To put it simply, I’m wondering what y’all consider the best balance between quality/price for your basic liquors (vodka, gin, scotch, whiskey, etc.).
A little more detial would be helpful. Do you have a maximum to spend? Are you stocking this bar all at once, or over time? What do you and your circle of friends prefer to drink? Is this for business or social reasons, or both? Stuff like that will help us help you! 
I know I should’ve been more thorough. Oh well.
Our budget is probably going to max out around 20 dollars for any given bottle. What we sort of have in mind at the moment is buying a single bottle of good stuff to put out and serve to company, and cheaper stuff for day-to-day consumption. My roommate is just back from the army and I don’t have much experience with liquors myself, so we’re both enjoying trying new things out of his Mr. Boston book.
The main problem we’ve run into, though, is that there’s lots of crappy stuff out there and we don’t want to waste money.
First thing…toss out that book! It sucks!
My basic list, from your price range:
Vodka - Cheap stuff for mixing, Grey Goose for serious drinking.
Gin - I like Beefeaters for mixing, and I don’t do martinis, so someone else will have a good choice.
Bourbon - No question, the single best bourbon on the planet is Old Weller Antique. I can find this at my local grocery store for $17.99 a bottle. Ideal for anything. I drink it straight. Try some varieties until you find one you like.
Scotch - The Famous Grouse is a nice blend, and just about everybody like The Glenlivet as a single-malt.
Rum - Mount Gay Reserve is the rum of choice.
After that, it all comes down to personal taste. Slainte!
Don’t just slam the Mr. Boston book without giving me an alternative! What do you recommend for burgeoning alcoholics?
Try this site.
The Mr. Boston book really does stink. What are you looking for? Cocktail recipes? Best buys? Give me something to go on here!
It really does depend on your friends. here’s what I would recommend
vodka: you can’t go wrong with the afforementioned Wild Goose for high end; as for mixed drinks you can’t go wrong with the largest bottle of Absolut that you can buy for $20. I like Stoli for a middle range vodka.
whiskey: it depends on if you’ll be mixing it primarily, or drinking it straight. For mixing, something like Seagrams 7 will probably suffice. For drinking sraight, you should have a good bourbon and a good scotch. Makers Mark is a damn fine bourbon, but if you can afford better go for it. As for scotch, I’d go for a single malt. It’ll be one of the more expensive bottles you buy, but it’ll be worth it. I like Balvenie, fwtw.
Rum: Bacardi for mixers. Mount Gay or Planters if you want to get fancy.
Tequila: Nothing cheaper than Cuervo for mixers.
For martinis, I’d recommend Bombay Sapphire gin. And of course, you’ll need dry vermouth–I’d recommend Noilly Prat. I find it has a nicer flavour than Martini, and can be tasted no matter how dry your martini is.
Of course, this is largely a matter of personal taste, but I cannot imagine an excellent martini being made with any other gin and, say, Martini vermouth.
Since the staples have been touched upon:
Amaretto Di Saronno
Kahlua
Chambord
Berentzen
Yukon Jack
Ouzo
Sabra
Cointreau
Triple Sec
Galliano
Bailey’s
Drambuie
are some of the more popular liquers that can be enjoyed alone or mixed with the basics to concoct a wide variety of different tastes. For experimentation, take a given product and plug it into a search engine. The distiller/bottler will always oblige with a myriad of ways to use their spirits. 
Gin – for mixing, Beefeater or Tanqueray is fine, but for martinis, nothing beats Bombay Sapphire.
For my taste, and especially for a vodka martini, you can’t beat Belevedere vodka, I like it much better than Grey Goose, whose popularity is based on a marketing strategy in my book. I’m also fond of citrus or lemon and vanilla vodkas–they create nice variations on standard cocktails.
Always spend money on gin, regardless of how you intend to use it. Cheap gin will make anything undrinkable. I’d recommend staying away from the cheapest vodkas as well, although if you are mixing vodka with another strong flavor (orange juice, cranberry juice, Kahlua, etc) you don’t need to buy the most expensive stuff.
I hate rum, so no advice there, and there are quite a few new tequilas on the market, so I’l let someone else speak to that as well.
For sipping whiskey, I like Jameson’s, Glenlivet and Glenfiddich. These may be mixed with water or soda if you’re in a bind, but mostly, they should be enjoyed on their own.
A couple of professional bartenders (high-end, big city guys) recommended The Joy of Mixology* by Gary Regan and the Bartender’s Black Book by Cunningham over the Mr. Boston book. Mixology has a lot on both the history of the thinking behind cocktails–it’s more than just throwing a mixer in with a liquor. It tells you how to set up a bar, what type of glasses to use, how to garnish, different ways of mixing and which works best for what drinks, and a bunch of cocktail recipes as well.
One thing to always have on hand if you truly want to make good cocktails is sugar syrup. It’s easy to make and lasts a long time in the fridge. It allows you to make a lot of different drinks without having to rely on expensive and not-always-great “mixers” like sweet & sour.
Any good cocktail recipe book will tell you how to make it, but seeing as you have the Mr. Boston book I’ll tell you:
1 part sugar
1 part water
Put in pan and stir well. Heat to a simmer and allow to cook for about 5 minutes, until the sugar is fully incorporated. Pour into a container (I bought a couple tupperware drink containers with pourable spouts) and store in fridge.
Now, when someone wants a drink, voila, you have the perfect mixer to have around. Want a <insert liquor name here> sour? Forget 7 up or Sweet & Sour mix, squeeze a shot or two of fresh lemon juice, add sugar syrup to taste & a shot of liquor, toss in the shaker and voila you have the best sour drink anyone’s tasted. Same for margaritas, mojitos, basically anything that calls for any sort of mixer can be made quicker and better with fresh fruit juice and sugar syrup.
