Cocktails by the Bottle
There are a few good reasons why you should batch your cocktails for parties. Saves time on prep. One less drink you have to make-to-order at your party. Lets your guests simply fill their glass and not do all the mixing. It also travels well. Want to take a great cocktail to a friend’s house? Make it at home, and take it in a bottle so you don’t have to haul around all the ingredients. And instead of bringing a bottle of wine or beer — bring a cocktail!
Many times batched cocktails are a punch of some sort and can be limiting. But really, most cocktails can be batched. Here is a hack for you — remember, if you are not going to shake or stir this and want to simply pour over ice, don’t forget to add water! Water he says?
When you are shaking or stirring a cocktail, all the ice is melting into the drink. Diluting it, but in a good way. The ice is not only chilling your drink, but balancing out all that booze. So if you just took a cocktail recipe and multiplied it out for how many drinks you want, it would be a really strong drink. You need the dilution that comes from shaking over ice. So let’s talk about that.
I've measured this on a food scale, you can too if you'd like, but GENERALLY you get about 1 oz. of water after shaking or stirring with ice. For higher alcohol cocktails, with whiskey for instance, you may end up adding 1.25 oz. of water. So when batching, don’t forget to hydrate your drink!
DO:
Add the 1-1.25 oz. of water if you are NOT planning on shaking or stirring your drink over ice before enjoying. If you are simply batching so you don’t have to mix all the ingredients, but still plan to shake or stir when at the party, don’t add water.
DON’T
Batch ingredients that have bubbles (soda, tonic, champagne). You can batch the bulk of the ingredients, and then add the fizzy stuff over the top. If you shake up the fizzy stuff, you are going to have a mess.
And one last hack. So you want to make a batched cocktail, but what do you put it in? Well, if you are serving at your home you can get a beverage dispenser. Or any other tightly closed vessel people can pour from. For home, or if you are transporting this, you can also use one of the bottles from one of your spirited ingredients you just emptied (maybe save some up for future use). See photo at the top of this post for multiple options.
Or my favorite, buy some fancy bottles just for this purpose. I recommend a brand that my friend Dave discovered and gifted a couple to me — Crew Bottle Co.
They come in different sizes and colors and are really high quality. You can use these for many other things beyond batching cocktails. And the bottoms screw off for easy cleaning!
So save yourself some time, grab a container, don’t forget the water and spend less time mixing your drinks and more time mixing with your guests. 😏