Favorite cocktail recipe for a crowd

[Anonymous]

What are your favorite cocktail or punch recipes for the holidays? I want something that I can make in batches of at least a pitcher at a time. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I can understand the appeal of having it premade and in a pitcher but nothing beats a freshly made drink.

I am also fortunate that my husband spent his youth tending bar so he enjoys making anything our guests want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can understand the appeal of having it premade and in a pitcher but nothing beats a freshly made drink.

I am also fortunate that my husband spent his youth tending bar so he enjoys making anything our guests want.

For crying out loud, shut up if you're not going to be helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can understand the appeal of having it premade and in a pitcher but nothing beats a freshly made drink.

I am also fortunate that my husband spent his youth tending bar so he enjoys making anything our guests want.

That may be but we have an upen house for 75 people and custom drinks aren't an option. We hire serving help but not a bartender so guests are stuck with wine, champagne and whatever is in the cocktail pitcher. If they must have a custom cocktail they can stop on the way home.

[Anonymous]

Martha Stewart has some good recipes. We just made one for our holiday party that was a big hit and pretty lethal. It had dark rum, amaretto, cointreau (we used triple sec) apple juice and club soda. I couldn't find the link or I would have posted it for you. Bonus was that this one wasn't red so potential staining is a minimum.

[Anonymous]

My advice: Don't actually make a cocktail - by which I mean a drink that is mostly spirits. No matter how good it is, most people aren't used to it and will complain that it's "too strong."

Some suggestions:

Mai tai: 1 part light rum, 2 parts spiced rum, 4 parts pineapple juice, 3 parts orange juice, grenadine for color

Sangria or white sangria: Rum, wine, fruit, to taste

Simple punch: Freeze lemonade or orange juice (or a mix of both) in a bundt pan (optional: add maraschino cherries, orange/lime/lemon slices before freezing); add 1/2 gallon of chilled orange juice or lemonade (or a mix of both) to punch bowl, 1-2 cups spiced rum, two bottles sparkling wine. Place frozen circle in bowl, float orange slices & put a maraschino cherry in the middle of each one.

I'm making a cranberry cooler, which is vanilla vodka, cranberry juice, and seltzer, with cranberry skewers in the pitcher for decoration

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah: one variation on the cranberry cooler is to use Pom Wonderful instead of cranberry juice.

[Anonymous]

Another wintertime favorite is drinks that incorporate bourbon & ginger. So in a punch bowl you can have bourbon, gingerale (even better; ginger beer), and lemonade. Use the bundt pan trick for this one too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can understand the appeal of having it premade and in a pitcher but nothing beats a freshly made drink.

I am also fortunate that my husband spent his youth tending bar so he enjoys making anything our guests want.

For crying out loud, shut up if you're not going to be helpful.

Merry Christmas to you too, snob

[Anonymous]

Cranberry, pineapple, raspberry, sprite, vodka--with rosemary garnish. My go to!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My advice: Don't actually make a cocktail - by which I mean a drink that is mostly spirits. No matter how good it is, most people aren't used to it and will complain that it's "too strong."

Some suggestions:

Mai tai: 1 part light rum, 2 parts spiced rum, 4 parts pineapple juice, 3 parts orange juice, grenadine for color

Sangria or white sangria: Rum, wine, fruit, to taste

Simple punch: Freeze lemonade or orange juice (or a mix of both) in a bundt pan (optional: add maraschino cherries, orange/lime/lemon slices before freezing); add 1/2 gallon of chilled orange juice or lemonade (or a mix of both) to punch bowl, 1-2 cups spiced rum, two bottles sparkling wine. Place frozen circle in bowl, float orange slices & put a maraschino cherry in the middle of each one.

I'm making a cranberry cooler, which is vanilla vodka, cranberry juice, and seltzer, with cranberry skewers in the pitcher for decoration

Not OP but I find this very useful. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Put a bit of POM Wonderful in a champagne flute, fill the rest with cava, top with a few cranberries. Easy, yummy, and festive.

[Anonymous]

This is non-alcoholic, but I bet you could easily add rum to it:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/holiday-punch-i/

Always gets rave reviews when I've made it.

We usually pick two cocktails that we're making that are "holiday themed" each year, so we aren't mixing up tons of stuff.