Batching Cocktails for a Party

Mixing drinks one at a time works for two people. For ten, you end up standing at the counter all evening. Batching means mixing the whole lot in advance, and it does more than calm the evening down. The drinks also come out more consistent, because every glass comes from the same blend with the same measurements.

Start with the single-drink recipe and multiply by the number of servings. A Negroni is 30ml gin, 30ml Campari and 30ml sweet vermouth. Ten servings is 300ml of each, 900ml in total.

Measure carefully. A small error in a single drink is barely noticeable, but the same error multiplied by ten shifts the whole batch.

This is the step most people miss. A drink stirred or shaken with ice gets its dilution from meltwater. If you serve a batch straight from the fridge without stirring it over ice, that water is missing and the drink comes out too strong and too sweet.

For stirred drinks such as the Negroni, Manhattan and Martini, add roughly 20 to 25% water based on the batch volume. For 900ml of Negroni that is 180 to 225ml of water. Start at the low end, taste it cold and adjust. If the drink will be served over ice in the glass you can use a little less water, since the ice keeps diluting.

A batch should be cold when served. Put the bottle in the fridge for several hours. The freezer only works if the finished mix, water included, sits above roughly 30% ABV; below that it turns slushy at -18°C. A Negroni with water added lands around 22% and belongs in the fridge. A Manhattan or dry Martini with water lands around 30%, right on the line, so use the fridge or a little less water. The Freezer Door guide shows the maths in detail.

Serve in chilled glasses. It is the simplest way to keep a batch cold without diluting it further.

Fresh citrus juice loses its brightness within the first few hours. For sours such as the Daiquiri, Margarita and Whiskey Sour, it works best to batch the spirit and syrup in advance and squeeze the citrus the same day, ideally a few hours before guests arrive. Then shake one or two drinks at a time with ice, or mix everything together and serve over ice as a punch.

Carbonation always goes in last, in the glass. Batch the base of a spritz or highball, pour over ice and top with prosecco, soda or tonic when serving. A bottle with the bubbles mixed in ahead of time is flat by the time it is poured.

Punch is older than the cocktail and built on the same idea. An old rule of thumb for the proportions goes roughly: one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak. Sour is citrus, sweet is sugar or syrup, strong is the spirit and weak is water, tea or anything else that dilutes.

Put one large block of ice in the punch bowl instead of cubes. A block melts much more slowly and keeps the punch cold without turning it watery by the end of the night. A large plastic tub or cake tin in the freezer makes a good block.

In Shookd party mode you choose which drinks are on the menu for the night, and guests order from their own phones. Pick a couple of batched drinks as the backbone and a couple that are shaken to order, and you will have time both to mix and to be with your guests.