Drinks’ mixing is an art of mixing drinks with a base ingredient, a special ingredient for coloring and flavoring and finally a third ingredient to modify the drink’s taste. This process produces cocktails which are aromatic or sour.

This sort of drinks mixing is almost becoming a small industry led by professional mixologists and professionally qualified bartenders. Drinks Mixing is an exciting and an indispensible event, conducted at all pubs, bars, private and public parties. Gone are the days when parties would have a bar offering a brandy, whiskey, rum, beer and some wine – May be a scotch would also be there.

Now the time has come when the bartenders are not only serving liquor by itself, but are busy mixing and blending two or more basic drinks with some flavoring ingredients, fruit juices etc. and are serving them as liquor fashioned with drinks mixing; called as cocktails.

Though drinks’ mixing is an art, there are a few principles that go along into mixing and making quality cocktails.

All ingredients i.e. liqueurs, spirits, modifiers and cordials used should be of good quality to fashion a cocktail of high quality.

Drinks mixing – cocktails should sharpen and not dull the appetite of the person who consumes the mixing.

Care should be taken to avoid it to be very syrupy and sugary. Avoid too much of cream, egg or fruit juice.

It should look good to the eye.

The drinks mixing should be nice and chilled.

It should also be pleasing to the palate.

It should be well balanced with smoothness and also liquor flavor

Pre-prandial drinks (before dinner drinks) should not contain Brandy Alexander as they do not work as appetizers but instead dull the appetite.

The Basic Components that go into drinks mixing or fashioning a cocktail are – whiskey, rum, gin etc.

Then for coloring and extra flavoring- Non alcoholic syrups and for alcoholic mixing – liqueurs and cordials are used.

It is the modifying agent that gives the cocktail drink its actual taste or we may say its actual character. These ingredients can be either – Spirits, Aromatic Wines such as – vermouth, smoothing agents and fruit juices. Cream, Sugar and Eggs are good as smoothies.

DRINKSMIXING

Old Fashioned
American whiskey – 12 measures
Simple Syrup – 1 measure
Angostura bitters – 1 – 3 dashes for every drink

Take the bitters and add them to the syrup and stir the glass. Add one ounce whiskey and keep stirring now add ice pieces (not crushed) fill the glass with the remaining whiskey. Garnish with a lemon peel

Martini
English gin – 7 measures
French Vermouth – dry – 1 measure

Mix all the above ingredients and stir in the ice. When well blended garnish with an Olive. Also add a twisted peel of lemon on the drink. –Sip and enjoy.

Sidecar
Armagnac or Cognac – 8 measures
Triple Sec or cointreau – 1 measure
Lemon juice – 2 parts

Stir well – all the above ingredients. Strain into your stem glass. Garnish as desired.

So as we can see – Drinks mixing is no big Rocket Science. Just know the basics and then let your imagination run wild. Enjoy your own Drinks Mixing in the company of your loved ones. You can do some drinks mixing even by yourself and just for yourself. It can make you feel half as good as a loved one would – Try it with a smiling attitude and some good music around.

No party planning is actually complete before the liquor drinks have been finalized. To make as party a success having the right liquor mix is absolutely essential. As the host of a party you need to make sure that along with planning your venue and the food for your guests, you take into account their beverage requirements. This is where your liquor planning will come into focus.

There are a number of liquor options that you can offer your guests. Along with the standard options of whisky, vodka and a dark rum you can experiment with a variety of other drinks and mixes as well. With a little bit of online research you can learn a great deal about different liquors as well as liqueurs. You can gather information on various drink mixes, sweeteners, flavorings and learn how to use fruits to make your liquor drinks even more exotic. One should also get a clear understanding of the different liquor flavor profiles so that you can churn out the perfect cocktails.

Getting different liquor drink recipes online is also a great way to pep up your party. You can amaze your guests with classic cocktails or you can try the new age bartenders guide and can get a little more experimental and daring. If you want to make your drinks as authentic as possible you should look out for the perfect ingredients for your drinks. This means that along with getting the right liquor, you should also look for the right bar equipment.

Having a peg measure, cocktail shaker, ice crusher and a small portable blender is an absolute essential if you want to be the perfect home bartender. Along with this you absolutely must have a corkscrew, wine opener, bottle opener, stirrers and ice tongs. You can make your drinks look a lot snazzier by adding some garnishing umbrellas or using a drinks funnel to finish your cocktail making with a flourish.

