The Cocktail Station, a party hosting tip

I love putting great, exciting cocktails in my friends’ hands.

I’ve geeked out about cocktails a bit, trying the fancy fancy stuff, making my own simple syrup, buying essential oils, holding lots of things above my head and shaking them vigorously…

But these drinks take some work, and when you’re hosting a party you don’t want to be making cocktails for people all night – you also want to enjoy the party, dance, hang, relax, catch up, etc.

Yet, you want your fellow partiers to be a little excited about their drinks. how can you put great cocktails in your friends’ hands and enjoy your own party?

The Cocktail Station

This new year’s eve party I tried something new: a cocktail station with instructions and ingredients for people to make their own drinks. It went over excellent!

I chose/created two drinks that fit the bill for this year’s party, printed up some simple instructions, put the instructions on a table with the ingredients and unleashed my guests’ creative anxiety!

When you choose the drinks you want to be sure they are at least a little exciting (a unique ingredient may be all it takes) yet relatively easy to make.

Here’s the drinks I went with:

The CEO’s Bonus (instructions)

This one’s a wealthy take on a classic martini. Essentially it’s just chilled vodka, vermouth, and a champaign topper.

It ends up tasting like a dirty-ish martini with some sizzle. Very sophisticated, very 1%.

The 99 Percenter (instruction)

I originally wanted to go with a vodka drink and a whiskey drink. But all my favorite whiskey drinks end up being old-fashioned-esq… what I really needed was not something mature tasting, but something for the proletariate, something everyone’s girlfriend will love.

So I pulled out some fun ingredients and created this one containing Lillet, triple sec, a lil’ Peychaud’s bitters and vodka.

The end product was easy to sip like a vodka sprite, but it had a little more class.

Conclusion

It was fun! People liked making their own drinks, everyone had big smiles, and I got to enjoy the party (still making some fresh things for my wife when she demanded it).

Give it a try and let me know how it goes on your next party.