Mixologist Secrets For Next-Level Party Cocktails *

*This is a collaborative post.

The music might be bad and the company appalling, but if your cocktails are great, you can more than make up for it. Put on a little show, and people will remember your party, not for the dire conversations about the roads that they took to get there, but the delicious and inspiring taste of your drinks. 

So how exactly DO you take your party cocktails to the next level? Take a gander at these inspiring ideas. 

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Use Batch Recipes

Unless you indulge in mobile bar hire, there’s no way you’ll be able to keep up with the demand for drinks at your event if you invite more than a couple of dozen people. Your best bet is to use batch recipes. 

Some people don’t like the idea of making cocktails en masse. It takes the theatre out of the event, dumbing it down in their view. 

That, however, doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. All you need to do is inject a little theatre into the creation of the batch itself. Just add more ice, more fruit, and more of those mini umbrellas that everyone loves. 

There are all kinds of wild batch recipes out there for you to try: 

• Raspberry and rhubarb Collins punch
• Strawberry wine punch
• Watermelon and hibiscus-lime margaritas (fantastic for lowering blood pressure, apparently)
• Cider rum punch
• Bruleed grapefruit punch

Those are just a few ideas, but there are many more. 

If you want to recreate the full cocktail experience, pre-prepare a bunch of glasses with herbs, ice and whatever else the cocktail recipe calls for. Then all guests need to do is grab a spoon, reach for the batch baja margarita you’ve made with El Sativo Certified USDA Organic Tequila (or whatever other concoction you’ve landed on) and fill their jars once, and then again and again.

Load Your Cocktails With Spices

If a cocktail ever mesmerised you with flavour, then there’s a good chance that it used herbs and spices. These flavorful ingredients are what makes or breaks a good drink. 

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Mixologists like to segment cocktails into groups, depending on the predominant herb or spice flavour that they convey. 

Basil, for instance, is the basis of green gin giant and basil-ica cocktail. The herb pairs spectacularly well with bourbon and peach nectar. 

Likewise, cardamom cocktails use the aromatic Asian spice to give a sense of warmth and cosiness to the drink. Cardomom is most famous for its use in coffee cocktails, masala chai and Turkish coffee. 

Cinnamon cocktails are popular too. Usually, these cocktails use whole sticks of cinnamon instead of the powdered spice to provide a gentler infusion. Raw cinnamon straight from the shaker is a little too intense of alcoholic drinks. Plus it doesn’t mix very well. 

Cinnamon is a crucial ingredient in collins cocktails and some sangrias. It also pairs well with anything apple-flavoured, such as apple martinis. 

If you’re somebody who likes the flavour of coriander leaf, then you can use it in a variety of cocktails too, including a shooter called el vocho. It also goes into making the Coriandrum cocktail. 

Just be warned, though, some of your guests might not like it. For those with specific genetics, coriander tastes like soap!