The ultimate home bar essentials of 2023

Is Home the new Pub in 2023?

Since 2020, there has been a surge in shop-brought alcohol, with 55% of Brits spending less money on a night out and instead opting for a night in.

With growing economic concerns in 2023, more people are choosing to make cut backs and are choosing a stay-at-home occasion, drinking from their own home bars.

If home is becoming the new pub, then we’re ready to get involved!

Bringing you the ultimate home bar necessities.

A spirit of every kind

If you’re planning on setting up your own home bar, you’ll likely want a mix of spirits to offer to guests, providing you want to share your bar with friends and family, of course. So, let’s get started.

· Cognac

Interesting fact about cognac, only brandy produced from grapes grown in the region of Cognac and adhere to specific guidelines can display the name Cognac on its label.

Cognac can be served neat, on the rocks or in a cocktail. If you’re looking for the perfect cognac to join your personal bar, then check out our fantastic selection of cognacs.

Browse our selection of cognacs

Gin

Gin is a clear, distilled spirit and must contain Juniper berries to be classed as a gin.

An essential spirit for any brewing home bar, check out our gin-tastic selection of gins, including our award-winning Foragers Winberry Gin.

Check out our flavoursome selection of gins

Rum

Rum comes in various styles, from light, dark, rich and aged. Meaning there is always a rum for everyone. Lighter rums are typically used as mixers in cocktails, whilst darker rums are normally for sipping.

Discover the right rum for you and check out our current selection of rums.

View our rum-tastic selection of rums

Vodka

Clear in colour and with a neutral flavour, vodka can be made from a variety of crops. Perfect neat, or as a cocktail mixer, and can even be used as an antiseptic. Though we prefer to drink our vodka.

View our range of Vodkas

Whisky

A dark distilled spirit that is made from a variety of grains, it is distilled throughout the world. There are various styles of whisky and some countries have regulations that stipulate how the whisky is produced.

Here at Whisky Merchant, we have a world full of whisky options!

View our Other World Whisky

View our Scotch Whisky

View our Vintage Scotch

Now that we’ve found our spirits, no bar is complete without that statement piece that gets everyone talking.

This could be anything from unique bar furnishings, to collectable glasses or decanters.

Decanter

For years, whisky decanters were seen as a status symbol, today it’s easier to find a decanter that fits your personal style. Whilst they certainly stand out, they have their practical uses too.

A whisky decanter allows oxygen to interact with the whisky, making it easier for those nuanced aromas to really kick in.

If you’re looking for your new practical statement piece, then view our current selection of decanters.

Discover your decanter

Glassware

No bar is complete without your stylish glasses and tumblers to match! Plus, how else are you going to serve drinks? Whether you’re searching for a matching set, or individual glasses that just shout sophistication, we have it all!

Take a look at our glassware

The pub away from the pub

If you’re taking the plunge and building your own ‘home pub’, let us know! Contact us on social media and share a photo of your home pub.

Or sign up to our newsletter, so you never miss out on our current offers.

Whether you’re drinking from a pub, restaurant or at home, all we have to say is… cheers!

2 New Releases from Snowdonia Distillery

New incredibly delicious releases from the folks behind the award winning Forager’s Gin! 2 unique spirits created to excite our taste buds.

1 gin and 1 liqueur!

These two are staying on the same path as all the other releases from the Welsh distillery. Quality craft spirits from a small team, using the best ingredients, to deliver their customers something special. From start to finish, the team there puts their heart and passion into every step of the process. I love when you find small distilleries like that!

The new additions are:

Forager’s Winberry Gin

“Foragers Winberry Gin encompasses the flavours foraged along our Welsh coast and throughout its cascading hills.

A complex blend which presents a profile of fresh citrus, robust berries and warming floral notes.

The Winberry is the most unique of berries, only being ready for one very short harvest a year. This then results in a very rare botanical to find.

It is stunningly sweet, small in size but generous in flavour with a long tart finish. A vibrant colour, candied like sweetness to an award winning spirit.

Celebrate this marriage of flavours with muddled blackberries, fresh mint leaves and tonic water.”

Marsette Monsoon Coffee Liqueur

“Marsette presents an artesian liqueur from the heart of the Indian Monsoon Rains – Handcrafted, copper distilled, small batch production.

We take the Monsoon Malabar bean to produce a coffee liqueur like no other. The bean swells in the humidity of the Monsoon Rains, allowing us to play with robust aromatic flavours, perfect for the mixologist.

The cold brew rests with a blend of Welsh Spirit and Madagascan Vanilla essence, creating a subtle hint of Tiramisu and a long, mouth coating finish of whipped cream and blue agave. “

Forager’s Newest Release!

Snowdonia Distillery has crafted another fantastic spirit! This time it is a new take on their already tasty Y Bēt vodka. Chocolate Vodka!

This is not your standard chocolate flavoured vodka, Forager’s set out to make this special. They went in search for the perfect chocolate to use in the creation of this vodka. That search led them to a single origin chocolate producer in Peru! This is high quality chocolate from the Amazon that was made from a producer that care about the product and the create it.

All that to say, that like all the other ingredients that go into their spirits, they choose the best quality. Add that to the double maceration and triple distillation of the sugar beet spirit, then you have something decadent. You can smell the cacao on the initial nose, after that it’s just an elegantly smooth and more-ish journey.

This release is limited to only 200 bottles, so grab one while you can!

Sometimes You Want Something Different.

This weekend I didn’t go for a rum, a whisky, or a gin! Went for some coffee liqueur! And it was delicious! Granted liqueurs are not for everyone, but if you can enjoy them and you like coffee, this is for you! Mr. Black Cold Brew Liqueur!

I am a huge coffee fan, so trying this was a no brainer for me. Handmade just north of Sydney, Australia in a coffee roastery and distillery. Sounds like a great combination to me! From everything I’ve seen from them, they are true coffee lovers that want to bring you a real product, and not just something gimmicky. It really does come through in the bottle! They source out top quality beans from the best growing regions in the world, the step it up a notch and hand it off to a premier Australian distiller to do his thing. They have succeeded in bringing the coffee drinking world and spirits world together beautifully…and not just in the “Irish coffee” kinda way.

As they say, this is unapologetically coffee! It’s not just slight coffee flavour, this is for those that like coffee through an I.V.! Top Arabica coffee is blended together with high quality Australian wheat vodka, which brings you a wonderfully bold liqueur. Not very sweet at all, but has some nice dark chocolate and caramel notes playing well with the fresh cold brew.

This is well worth a try for anyone that loves their coffee and is up for something different! Making coffee that much more “adult”!

Grab a bottle here and send the some love on social media.