Another thing that you absolutely must consider while making your liquor drinks menu is to get the right number of bottles. Again, you can avail the help of the internet to figure out how much of liquor will you need for your party. With the help of a drinks calculator you can get an almost exact figure on how much of liquor that you need to purchase. You will need to key in the party duration, the number of guests and put in an average figure to determine the heavy drinkers and the light drinkers. You can then choose the type of liquor drinks that you will be serving and get set to calculate the number of drinks that you will need.

Along with getting your liquor drinks in place you should also make sure that you have the right glasses to serve your drinks in. Add some wine glasses, martini glasses, standard tall cocktail glasses, rock glasses and a couple of shot glasses to make your bar look more professional. The other advantage of serving the liquor drinks in the right glasses, apart from the obvious professional look, is that it will help you keep an account of the almost exact amount of drinks that are being poured.

Drinks mixes is as good as saying, it’s another name for cocktails and mock tails. These days’ parties or any sort of a bash or get together is unthinkable without a cocktail and even a mock tail bar. Or maybe we should say parties are unthinkable and impossible without Drinks Mixes. A bash or an evening out without music is usually looked upon as a bore and a bash without Drinks Mixes can be a double bore. It’s the drinks and mixes in the party that keeps the party going.

If you are thinking of throwing a cocktail bash – plan a good drink menu for your friends or invitees. Plan the drinks mixes with your bartender, keep the mixes simple and convenient, always try to please both the alcoholics and the non alcoholics by catering to both the needs and tastes. Make it a point to incorporate alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic drinks and mixes. You may also like to go out of your way to please your friends, by circulating printed copies of your drinks mixes.

You could also give the menu card of your drinks mixes a theme title and make it a theme party. The theme for example could be “Summer” or “Beat The Heat” etc. and all the drinks mixes should have ingredients like limes, lemons, coconut water/pulp etc. and the glass rims should be carrying small cocktail umbrellas and the bars can be decorated by empty coconut shells or small appropriate snacks can be served in coconut shells broken into halves and converted into servers. This will also help you cut your party costs as the host would know exactly which ingredients and drinks to order instead of guessing and ordering waste.

If you are seriously thinking of having a Theme Party, then the invitees should be informed about it so that they can dress according to the Theme Title.

On the other hand, you can choose and plan your drinks mixes depending on the likes and dislikes of your guests. The menu cards of the drink mixes which are floating around or kept on tables or at the bar can also a simple drinks mixes recipe. This would add an extra edge to the party’s excitement.

If you wish to experience or try some real unique drinks mixes try blending the not so common frozen drinks like Margaritas, Scotch, coladas and daiquiris. For those who do not enjoy only festive beverages, choose and pick and mix a good number of non-alcoholic drinks. Cocktails and mixes churned out of Rum are also good to be on the menu for your non alcoholic guests. Such innovative drinks mixes act as stimulants for the party which the guests cherish – for some time to come.

The ladies can be catered to by adding good tropical drinks or any fruit juices of their choice. These non alcoholic beverages are really very soothing and refreshing and suitable for a hot afternoon or a warm summer night.

So be in good books with the bartenders, to get the best drinks mixes out of them and have a refreshing and gala time fighting the heat and the fatigue. The secret of a well spent evening is – Drinks Mixes!! I know you cannot deny that!!

Lemonade drinks – As we can guess from the name, it is made by Lemon and offers a lemon flavor. It goes without saying that one would have to add water and sugar to the lemon juice. Lemonade can be of different types of color, texture and taste. This drink or beverage can be classified into three types – Fizzy, Clear and Cloudy.

Fizzy Lemonade – In today’s modern times, Lemonade means a sweet soft drink which has been carbonated. In UK, New Zealand and Australia Lemonade would mean a carbonated but a colorless soft drink, sweet in taste which would have an artificial or even a natural lime flavor – something like a Sprite.

Clear Lemonade – In the European countries Lemonade comes from the term Limonade. This initially meant Soda which has been carbonated or unsweetened water which contains some lemon juice in it. However, now a variety of versions and even sugary sweet Limonade are to be seen in their markets and malls.

