“The Fifth Avenue hotel has two new drinks this winter, the Star cocktail and the Rob Roy cocktail. The Star has a flavor of Jersey about it, for its chief ingredient is apple jack, vermouth and orange bitters making up the rest. Of course, the Rob Roy is made of Scotch whisky. It is completed by vermouth and orange bitters.”

First time out, cover the basics. Make sure to come home with whisky (or bourbon or rye), light rum and dark rum, gin and both sweet and dry vermouth (tequila and vodka, too, if you care for ‘em). Then, start browsing cocktail books and sites looking for things you’d like to make. You’ll invariably find that you can’t make most of those drinks without buying something else.

Instead of just thinking “oh well, no Chartreuse… guess I can’t make a Bijou,” hit the store on the way home from work and buy some Chartreuse. Then, discover that the Bijou is OK, but not really what you were looking for, browse around some more and find that you’d rather have an Aviation, but that requires maraschino, so…

In the end, you’ll wind up with a load of stuff that you use infrequently, or in small quantities, but which (since it’s alcohol) has a fantastic shelf life. I can’t think of the last time I’ve used my parfait amour, for example, but it’s there when something calls for it.

Don’t feel shy about buying 375 ml bottles of unusual things if you’re not sure you’re going to care for them. Galliano, Chartreuse, Midori and other rarely-wanted liqueurs usually come in half-sizes. And yeah, it’s a serious business