Everything You Need to Know to Get Started Making Delicious Cocktails at Home

Have you ever been to a party or an event where those beautiful and colorful, not to mention delicious, cocktails were being served? You smiled graciously and sipped your drink, but all the while, you were thinking, “I wish I could make these myself, but it looks so complicated and probably expensive too.” If this has ever happened, then Cocktails for Beginners is for you!

Allow me to be your cocktails coach and I will show you how to make delicious cocktails in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step, fun, and cost-effective way, including the tools you need to get started. Your friends and family will be delighted and impressed, and so will you!

Let’s get started!

Let's Set Up Your Home BarLet's Make a Cocktail

How to Make a Cocktail

Making a Cocktail is Easy

Pour some gin into a glass, add some lemon juice, maybe some sugar syrup, throw in some ice, and, voila, you have made a cocktail. Will it taste good?………probably not, unless the gods of chance are totally on your side.

Anyone can make a cocktail, but making a good or, better still, a great cocktail requires a few tools, a small selection of ingredients, and, most importantly, some knowledge of how to put those ingredients together. With those things in place, you can produce a drink that tastes great and that your family and friends will rave over.

But before we discuss how to make a cocktail, we should perhaps define what a cocktail is. So…… 

What Is a Cocktail?

There is no universally agreed definition of what constitutes a ‘cocktail’, but this is my definition.

A cocktail is a mixed drink comprising at least one alcoholic liquid, together with at least one other ingredient (other than ice), such as other alcoholic liquids, juices, syrups, bitters, and carbonated ‘mixers’. While present in almost every recipe, ice is not essential to constitute a cocktail.

Now, there is some debate as to whether a simple ‘mixed’ drink, such as a gin and tonic (gin and tonic water, usually over ice), should be considered a cocktail. If you are interested, you can read more about this topic here, but in my opinion, and that of many others, mixed drinks are cocktails and will be considered so for the purposes of this website.

Drinks that are meant to mimic cocktails but which contain no alcohol (commonly referred to as ‘virgin cocktails’ or ‘mocktails’) have risen in popularity in recent years but they are technically not cocktails (no alcohol) and are outside the scope of this website. 

How to Make a Cocktail in Seven Easy Steps

  1. Gather all the ingredients, including ice and garnish (if any), and check you have all the necessary tools and an appropriate serving glass.
  2. If any ingredients require muddling, first add those to the mixing container, which will typically be a shaker, a mixing glass, or, in some cases, the serving glass itself. Then add any juice, syrup, or sugar and muddle those ingredients.
  3. Add the remaining ingredients (or all ingredients if no muddling is required), excluding the garnish, to the mixing container. 
  4. Add ice, if required.
  5. Mix the ingredients by shaking or stirring.
  6. If using a shaker or mixing glass, strain the cocktail into the glass.
  7. Add any required garnish.
Enjoy!

Note. If the recipe calls for shaking and the ingredients include any carbonated ingredient (such as sparkling wine, soda water, or ginger beer), omit that ingredient from the shaker, shake the other ingredients and strain into the glass. Then add the carbonated ingredient to the glass and stir gently to mix. 

Home Bar Setup

Some Essentials to Get Your Home Bar Started

To make a cocktail, you will need a few tools, a minimum of two ingredients, a serving glass, and, for most recipes, a garnish and some ice. Let’s take a look at these, one by one, and, along the way, we’ll see where we can make some savings, particularly if you are a total beginner, starting from scratch and not even sure if you really want to get into this whole cocktail-making thing.