A good start for the perfect bar setup.

Once you start collecting cocktail recipes, you’ll find yourself with a shop-
ping list a mile long. Are all these rare, handcrafted spirits and obscure
liqueurs really necessary? Is it worth investing $60 on a drink I may not like?
It’s fun to try everything, but in the end, from the spectrum of spirits and
mixers there are only a relative handful that I find myself using over and over.
If I were stranded on a desert island, these are the ingredients and mixing
tools I’d choose.

Photography by Sam Murphy

Straight-sided 4oz graduated measuring cup and measuring spoons If you make a great drink once, you’ll want to be able to make it again. The ability to measure accurately is crucial to reproducibility. Measure, and write it down.

uncertainty principle. Also, a lot of published recipes are simply too small.

Standard shaker Don’t leave a sinking ship without one. Come to think of it, don’t leave without ice either.

Notebook or PDA database For some reason, most published recipes are imperfect as written. We can blame the publishers. (Did nobody try this drink?) Or blame the

Lemon zester (for lemon

You need to test and adjust.

or lime twists)

For every new drink you

The last star in a five-star

make, you’ll want to balance
cocktail is earned by the
the ingredients until they
garnish. Not necessary if
seem right to you. You’ll need
you’re drinking alone, but
a place to keep notes, so that
absolutely essential if you’re
at cocktail hour you can pick
entertaining.

up where you left off, building on previous work, just like a real scientist.

Juice squeezer Fresh lime and lemon juice are crucial cocktail ingredients. The most kingly liqueur in the world cannot compete with the liveliness of fresh-squeezed lime juice.

Grater (for ginger)

We rescued a lemon zester from our sinking ship, but we might just swim back for the grater, if only to release the fragrant content of the ginger root, which will be second only to lime and lemon in making your protracted island stay survivable.

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