Stock your Home Bar: Everything Else

The CockBox accomodates three 16oz bottles, eleven 8.5oz bottles, four spice bottles, and four small bitter bottles.

Here are the guidelines in how we think about filling them.

Bitters - there are many bitters to choose from. You can often find bitters that are made locally. The four I have in the box are:

• Angostura Bitters - This is the classic, most widely used bitter. Here.
• Barrel Aged Bitters - This is my default for most cocktails that call for bitters. I use these instead of Angostura for most drinks. Fee Brothers is the one.
• Orange Bitters - these are important for many cocktails, including the standard Old Fashioned. I use Fee Brothers, though you should experiment!
• Chocolate Bitters - Good to have for dessert drinks, though rarely used. Here.
• (alt) Peychaud's Bitters - This is also an old standby.

Standards - These are must haves for most cocktails. 

• Cocktail Cherries - Use one of the 8oz bottles for cherries. They don't need to be refrigerated. Just make sure and keep the jar clean so it's doesn't stick to the foam. Here are a couple of great brands you can choose from. We always have either Luxardo cherries or Fabbri Amarena. What you don't want are the bright red "marachino" cherries from when we were kids. Those are gross.
• Simple Syrup - Simply syrup is sugar water. In a pinch, you can just add sugar to a cocktail, but it's gritty. So... make your own simple syrup. It takes five minutes. Here's a video I made about simple syrup. When cocktails have simple syrup, it's usually going to be ~1oz per cocktail. So, if you have to entertain a group, I'd suggest one of the 16oz bottles for simple. Otherwise, an 8oz is fine. Make the simple, add it to your bottle and store it in the fridge, for about two weeks.
• Honey Simple Syrup - basically this is honey and water vs. sugar and water. Simple. 
• (alt) Maple Syrup - it's fun to mix it up sometimes and use Maple Syrup instead of simple. Obviously, you buy this vs. making it:)

Citrus Juice - Lemon and Lime juice are must haves for cocktail making. Unfortunately, they are perishable. So, you have a couple of options:

• Bring citrus and juice it as you are making cocktails. You can store them in the shaker, or on top of the cutting board in the CockBox, or you could use an empty bottle spot.
• Buy juice or mix it prior - If you are going to buy juice, make sure it's 100% juice not made from concentrate. The only two i've ever purchased are Santa Cruz brand or Volcano. Don't be cheap on citrus.

Spices - We've included a canvas pouch for spices. Usually, these are things you'll have at your disposal. The four I go with are: sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.... though you might want to include chili flakes, or use one for toothpicks.

Here is a post on which spirits I purchase.