Bottle

The important thing here is that holding a bottle does nothing. Set one down on a table, a platform or a bar and that spot becomes an alchemy station, opening every potion recipe you have ingredients for. New players carry a whole stack around wondering why the crafting menu is empty, and the answer is almost always that none of them are placed.

Cups, mugs and a few decorative vessels do exactly the same job, so put down whatever suits the room you built. The Alchemy Table replaces all of it later and gives you free ingredients on top, but a bottle costs nothing and works from the first night.

Stand in water or honey with bottles in your inventory and they convert. Bottled Water is the base of the healing line, so a lake near your house is effectively a free supply of Lesser Healing Potions, and Bottled Honey is worth a trip to the hive for the stronger heal.