Keep Guests Happy This Summer With A Simple Cocktail Technique

Providing food and drinks at large summertime parties can often be very overwhelming, as we find ourselves questioning how much of each thing we should be providing our guests. While there are ways to calculate how much food you need for cookouts, the best way to ensure you have enough drinks to go around is to make batch cocktails for the entire party to enjoy.

To get more insight into how to make big batches of cocktails for a party, we spoke to David Seidl, a spirits specialist at Deep Eddy Vodka, who gave us the scoop on how he prefers to serve cocktails to large groups of people. "Batching full cocktail recipes into bottles where you can just pour, shake, and strain would be my preferred method," Seidl explained. "You get the speed of a batched cocktail, with the quality and texture of a shaken cocktail." Furthermore, while you can technically scale up most cocktails, there are ones that should be avoided as they could require additional maintenance. "I would stay away from cocktails using creams or dairy products when batching," Seidl warned. "The fats in dairy products make them separate quicker than other ingredients."

So, with cocktails like the eggnog latte martini out of the question, what kind of cocktails should we be making in big batches for special events? Well, many standard cocktails like sangrias and mojitos (not to mention Ina Garten's big batch Cosmopolitans) can be made in bulk, but most have one thing that needs to be accounted for — dilution. 

To discover more about dilution, we had the pleasure of also talking with Molly Horn, chief mixologist and spirits educator at Total Wine & More. "If the cocktail would normally be shaken or stirred, I do some math and add chilled, filtered water for that important element of dilution," Horn explained. "The most epic fails come when people multiply the recipe without adding that element of water, making the cocktail way too intense and out-of-balance."

Seidl noted that, instead of water, he prefers to dilute his batched cocktails differently to keep them as cold as possible. "Just use ice," he suggested. "You won't be able to be as specific with your recipe as you would by diluting with water, but keep some extra ingredients on hand in case you notice it getting too watered down."