How To Create The Perfect Cocktail Menu For Your Guests

The Perfect Cocktail Menu

Whether you go down the easy route of finding a bartender hire service to cater for your party refreshments or decide to try your hand at mixology yourself, we’ve put together some top tips to help you create the perfect cocktail menu for your guests.

You don’t need to be an expert to choose the right cocktails – just need a little common sense and knowledge of some key basics.

Our Top Tips For Creating A Cocktail Menu

1. Know your guests – list all your invited guests and have a think about what they drink when you join them on a night out – or a night in. Do they favour particular spirits or mixers? Are there some common choices that occur frequently among them?

2. Match with a theme – have you chosen a theme for your party? If so, this could really help you to create your cocktail menu. Maybe you’re going tropical with a Hawaiian theme, or hosting for a seasonal event such as Christmas or Halloween? You might be holding a sophisticated soiree that calls for bubbles, or a casual catch-up that’s more about traditional favourites. Think about any drinks or tastes associated with your theme and base your menu around those – you can even give your cocktails your own names to match the vibe.

3. Stick with favourites – there are a few spirits that have fairly general appeal when used in cocktails, so it can be a good idea to base your menu around the ‘core four’: rum, vodka, whiskey and gin. Good mixers to choose include orange and pineapple juice, grenadine, cola and soda.

4. Cater for non-drinkers – consider including a non-alcoholic cocktail for tee-totallers and for guests who may want to keep an eye on their consumption while still feeling a part of the party.

5. Avoid overlap – try not to offer more than one cocktail with the same strong core ingredient. For example, two cocktails with ginger or aniseed flavours could alienate several guests and limit their choice.

6. Stay balanced – however many cocktails you’re adding to your menu, you want to ensure there’s a good balance to cater for everyone; think sour, bitter, fruity and sweet.

7. Don’t go crazy – once you get beyond 5 or 6 cocktails, mixology can become a little too complex for the uninitiated! It means more ingredients and more skill to memorise and make them – unless you go down the bartender hire route of course.

8. Ask for input – if you’re not sure what cocktails will appeal to your guests, ask them! You can even set up a brief questionnaire to send with your invitations – you can set these up for free via an online service such as Survey Monkey.