Crafting tasty cocktails to impress isn’t quite as simple as we may have thought back in the good old college days. A splash of questionable liquor, paired with a smidgeon of diet soda or red bull, certainly won’t do the trick for entertaining or indulging these days. So, we tried Stonewall Kitchen cocktail mixers in some timeless classic varieties to learn how to elevate our mixologist skills and concoct perfect options for any happy hour or entertaining event. We sampled Stonewall Kitchen’s Moscow Mule Mixer, Sangria Mixer, and Margarita Mixer to make tasty and refreshing cocktails for a crowd of approximately 8-12 individuals to enjoy any time of the year. Overall, we found the drinks were well-balanced, flavorful, and tasted as good as anything we’ve ever had out of a fancy bar- better yet, they fared well, even when slightly modified and prepared batch-style for serving over the course of several hours.
Cheers to that!
Select Mixers & Modify
Step One: First, we selected our drink mixers, one bottle of each variety being enough for our crowd of about ten people. ***Pro tip: Always leave room for having a little extra of what you are serving guests! Life has a way of happening, and you don’t want to fall short on an item last minute or leave someone out unexpectedly!
Step Two: Instead of making individual cocktails for our guests, we modified the recipe on the back label of the bottle (different recipe for each drink) to use the entire mixer bottle. We want to allow our guests to serve themselves if they like and to enable us to socialize and enjoy the event without having to stick by the bar making drinks per request.
The mixer recipe calls for 2 ounces of mixer per drink, and the bottle contains 24 ounces total, so we divide 24 by 2 to determine that each mixer bottle will provide enough for twelve drinks total. This also means that we will multiply the other ingredients of each drink recipe by 12 to find the total amount of each ingredient we will need for our larger drink batches. See below for the exact numbers we used and our process for concocting and serving the beverages!
Sangria | Margarita | Moscow Mule |
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Step Three: Gather all your necessary barware and drinkware! We used:
· 3x- 1-gallon beverage dispensers
· Bar drink stirrer (True Brands)
· Liquid measuring cup, marked by ounces
· Salt Rimmer (True Brands)
· Cocktail glasses (rocks glass (or margarita glass!), balloon wine glass or mid-size tumbler, and copper mule mugs, if possible).
· Ice
Step Four: Prepare your drinks!
Make Sangria first! Sangria needs to sit overnight to achieve the best results, so plan to start this one the evening before the event, where you will use it. Pour all the ingredients into a large pitcher, or your beverage dispenser, the night before planned use, and refrigerate.
Start making Margaritas on the day of the event, close to when you plan to use them. First, quickly stir up all the ingredients after dispensing them into your large pitcher or beverage dispenser, mimicking the action of a bar shaker. Next, you will want to select either a rocks glass or, better yet, a Margarita glass and prep your rim. To prepare the glass rim, you will want to use #TrueBrands “True Garnish 3-tiered Cocktail Rimmer” or two small plates to dip the glasses into the lime juice and salt. First, you will place lime juice in one receptacle (using enough to cover the entire glass rim when dipped into it) and salt in the other. Then, you dip the glass rim into the lime juice, lightly swirling the glass around to ensure even coverage across the edge. Next, you will do the same thing, but with the salt, dipping the lime juice-covered rim into the salt.
Moscow Mules are a breeze to prepare when you use #Stonewall Kitchen’s drink mix too! To make this drink batch-style, we poured the 24 oz. of the mixer into another beverage dispenser and added 24 ounces of Vodka. We used Tito’s Vodka for our recipe, but you can use any non-flavored Vodka option. Lastly, we squeezed the juice from two limes into our drink mixture. It is important to remember that you will not add the Club soda to the mix until serving time!
Step Five: Serve up your drinks! We are almost ready to enjoy these tasty cocktails now!
To serve Sangria, you will want to first fill glasses to about the midway point with ice, add a few spoonfuls of frozen fruit, and then place an orange slice on the side for some yummy additional aesthetic appeal!
For Margaritas, add a generous amount of ice to your chosen glass (again, use either a Margarita glass, particularly our #TrueBrands Margarita Freeze Cooling Cups, or a rocks glass) and pour your drink in to fill it up! Garnish the glass with a piece of sliced lime as well!
Finally, it is time to serve your Moscow Mules! To serve, fill your glass about a third of the way up with ice, using a Copper Mule Mug or mid-size tumbler for best results. Next, add your drink into the glass, filling up the glass about 2/3 of the way. Finally, fill the last 1/3 cup with fresh Club Soda, garnish with a slice of lime, and enjoy!
