Thank you! I really love your answer to my question. I was indeed looking for a simple shopping list but I like your suggested approach better. In particular, I like the idea of both mastering a few cocktails/drinks really well as well as building my liquor cabinet on stages.

One more question: how does one go about finding the best brands? For example, let's say I need to purchase almaretto in order to make almaretto sours -- how does one usually go about picking the best almaretto? Liquor stores don't usually contain reviews of each brand -- so what do most people do to ensure that they are picking good liquor as opposed to...well, crap. Any thoughts? Thanks again!

In many cases, the brands being touted by your friends as "the best brands", are going to have achieved that level more by marketing than by actually deserving it. What matters most in this regard, is your own tastes and opinions more than that of others.

So the best thing to do is to simply try a couple different brands for yourself, and think critically about which one you liked better. Simply buying five different tequilas at once can be expensive, so perhaps better is to start off buying one brand you recongize or otherwise are familiar with, and then as you are getting low on that bottle, but before you run out, pick up a different brand, then compare the two on your own. Both by themselves, as well as in "the" cocktail that you like the best that uses it. This means that each time you buy a new product, your own understanding of those products is improving.

That said, I have found that you typically DO get what you pay for. There are very few "cheaper" brands which are better than the more expensive ones. Unless of course the more expensive ones are coming in simply more expensive bottles.

-Robert Hess