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DigsMagazine.com.
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a VERY Basic
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You’ve decided to throw a housewarming party, in your stylish new
digs, and realize that you’ve got nothing more to offer your friends
than 6-packs of Bud Light. Clearly it’s time to expand your drink
offerings … but faced with a plethora of choices at the liquor store,
how do you know which bottles to buy, when your experience with mixed
drinks has been thus far limited to rum and cokes?
The key is to find the right balance of variety, quality, and value.
Having the following ingredients on hand will allow you to make many of
the more common mixed drinks, among them margaritas, martinis, and the
like. Buy a little at a time—a bottle of vodka this week, a bottle of
gin next, and you’ll barely notice your wallet’s lighter. Keep your
bar small but sensibly stocked, and you’ll look like a generous
host/hostess without having to spend grotesque sums of cash.
liquors…
Were money no object, of course,
we’d all only ever offer our guests the very best of liquors, but that
hardly ever being the case for anyone I know, I offer recommendations
for affordably-priced, reasonably good-quality liquors.
beer Refrigerate.
white wine Chardonnay.
Refrigerate.
red wine Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot, or Shiraz.
vodka Absolut, Finlandia,
Stolichnaya. Freeze.
rum, light Bacardi Silver or
Havana Club.
tequila Ideally, look for something
that's 100% blue agave -- Sauza Hornitos is reasonably-priced and good.
Especially important if you're doing shots -- you can get away with the
cheaper stuff for mixing.
gin There’s no sense
drinking a Martini made of cheap, dishwatery-tasting gin, so I’m
willing to splurge a bit on this. Beefeater is a good, moderately-priced
choice; Bombay Sapphire is more expensive but very tasty. Freeze if
desired.
whiskey, blended
Seagram’s VO Canadian or Seven Crown is a good choice, and cheap.
Crown Royal is a bit pricier but also good.
vermouth, dry Martini
& Rossi, Noilly-Prat, Cinzano. Refrigerate after opening.
triple sec or Cointreau
dessert liqueur Bailey’s
Irish Cream, Kahlua or the like.
but
wait, there's more!
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lounge . nourish
.
host . laze
. home .
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