How to Stock Your Liquor Cabinet for Winter Cocktails

January 11, 2021

How to Stock Your Liquor Cabinet for Winter Cocktails

When it’s bone-chillingly cold outside, there’s nothing better than curling up beside the fire with the perfect soul-warming drink. For some, a simple mug of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate will do. However, for the cocktail aficionado, the ideal winter drink likely includes a generous helping of spirits and some cold weather-friendly mixers.

Since the best place to enjoy a few winter cocktails is in the warm and cozy comfort of your own home, you’ll need to put some thought into stocking your home bar for cold-weather drinks. However, unless you aim to build a fully stocked bar that rivals your favorite cocktail hub, there’s no reason to rush out and buy dozens of liqueurs, cordials, and mixers. Make a brief list of your favorite winter cocktails, browse our suggestions below, and use our checklist to build your winter stock list, customized to your tastes.

Popular Winter Cocktails

When it’s cold outside, you want a cocktail that will warm you from the inside—whether that warmth is due to a cozy-hot mixer or the delightful heat of a stiff liquor is up to you. Depending on your tastes, multiple winter cocktails could fit the bill, but these are the most common:

Spiced apple ciders, spiked with a generous helping of whiskey, bourbon, or cinnamon schnapps, and winter spices like cinnamon, anise, cloves, and more
Mulled wines, infused with those same winter spices
Adult hot chocolate, which can be spiked with whiskey or any wintery schnapps like peppermint or cinnamon
Hot coffee drinks, including Irish coffee bolstered by whiskey, or even a simple Irish cream and coffee
Hot buttered rum, featuring spiced rum topped with butter, sugar, and cinnamon
Hot toddies, crafted from whiskey, honey, and lemon juice
Old-fashioneds, featuring bourbon, Angostura bitters, orange peel, and sugar
Whiskey sours, including your favorite bourbon, simple syrup, lemon juice, and a cherry
Martinis, either gin or bourbon, with your choice of vermouth and a lemon peel or olive

What You’ll Need to Stock Your Bar

The best thing about winter cocktails is that the sheer diversity in taste we’ve listed above can be built on a base of just a few spirits, as well as a few ingredients you’re likely to find in your kitchen during the winter months. Use this checklist (ordered from most to least critical) to develop your personalized winter bar stocking shopping list:

Whiskeys—you’ll find whiskey in a number of the above cocktails, and it proves a warming drink all on its own. Start with:

Kentucky bourbon
Irish whiskey
Tennessee whiskey

Gin—the piney aroma is perfect for the cold season and can be substituted for whiskey in sours and martinis
Spiced rum
Schnapps to add that flavorful kick to cocoas, coffees, and ciders. Consider:

Cinnamon schnapps
Peppermint schnapps

Irish cream liqueur
Red wine for mulling
Angostura bitters
Dry and sweet vermouth, for martinis and Manhattans
Apple juice or cider
Hot cocoa mix
Lemons, Lemon juice, Oranges
Honey
Cinnamon sticks and Cloves
White and brown sugar
Butter

Of course, you may need additional or fewer items as your tastes dictate—there’s no point in stocking your home bar with bottles you’ll never use, and if you enjoy a nice Mai Tai in the dead of winter, we’re not here to tell you you’re wrong. However, the above list will give you a great start and allow you to prepare each of the most popular winter cocktails in the comfort of your home bar. For more recipes, bar stocking suggestions, and insight into what’s new at Payless Liquors, check out our blog and five-star rating guide.