Cocktails give you great variety. With a decently-stocked home bar, you can make dozens of drinks. Depending on your mood, you can go fruity, sour, spicy, botanical, etc.

Considering the cost of liquor, cocktails are also less expensive than wine and many beers (in terms of alcohol equivalence).

Most liquors can be purchased for $30-$40 for a 1.14L bottle. That’s $1.20-$1.60 per 1.5 ounce shot. Wine is at least $10-$15, or $2-$3 per drink. And import beers tend to start at $1.50 per can/bottle (a cheaper beer, in my opinion, is not worth drinking).

You’ll have to spend a couple hundred dollars to initially stock your bar, but that will last a long time. What you need depends on your taste, but these spirits and liqueurs will give you a good base: vodka, gin, whiskey, brandy, rum, triple sec and vermouth. You’ll also want to keep lemon and lime juice in the fridge. Many drinks also call for Angostura bitters, so stock that too (from the grocery store, with the drink mixes near the pop).

In terms of hardware, you don’t need much more than a cocktail shaker (assuming you already have an ice tray in the freezer).

Once you have your bar stocked (or beforehand if you need some inspiration), check out Drink Boy. It’s a great resource for cocktail recipes and articles.

Here are some of the cocktails I’ve recently enjoyed: Manhattan, Jasmine, Sidecar.

Cheers!