Hosting a dinner party means making cocktails while also making dinner. The right approach is to plan a small menu of two or three cocktails that work in stages — a welcome drink, a transition, a digestif — and that don't require fresh-squeezed citrus mid-meal. Here's a working menu built around our spirits.
The welcome cocktail
What guests get when they walk in. Should be light, easy, low-friction. Our recommendation:
Nopalera Spritz. 1.5 oz Nopalera Gin, 3 oz dry sparkling wine, 1 oz soda, large grapefruit twist. Build directly in a wine glass over ice. Pre-mix the gin in a pitcher with grapefruit twists if you're hosting more than four; pour over ice and top with sparkling and soda. Bright, refreshing, doesn't fight whatever's in the oven.
With dinner
If your guests want something stronger, this is where you serve a stirred classic that pairs with food.
Boulevardier. 1 oz Zanja-Madre Bourbon, 1 oz Campari, 1 oz sweet vermouth. Stirred, over a large rock, orange peel. Equal-parts cocktail, batches in a pitcher in advance, pour as needed. Pairs with anything braised, roasted, or grilled.
After dinner
The digestif. Smaller pour, slower drink, often something with bitter or amaro character to settle the meal.
Black Manhattan. 2 oz Zanja-Madre Rye, 1 oz Averna amaro, 2 dashes orange bitters. Stirred, served up in a coupe, brandied cherry. Slightly bitter, complex, the right drink for slowing down.
How to make it easy on yourself
- Batch. Pre-mix the spirit components of each cocktail in pitchers or bottles before guests arrive. Add ice, garnish, and any sparkling components at the moment of pouring.
- One garnish per cocktail. Don't try to be elaborate. A grapefruit twist, an orange peel, a cherry. That's plenty.
- Pre-stack glassware. Coupes for the welcome and the digestif, rocks glasses for dinner. Put them on a tray near the bar.
- Have soda water and tonic. For non-drinkers and for spritzers. Lime wedges in a bowl.
Where to next
Browse our spirits, learn how to stock a home bar, or read about hosting a whiskey tasting.