Summer holiday bar

I’m mid-vacation here in Palm Springs. Being within driving distance, I’ve been able to cart along a fairly well-stocked selection, but I’m curious: what select bottles and mixers would you bring to a hot poolside destination, and what cocktails would you plan for?

I’ve gone two ways. On vacation, I’m usually pretty lazy, so I keep it simple and seldom mix anything. Booze on the rocks, stuff like that.

However, I’ve also been known to assemble a kit for turning out Tiki drinks. That generally means some subset of the following, plus an “extra bottle” (e.g., rhum agricole if I specifically want to make Mai Tais):

  • limes, grapefruits, oranges, lemons
  • bottle of lighter/Spanish general-purpose rum (today I’d probably take White Stache, but a decent rummy amber would suffice)
  • my house jamaican blend (2/3 Appleton Estate VX 1/3 Smith & Cross, or whatever)
  • a bottle of demerara 151 rum (today that’d be Hamilton 151)
  • pineapple juice (whatever works)
  • falernum
  • grenadine (small bottle)
  • orgeat
  • pimento dram (small bottle)
  • absinthe (small bottle)
  • sugar

Anyway, I can get in plenty of trouble with all that.

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