Additional notes:
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Stay away from “store-brand” liqueurs. Only by top quality here.
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Invest in some good, heavy-duty glassware. Nothing fancy, but some pint beer glasses, highball & on-the-rocks glasses, and a set of wine glasses.
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Kahlua and Triple-Sec are essentials.
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Poll your froends before you stock. If none of them drink cotch, then leave that off the list and spend the money upgrading what they do drink.
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Get more ice trays for the fridge. You don’t have enough, trust me.
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If you can’t find Old Weller bourbon, **Maker’s Mark ** is also excellent.
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Use top-quality mixers. Don’t cheap out on the tonic water or soda.
One of my favorite low-to-mid priced Canadian whiskeys is called Weiser’s. I think it might be made by the Segram’s folks, but whatever. It’s ~$14.00 for a fifth, and it’s great either on its own or mixed. Not as good as Crown, but better for the price.
This past Christmas, I asked my father to help me set up a home bar. He gave gave me a stack of liquor for Christmas. A lot of it was stuff he grabbed from his own closet o’ booze, so I got some weird stuff, but a lot of it was excellent. I’ll share some of the things he told me:
–As others have said, you have to consider whether a liquor is something that will be hidden in a mixed drink or featured. If it’s something that you’ll commonly use in both ways, it pays to get a top brand and a less expensive but still decent brand. For example, Pop gave me a bottle of Gordon’s Gin for gin and tonics and such, and a bottle of Tanqueray for martinis.* If it is something that will be used less often, just get a really good brand. Before I got all the booze, I just had a bottle of Finlandia, which was good enough for anything, but wasn’t so expensive that I shuddered if I used it in a Cape Codder or something.
–A cheap vodka worth knowing about: Leed’s. Yes, it comes in a plastic bottle. But it’s really good for a cheap vodka. If you can find it, it’s a great buy to use for mixed drinks.
–If you’re going to stock a bar, stock some mixers, too. Rose’s lime juice is an absolute must! Get some tonic and club soda. Plastic bottles tend to lose their fizz, so you should get cans or small glass bottles, unless it’s something you use a lot of. I personally would recommend getting some cranberry juice, too. Lots of popular drinks feature it, and many people choose it as a non-alcoholic option. (Ocean Spray. Cheap stuff or the 100% juice brands don’t taste right in mixed drinks.)
And some thoughts from me:
–Find a good liquor store with a knowledgable staff that can make recommendations. My local place is great about helping me find a good balance between price and quantity.
–Make sure you have Triple Sec, for Og’s sake! It’s used in so many drinks that are popular right now.
–For glassware, try the thrift shop. Lots of good stuff there for cheap. If nothing else, have a low wide glass (old-fashioned glass), a taller glass (high-ball), and a basic wine glass. You can use the wine glass for a lot of the things that you might use other specialty stemware for, like champagne or martinis. It isn’t perfect, but it’ll do.
–You’ll need some basic bar accessories. Make sure you have a measurer/jigger and a cocktail strainer. A cocktail shaker is a nice touch, but if you have a cocktail strainer, you can use any old jar as a shaker. Ice tongs are a good idea, as is a small cutting board and a paring knife for cutting twists and garnishes. Oh, and a corkscrew.
–Keep a lemon and a lime on hand.
–Here’s a fun thing that I like to do: Frozen Cosmopolitans. Make your regular Cosmo recipe, multiplied (I do 2 parts vodka, 1 part Triple Sec, 1 part cranberry juice, 1 part Rose’s Lime Juice, and a lemon twist.) Put it in the freezer for 12 hours or more before you serve it. It will freeze to a nice slushy consistency. To serve, shake it well and pour. Yum!
- Although Tanqueray is good stuff, I personally would buy Bombay Sapphire.
The aforementioned Cuervo is fine tequila for mixing. Works well in a margarita. If you want a good tequila to sip on, though, go with a reposado or anejo. Personally, I like Tres Generationes anejo and Patron reposado.
(How do you include accented letters in posts? The standard Web codes like ñ don’t work.)
It helps to keep a basic assortment of simply flavored liqueurs around. Something like DeKuyper’s or Doc McGillicuddy’s. Creme de Menthe, Creme de Cacao, various kinds of schnapps. Also, lay in a decent supply of Kahlua, Midori, and Frangelico. And don’t forget the Bailey’s.
Required mixers/whatnot: Grenadine, tonic, seltzer, various fruit juices and sodas.
Also, do try to make a margarita from scratch sometime.
Here are a few, based on my preferences.
single malt scotch – Glenfidditch
blended scotch – J and B or White Horse
rye/Canadian – Seagram’s V.O.
other whiskeys – Makers Mark and Jack Daniels
rum, light – Bacardi
rum, dark spiced – Captain Morgan
vodka – Stoli
gin – Gordon’s or Beefeater
tequila – Jose Cuervo
brandy, Greek – Metaxa
sherry – Bristol Cream
liquer, etc – Galliano, Bailey’s, Sabra, crème de menthe, Amaretto, anisette, crème de cacao. Frangelico, Kahlua.
The anisette tastes good, mixed in espresso. Kahlua is good in regular coffee.
Crème de cacao is wonderful, if you carefully “float” some rich cream on the top of it.
Don’t forget the mixers – 7Up, seltzer water, club soda, Coke etc.
Foosball table. It’s just not a home bar without a foosball table.
and a bananaphone