Speaking of bachelorette parties, here’s an idea for the reality TV junkie bride: Hosting a viewing party for The Bachelorette. So meta! I think this would be a really cute idea for someone who wants to have more of a fun girl’s night in than a bar crawl. There’s a cute Bachelorette Viewing Party Kit on Pinterest that has some fun food ideas around this theme, including a drink called “The Rose” and a yummy citrus almond cake.
What do you think of a TV-themed bachelorette party?
Now that we’ve come to the end of our bachelorette party drinks recap for Jaime’s bachelorette, I wanted to put together one master post with links to all the recipes, to make it easy for anyone planning their bachelorette menus. As you’ll see, these drinks all share ingredients in common, which makes it easy to put together an in-home bar for your party. All but 1 of these drinks fit perfectly with a “Pink” theme, so they’re great for any girl’s night in – and you can also adjust the sweetness to your taste.
We’ve reached the last of the drink recipes from Jaime’s bachelorette party menu! So far, all of the drinks I’ve shared have been “Pink Cocktails” to match the party decor. But today’s Lemon Drop Martini breaks away from the pack with a tangy twist!
Since I had a bottle of regular Sobieski Vodka in addition to the Raspberry and Black Cherry flavors, I wanted to do a twist on a standard martini recipe using this base flavor. Since I was already using lemon juice in a few other cocktail recipes, I did some Googling and found some great lemon drop martini recipes. For the life of me, I can’t find the link to site I first found the recipe on, but this Lemon Drop Martini recipe on What’s Cooking America is the same as the recipe I modified for the party.
I put my own spin on this recipe by omitting the Triple Sec and lemon twist/peel. This makes a much more tart cocktail, which ended up being perfect; my guests preferred drinks that are not too sweet, and they personally thought it would have been too sugary with Triple Sec. But if this has too much bite for you, just use one of the suggested orange liqueurs or add a little more sugar.
One of the activities I arranged for Jaime’s bachelorette party last month was a wine tasting. I think it turned out well and would be a great activity for any bachelorette, since it covers a lot of bases and can be as involved or casual as the atmosphere dictates. Here’s how I put together mine!
Compile Your Wine List
I talked about this briefly in my article on tips for selecting bachelorette wine. I asked the bride for her preferences in wines, and then asked my friends at Banfi what they would suggest based on that. This is what they recommended:
I also printed out a copy of the wine list to display on the table, so guests could easily see what was available.
Choose Your Food Pairings
With my wine list in hand, I then created a menu for the party that included food pairings for the wines:
Decorate Your Table
I printed out the tech sheets for each wine and placed them on the table underneath the corresponding bottle. These sheets told guests all about each variety of wine, so they would know where each wine was produced as well as its characteristics. The tech sheets for all Banfi Wines are all available on the wine product pages I linked to above, if you end up doing a similar wine tasting and want to know where to find them.
I also included a pretty, decorative handpainted wine glass on the table as an accent, as I talked about in an earlier post. As you may have noticed in the photos above, I put small plastic stemware on the table for the wine tasting. I actually found them at Dollar Tree – I got one package of plastic wine glasses and one package of plastic champagne flutes, for variety. I wanted a cute way to serve the wine without having to mess around with transporting and washing over a dozen wine glasses!
Prepare Wine Tasting Cards
I made up a set of custom wine tasting cards for the party and set them on the table along with a stack of pencils. This way, guests could record which wines they liked (Or didn’t!), and take a card home to remember which ones were their favorites. I wanted to share the printable I made, in case anyone would like to use it at their next party:
How Our Party Turned Out
Banfi provided me with some tips on determining how much wine I might need – click here to read those if you missed it! – which was really helpful. There was a generous amount of wine to begin with – the guests were impressed by the variety of wines I had available! – and since I was also serving other cocktails and beverages, we had wine left over for dinner the next day and for the bride to keep as a gift. It worked out great!
The most popular wine of the night seemed to the Le Rime Pinot Grigio. I actually reviewed this wine last year, if you’re interested in reading more about it!
