Guide to the ideal Home Bar

Your Essential Guide to THE IDEAL HOME BAR

Winter is upon us and it is time to give your home bar a dusting or in fact, set one up. We all try but mostly fail in having our very own functional home bar, be it a cupboard, a sideboard or a dedicated room or basement, you must first decide where it will be and how much space are you dedicating to it. This will decide how much you can display and store. I have been giving this guide some thought and thinking and deciding the must haves for a fun and functional home bar. Below are suggestions for you to consider when you are setting up.

Essential Tools

There are countless amounts of tools, measures and bar-sets available, all in a variety of colours, sizes and materials; you would not be alone in feeling confused. Take a moment and decide what you need. Will you be making complicated cocktails that require many instruments or will you be looking for something nice and simple, with a lot less cleaning up and easy to take care of afterwards

There are many arguments for a number of tools you’ll require but, in my experience and that of others I spoke to, there are five that we agree are essential. And they are; •A jigger / measure •A reliable cocktail shaker •A waiter’s friend •A silicone ice tray •A strainer

Essential Spirits

It will be near impossible to cater to all spirit requests but once you have these five, considered to be the most flexible spirits available in Ireland, you can knock up many cocktails or simple shorts, with or without a mix. •Vodka •Gin •White Rum •Whiskey •Brandy

Glassware

Having even a small variety of glassware will give your home bar a bit of class, as well as being able to place a drink in a suitable drinking glass. Below are five styles that can cover almost all drink requests that someone may have from your bar. •A highball •A Martini Glass •A tumbler •A brandy Glass •Balloon Glass

Non-Perishable (until you open)

•Cupboard essentials •Tonic Water •Sparkling Water •Lemon Juice •Lime Juice •Cola

Essential

•Ice and water

Non-Essential

And for a little extra flourish, especially if you already have herbs growing at home, add mint and basil to your collection. Mint grows well in the right spot, even very well outside. Basil loves the sun and when it’s happy, it will require a good drop of water.

Embark on Waterford Whisky’s terroir tour: an invitation to the curious to discover how we create our terroir-driven, barley-forward, natural whisky on a quest to discover its most profound avours.

We’ll welcome you to the Facilitator, the modern marvel that is Waterford Distillery on the banks of the River Suir, and walk you through every step of the way that our purely Irish-grown barley takes on its way to become Waterford Whisky.

Expect every question to be answered with robust transparency. In the glow of our Map of Provenance we'll guide you through the Irish farms that have provided us with over 100 unique avour sources, as well as unlocking the natural mysteries of organic, biodynamic and heritage barley.

You’ll also see our technological trinity, a one-of-a-kind con guration unique to the distilling world that transforms malted barley into the purest, sweetest wort; learn about all-important cool and long malolactic fermentations to liberate avours; and our low-and-slow distillation trickling through the spirit safe.

If you're well behaved, we might even let you taste a few of Head Distiller Ned's creations at the end.

Visit waterfordwhisky.com to book your tour today.

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