A five-bottle bar for eleven cocktails (and non-alcoholic alternatives)

When the pandemic sent happy hours onto video calls, I started sharing a cocktail and a chat with friends. Mixology has been a hobby of mine for a while, so I wrote down a compact set of bottles that can take you a long way. Please drink responsibly.

My fave five

If I were keeping a very small bar for experimenting with cocktails, these are the five bottles I’d start with. The recipes below use them; the chart includes zero-proof swaps for making lower- or no-alcohol versions.

Spirit	Zero-proof alternative
Gin	Zero-proof gin
Bourbon (or rye whiskey)	Zero-proof whiskey
Sweet vermouth (my favorite is Punt e Mes)	Versin Aperitif
Campari	San Pellegrino Sanbitter or Bitter Rosso
Angostura bitters	Fee Brothers Old-Fashioned bitters

Angostura bitters contain alcohol, even though cocktails use only a few dashes. For a strictly zero-proof drink, use an alcohol-free bitters alternative; if you’re comfortable with a very small amount of alcohol, I prefer Angostura’s flavor.

Orange bitters are a useful optional extra for a few of these drinks. If you’re keeping the bar to five bottles, Angostura can stand in for them.

Fresh citrus, simple syrup, and optional egg whites come from the kitchen rather than the five-bottle list.

Eleven ways to mix

These recipes share a compact set of ingredients and a few patterns. Swap the base spirit or try a different bitter amaro to make another drink from the same small bar. The recipe box below gathers all eleven cocktails by base spirit.