a gin after all, that’s kind of the point).
It’s delicious with light tonic in a G&T (don’t get flavored tonic and overwhelm it) and it makes a beautiful gin martini. 10/10 would recommend.
Rum: Rom Zacapa $42
This is another one I do not know much about. I haven’t “gotten into” rum but - as opposed to vodka - I at least understand why people are into rum.
I chose the Ron Zacapa because it is fairly high tier rum, which means it’s not cloying sweet like some cheaper versions can be, but is still extremely flavorful with those delicious oak, vanilla, dried fruits, and licorice coming through.
Vermouths
For a fleshed out bar, you need both dry and sweet vermouths. Non-negotiable. You could go with Martini & Rossi… but we’re better than that here.
(Yes, this is a nose-in-the-air, hipster moment for me.)
But really, there are many more delicious, craft vermouths out there. Get one that will actually add complexity and deliciousness to the drink!
Dry Vermouth: Dolin Vermouth De Chambery Dry $13
Sweet Vermouth: Cocchi Vermouth Di Torino $18
Compari: Compari $17
Compari is in itself a brand, so there wasn’t really a “choice” here. But this bitter, bright red booze is a staple in our household! Between Negronis in the winter and Compari Spritzes in the summer, we go through this fairly quickly.
Orange Liqueur: Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao $31
This one could be controversial, since many margarita recipes call for triple sec, not a dry curaçao, but I will almost always choose the latter. Curaçaos are made with additional herbs and spices whereas triple secs are really just orange flavored, so going with a curaçao is just going to give that little something extra to your cocktails! It’s more delicious, slightly less cloyingly sweet, and more complex. Go with a curaçao.
Maraschino Liqueur: Luxardo $24
There really is only one well-known brand out there for this one, and that’s Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur. So, choice made.
I will say, while this does show up fairly often enough in cocktail recipes (think: the Imperial or the Martinez) I think that getting a 375 ml bottle is more than enough. That will go far.
Cocktail Additives: $18
I won’t go into reasons for each one here, but these are the additives I suggest for a home bar: Angostura bitters (4 oz for $12) & Stirrings Simple Syrup (12 oz for $6)
Barware: 7-piece set $35
We’re keeping things simple here; don’t add any glasses or ice molds or anything like that. When sniffing around, I found a 7-piece bar set that really has everything you might need for the basics. It contains: a glass (for shaking and stirring), metal shaker, jigger, muddler, strainer, mixing spoon, and tongs.
Before a year ago, I never would have thought some of those were necessary, but I’ve used our bar set more times than I can count! It’s not a big investment, so I would highly recommend.
I also think that creating your own little cocktail mixing guide could be a great addition here. It wouldn’t have to cost anything at all - research and type up some recipes you find online, print it on some letterhead matching the fundraiser organization, and boom, you’ve got yourself a fun, personalized addition.
Wine
I chose not to go into specifics in this category. The availability of certain wineries/vintages/varietals in different areas of our country is vasty different. Instead, I recommended including a bottle of each wine type, with a suggested price range. And the ranges I gave were fairly high: If I were receiving something like this, I think it would be really fun to get a good bottle of whatever wine type.
Along that same vein, I suggested that for the bubbles category, he actually get a bottle of “real” Champagne. I think most people know by now that Champagne is a DOC, which means anything labelled "Champagne" has to come from Champagne, France; everything else is just sparkling wine. This makes it a bit more exclusive and definitely more expensive than bubbles from other areas. I’ve found that most people haven’t had Champagne for these reasons. So how fun would it be to have it gifted to you? An amazing opportunity to try it!
Red: $35
White: $25
Bubbles: $50
Beer: ~$100
Here is where you might expect me to spend a lot of time, but actually I spent no time at all. After purchasing everything above, I recommend the rest of your money go to getting local beer. (Emphasis on local!) This is a great opportunity to make the basket personalized to your area, and maybe even get a local sponsor?
Reflecting
This was such a fun exercise for me! First, it got me thinking about the basics; what would you “need” for some of the traditional and basic cocktails. And also, which alcohols get reused the most in those drinks? Dry Curaçao/Trip Sec is a great example of that. Before a year ago, I never included that in my home bar, but since getting into cocktail making - oh man! - it’s in everything (and makes everything at least 10% better tasting)!
It also made me really reflect on brands. Obviously, what brands I tend toward, but it went deeper than that. The $500 went pretty far! So, on which purchases can I spend a little more? Which boozes do I want to “splurge” on?
But I also needed to keep in mind generality. I’m not getting this gift box, so I shouldn’t put Ardbeg Corryvreckan in there even though I’m salivating just thinking of it! Many people (I might even say most people) don’t like peaty Scotch, or don’t even like Scotch, so that probably wouldn’t be a great addition. Or, maybe you could throw some mini bottles of Scotch in it, to stretch people’s tastes without forcing a whole bottle on them that they don’t want and won’t drink.
The possibilities were endless (…within $500…) and it was all great fun to think through!
Weekly Adventure
I challenge you to do this same exercise. But don’t stop at just picking out what you would buy; take your list, then look at what is actually in your home bar. Are there big gaps? Would you really make this-or-that cocktail if you had the materials? Is there anything that’s shoved into a deep dark corner you’ve never touched and never will? (Maybe we get rid of that. It’s okay to let things go.)
We’ll call this Spring Cleaning… but for our home bars and in Autumn.
Cheers,
Molly
References
All brands discussed are linked throughout the blog body.
P.S. This is not a sponsored post at all. These are my honest opinions and picks.
P.P.S. I will note that if possible, I’d try my hardest to find local picks for any/all of the alcohols (and maybe I’ll do a local midwestern version of this someday!) While I like all my picks above, I also am passionate about choosing local and would prefer to support small businesses. This colleague does not live in my area, and I do not know much about his local beverage companies. #supportlocal when you can.