On Bottled Cocktails

So, i've read in a few places about the concept of the bottled cocktail. After seeing the concept written about in Gary Regan's great book "The Joy of Mixology" i decided to try it out myself at a cocktail party that i hosted a few months ago.

The basic idea behind the bottled cocktail is that you mix a larger batch of a particular drink (say a Manhattan) and then add a certain amount of water to the batch to account for the amount of water that would have melted in the shaker had you mad it the traditional way. After this, the bottled cocktail is then chilled in the freezer (or in the back part of the fridge) to the temperature it would have been at had it been made the traditional way. After you've accomplished all this, all you need to do is present the bottles in a chilled bin of ice and accompany it with a set of pre-chilled glasses for enjoyment. The guests can pour drinks themselves, and instead of spending all your time mixing drinks, you can mingle with your guests.

Each 750 ml bottle should hold roughly 5 drinks. So in order to make the bottled cocktail, you take any cocktail recipe that serves 1, multiply all of the ingredients by five, and then add water. How much water? Gary Regan states that "the amount of water in the recipe should be approximately equal to one-third of the sum of the other ingredients". So, say that the ingredients in the recipe add up to 15 oz. In this case, you simply add 5 oz of water and VOILA! you have a bottled cocktail.

Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? But there are a few suggestions that might help you if you ever try to pull off a bottled cocktail party.

Before i get to that, first an observation about the concept itself. One of the oft-overlooked problems with bottled cocktails are that they are decidedly a lot more frumpy than individually made cocktails. Not only do you miss out on the presentation-flair aspect of making each cocktail individually, but the concept itself is one that can turn off your patrons. They have (and will) think that these bottled cocktails just aren't the same thing as the "real thing" that they got at the bar (or would've gotten if individually made). A lot of this can be dealt with - at least to a degree - by choosing which cocktails you decide to bottle. You should never bottle cocktails that cocktail aficionados would order - and you should never bottle cocktails that usually involve making the drink to taste. So, you should never try bottled martinis (gin or vodka) or bottled manhattans. Not only do they take all the perceived class out of the drink, but you won't be able to make them to everyone's taste.

Some other suggestions:
(1) Use clear bottles. Don't do what i did and use a set of dark green Pellegrino bottles. They can't see what's inside and it makes them less comfortable trying it out.
(2) Provide paper-towels. This sounds odd, but bottled cocktails (when stored in ice) will drip a LOT of water. Make sure to wipe the bottles before you pour to prevent excess water from getting into the drink. Otherwise it can be quite messy.
(3) Only make more popular drinks - preferably ones that they've heard of before. This is not the time to try making some new drink - unless you're sure that its of a type that your patrons will enjoy. You don't want to do what i did and end up with a whole bottle-full of some chocolate-coffee-banana concoction that your friends wouldn't touch.
(4) Have beer on-hand. Wine drinkers will be more likely to try cocktails, but beer drinkers won't touch the stuff no matter how you make it. Keep something around for them to drink so they don't die of thirst.
(5) Make a variety. Don't make drinks that are too similar to one another. Of course, on the other hand, don't make too many different types of drinks either - otherwise you'll be left with a lot of extra. Plan ahead to make sure you're making the right amount.
(6) Clearly label each drink and the ingredients that go into it. Labeling everything clearly will make them less suspicious of what's in the drink. If you used specialty ingredients, that's even better. It helps to combat those people who automatically will think that the same drink at the bar is superior.

That's all i can think of - at least from the experience that i had with a bottled-cocktail party. That said, bottled-cocktails ARE useful for the home bar when you want to entertain the occasional guest. Bottled-cocktails KEEP FOR A LONG TIME IN THE FRIDGE, and so they are perfect for pouring yourself (or a friend) a drink every now and again. Unlike serving bottled-cocktails for parties, you don't have to deal with a bin of ice and the mess that goes with it.