Cloudy Lemonade. In the Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Iran and also in US and Canada Lemonade means uncarbonated water mixed into sugar and lemon juice. Usually they are artificially flavored and there is no use of actual lemon juice. Indians have great and refreshing version homemade lemonade which is called as Limbo Pani. This means fresh Lemon water mixed with salt, sugar and pepper. This is usually taken fresh. If chilled, it can be very soothing and refreshing in the summers.

Lemonade originally was also made of berries and obviously captured the same pretty color if the berry. For instance, Lemonade made by crushing red berries made a lovely PINK COLORED LEMONADE.

Pink Lemonade was consumed by the ancient natives of America and also by the English during the time of the European colonies. These were made of the berries and even maple syrup was used to sweeten the drink. Then there was some compromise on the quality of the ingredients used. Currently, however only pink coloring agents are used to make the lemonade appear pink and it is at time sweetened. Now there is no use of natural colors and flavors. Pink colored natural (fruit juice) ingredients which could also make a difference on the taste of the drink are no more used. These fruits are Pomegranate, Cherry, Cranberry, Strawberry, grapes, red grapefruit etc.

In the obituary column of the New York Times there was a mention of Henry E Sanchez Allott – as the inventor of this pink colored lemonade drink.

The Lemonade Drink is differently used in different countries.
In UK, lemonade is mixed with Beer to make a good Shandy.
In USA lemonade is used in all festive seasons, fairs etc. It is commonly used as a refresher in the summer season and summer holidays. It was used as a prominent ingredient in Tom Collins but now it is not the case. (Optional)

Lemonade Drinks – Lemon Juice if consumed everyday mixed with water has proved to reduce the formation of kidney stones. Lemon with warm mater with honey and mint is good to cure sore throats.

So make your Lemonade Drinks and enjoy it for all its worth – taste, refreshing quality and medicinal values. Lemonade a day keeps the heat and the doctors and the kidney stones away!! I hope this was always true.

Dirty Martini Recipe is a recipe made of Martini Drink using a few liquor drinks and indulging into drinks mixes and drinks mixing. It’s been a few years now that Martini is recognized as a best beverage made of alcoholic mixes. Martini is basically a cocktail which is made of a concoction of vermouth and gin and simply garnished with a lemon twist or an olive. The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is a classic by David A Embury. David has listed Martini with other favorite cocktails in his classic.

As it is always the case with cocktails, even Martini’s origin is a little blurred. Some believe that its name came around from another famous cocktail called Martinez. This was a popular served at Occidental Hotel in USA – San Francisco. Many people made it a habit to have a Martinez before taking their return ferry back to their town Martinez. Some go with the story that the name Martini is derived from a bartender who was a good mixologist in a Hotel in New York.

Initially, Martini was originally made by – 1 ounce of Old Tom Gin (sweet), 2 ounces of Rossi sweet vermouth and the famous – Italian Martini This also required a dash or two of maraschino liquor and a little dash of bitters. Give it all a vigorous, shake pour it in your glass and garnished with a lemon twist. Then in the nineteen’s, Martini morphed into simple making with just French vermouth, dry English gin, some Orange bitters mixed and garnished with an olive.

Later on availability of illegal gin and prohibition gave Martini a boost as a predominant cocktail. As centuries passed by, liquor lovers saw Martini as an old fashioned drink. This then led to the invention and literally an explosion in the variety of cocktail industry.

Then the bartenders were busy blending drinks like Peach Martini, Appletini, and Chocolate Martini and also certainly not the least – The Dirty Martini.

Dirty martini is a simple but classic variation. It is referred to and named “Dirty” only because of the way olive is used in its making. Originally, the olives were soaked in Martini but now the actual olive brine is used, which gives the liquor an added flavoring of Martini. If you over do the quantity of this brine, it can spoil the drink – So go easy on the use of Olive brine and you will have the best cocktail that drinks mixing can provide.

DIRTYMARTINIRECIPE

Half an ounce of Vermouth (dry)
Two and a half ounce of Gin
Olive to garnish
Olive brine as per taste

Mix both the liquor drinks in a mixing glass.
Stir, adding he olive brine (be careful not to overdo the quantity of the brine)
Strain this liquid concoction in your fancy cocktail glass
Use the olive as a garnish.

One can never go wrong with a Dirty Martini Recipe! I wonder if one had to blend a cocktail to name it “Very Dirty Martini” which ingredient would one increase in quantity – I hope not Olive brine as it really would really become very dirty – It’s worth a try –