Mixers, Syrups & Garnishes You Need

Spirits get all the attention, but mixers, syrups, and garnishes are what transform a spirit into a cocktail. Getting these right — especially the syrups you can easily make at home — is one of the highest-leverage improvements you can make to your drinks.

Essential Bottled Mixers

Tonic Water

Not all tonic waters are equal. The difference between a Gin Tonic made with Schweppes and one made with Fever-Tree is startling — it's like comparing instant coffee to a pour-over.

Buy: Fever-Tree Indian Tonic Water (the original) or Q Tonic Water. Both are made with quinine from real cinchona bark and natural sweeteners. The flavor difference justifies the price premium (roughly double the cost of supermarket tonic).

Also consider: Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic (lighter and more citrus-forward, excellent with contemporary gins), and Fever-Tree Elderflower Tonic (beautiful with floral gins).

Shelf life: 6 months unopened; use within 24 hours of opening for best carbonation.

Club Soda and Sparkling Water

Used for the Gin Fizz, Tom Collins, and as a neutral lengthener. The brand matters less here than with tonic — most club sodas are interchangeable. San Pellegrino and Topo Chico are the premium options.

Ginger Beer

Essential for the Moscow Mule (with vodka or gin) and the Dark and Stormy (with dark rum). Ginger beer has real ginger bite; ginger ale is the sweeter, milder version used for highballs.

Buy: Fever-Tree Ginger Beer or Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer for cocktails. Bundaberg for a more intense ginger character.

Sparkling Wine

Keep a bottle of Prosecco or Cava (Spanish sparkling wine, reliably excellent at $12–$18) for the French 75, Bellini, and Spritz. You don't need Champagne for mixing — save that for drinking straight.

DIY Syrups: The Game Changers

Making your own syrups costs almost nothing and dramatically improves cocktail quality. All of the following can be made in under 10 minutes.

Simple Syrup (1:1)

The recipe: 1 cup white granulated sugar + 1 cup hot water. Stir until dissolved. Done.

Uses: The universal sweetener. Goes in almost every sour and many spirit-forward cocktails. This is your daily driver.

Shelf life: 2–3 weeks refrigerated. Add a splash of neutral vodka to extend to 4–6 weeks.

Rich Simple Syrup (2:1)

The recipe: 2 cups sugar + 1 cup hot water. Stir until dissolved.

Why it's useful: Half the volume for the same sweetness. Useful when you want to add sweetness without adding too much liquid — important for short drinks where dilution is already controlled carefully. Essential for the Old Fashioned when you want dense, concentrated sweetness.

Demerara Syrup

The recipe: 1 cup demerara sugar + 1 cup hot water. Stir until dissolved.

Why it's different: Demerara sugar has molasses notes and a richer character than white sugar. The resulting syrup has complexity that white simple syrup lacks — it makes Old Fashioned cocktails noticeably deeper and more interesting.

Honey Syrup

The recipe: 1 part honey + 1 part warm water. Stir to combine (do not boil — it destroys honey's delicate aromatics).

Uses: Essential for the Penicillin. Also works beautifully in any gin sour and in hot drinks like the Hot Toddy.

Ginger Syrup

The recipe: Simmer 1 cup water + 1/2 cup grated fresh ginger + 1 cup sugar for 10 minutes. Strain and cool.

Uses: Moscow Mules, Dark and Stormies, and any cocktail where you want the heat and aroma of fresh ginger without the texture.

Grenadine

The recipe: 1 cup pomegranate juice + 1 cup sugar + a few dashes of orange flower water. Heat gently until sugar dissolves.

Why bother: Bottled grenadine (Rose's, etc.) tastes like artificial cherry. Real grenadine tastes like pomegranate — tart, fruity, complex. The difference is immediately obvious in a Tequila Sunrise or Rum Punch.

Bitters: The Salt and Pepper of Cocktails

Angostura Aromatic Bitters

The non-negotiable. Goes into the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Whiskey Sour (some recipes), Pisco Sour, and dozens of others. A bottle lasts a year of regular use.

Peychaud's Bitters

Lighter, more floral than Angostura. Essential for the Sazerac. Also works beautifully in sparkling wine cocktails.

Orange Bitters

Regans' Orange Bitters No. 6 or Angostura Orange. Use in Martini (the 1930s way), Old Fashioned variants, and anywhere you want citrus depth without adding citrus juice.

Fresh Garnishes

Citrus

Always have lemons and limes. Oranges for twists and wheels in Old Fashioned cocktails and Negroni.

Technique: For a citrus twist, use a Y-peeler to cut a strip of peel (avoiding the white pith), hold it colored-side down over the glass, twist sharply to express the oils in a fine mist, then run the peel around the rim and drop it in. The fragrant spray of citrus oils is what makes the garnish functional, not just decorative.

Fresh Herbs

Mint is essential for Mint Julep and Mojito. Buy a living mint plant for your kitchen windowsill — it's cheaper than buying bunches and you always have fresh leaves. Rosemary for gin-based cocktails; basil for tequila drinks.

Technique for mint: Gently slap a mint sprig between your palms before garnishing — this releases the aromatic oils from the leaves.

Cherries

Luxardo Maraschino Cherries are the only garnish cherry worth using. The mass-market red cherries are dyed and syrupy. Luxardo cherries have genuine bitterness and complexity that actually contributes to the drink's flavor. Worth every penny.

Cocktail Olives

For dirty Martini variants. Any good-quality unpitted green olive works; stuffed blue cheese olives are the upgrade.

Shelf Life Summary