Gin is an extremely important part of any home bar. Many key classic cocktails call for gin, including the Martini, Negroni, and Gin Fizz. As with vodka, it’s important to not just buy the most inexpensive gin you can find. With gin, quality matters, and the difference between inexpensive gin and good gin is quite noticeable.

Like vodka, I recommend having two bottles of gin in a home bar. This gives you the flexibility to change things up depending on the tastes of your guests, and it gives you a few options when someone just wants a gin and tonic. You can, however, get by with just one bottle of gin in your bar, and I say make it Beefeater Gin. Beefeater is the iconic London Dry Gin, the gold standard for gin. Most gin cocktail recipes need no adjustment for Beefeater. While Beefeater is juniper forward, I really like its bright citrus notes which come to life in any citrus-based cocktail. Beefeater is also fantastic in a gin and tonic, again because the great citrus notes pair well with tonic.

If citrus isn’t your thing and you’d prefer a slightly softer and more savory gin, I recommend Plymouth Gin as another key home bar gin. Like Beefeater, you don’t have to tweak any of the classic cocktail recipes to accommodate Plymouth, and it’s hard to think of a better gin to use in a Martini. Plymouth Gin isn’t as well-known as Beefeater, but it’s actually one of the oldest and most respected English gins. Plymouth Gin is softer and more elegant than most other gins, and it’s perfect for crossover vodka drinkers who want something a little less aggressive.

Either Beefeater or Plymouth will serve you very well if you were to get only one bottle of gin for your home bar, but I think it’s well worthwhile to add a second bottle of gin. Both Nolet’s Silver Gin and Hendrick’s Gin offer very different flavors from the classic London Dry style Gin. Nolet’s adds Turkish rose, raspberry, and peach to the traditional mix of gin botanicals, and the result is stunning. Hendrick’s Gin also adds rose to the mix, but instead of fruit notes it pairs the rose with cucumber. Both Nolet’s and Hendrick’s are great gins for people who typically don’t like gin, and both are delicious over the rocks or with a splash of tonic.

Other great gins to consider for that second “gin spot” in your home bar include: Oxley, a beautifully fresh and bright gin that sings with citrus;  Beefeater 24, another entry from Beefeater in the gin space that adds Japanese sencha tea, green tea, and grapefruit to Beefeater’s classic recipe; Aviation Gin, an American distilled gin which focuses less on the juniper and more on the accompanying spices; Leopold Bros. Gin, another great American gin which is soft, subtle, and delicious; Martin Miller’s Gin, jam-packed with flavor and a superb riff on the classic London Dry Gin; and, Tanqueray, an extremely juniper-focused gin perfect for people who like a bold gin.

The gin category has a lot of different expressions to try and most of them are priced fairly reasonably, so it’s absolutely worth picking up two bottles for your home bar.