Everyone had fun, and the combination of foods paired with the wines seemed to go over really well. I would absolutely serve this same menu again, since it seemed to be such a big hit!
Have you ever hosted a wine tasting party?
Today, I’m sharing the last of the “Pink Cocktails” that I served at Jaime’s bachelorette party. This one is a light and tasty Sparkling Raspberry Drop using Sobieski Vodka:
Ingredients
1.5 oz Sobieski Raspberry Vodka
1 oz Sobieski Black Cherry Vodka OR simple syrup (If preferred)
.5 oz lemon juice
Splash of Martinelli's Sparkling Apple-Raspberry juice
5 raspberries
1 mint sprig + 4 mint leaves
Instructions
Combine 4 raspberries and mint leaves with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour in vodka(s) and juices, shake, and pour into glass. For garnish, stick mint sprig into your remaining raspberry to make a "Flower" and place on top of the ice in your glass.
http://www.blogmywedding.com/sparkling-raspberry-drop/
One of the drinks I included on the cocktail menu for Jaime’s bachelorette was this fun, fruity Pomegranate & Raspberry Martini using Sobieski Vodka. It’s simple to make and went splendidly with our “Pink Cocktails” theme!
Ingredients
.75 oz lime juice
.75 oz Sobieski Black Cherry Vodka OR simple syrup
.5 oz pomegranate juice
1 raspberry & 1 mint sprig (For garnish)
Instructions
Add vodka and simple syrup (Optional) to a cocktail shaker with juices; mix and pour over ice. To create garnish, insert mint sprig into raspberry to create a "Flower", and drop into the ice.
http://www.blogmywedding.com/pomegranate-raspberry-martini/
Although I served cocktails at the bachelorette party I hosted last month, I always make sure to have a variety of non-alcoholic options on hand for guests to enjoy as well. As I kicked around a few non-alcoholic bachelorette party drink ideas in my head, I heard from my friends over at Good Earth Tea that they’d like to send over a box of samples for the party. A lightbulb went off in my head: I could have a “Tea Bar” at the party!
To make my tea bar, I printed a little menu sign and placed it on the buffet table along with 5 boxes of tea: Superfruit Green Tea Pomegranate & Cherry, Sweetly Twisted, Caffeine-Free Sweet & Spicy, Cocoa Tango, and Chai Tea Cocoa.
Because it was such a hot day, we thought it would be really refreshing to serve the tea iced. Since I had such a variety of teas, this posed a slight logistical problem for me since I didn’t have 5 pitchers available. Here’s the solution I came up with: I decided to pre-make one pitcher of iced tea ahead of time, and then, when guests wanted to try a different variety, I could just brew a single cup and pour it over ice, adding a little cold water as needed.
I asked the bride which of the varieties she’d like to start with, and she thought a pitcher of the Sweet & Spicy sounded really good! She was excited when she saw all the Good Earth teas on the table – as it turns out, Good Earth Tea is actually one of her favorites to buy for herself, so it all worked out pretty perfectly!
To create the pitcher of tea, I brought water to a boil in a small pot over the stove, tied together 4 teabags and dunked them in the water to brew for a few minutes. Taking the pot off the heat, I allowed the tea to cool, then poured it into the pitcher. I kept the pitcher in the fridge until about an hour before the party when I started setting out food. I had a chest for ice underneath the buffet table, so I could easily prepare a nice cold glass of tea for the guests!
After the party, I left the remaining boxes of tea with the bride – she was excited to have these because she drinks a lot of tea at work! Having a tea bar at the party was easy to do, really fun and added good variety to the beverages we had available.
As I prepared the drink menu for Jaime’s bachelorette party, I needed a tequila cocktail recipe that would fit with my “Pink Cocktails” theme. I already had a bottle of Partida Tequila Blanco, and I wanted to find a recipe that could utilize the other ingredients I had already picked up for the other cocktails. Some Googling led me to this Raspberry-Meyer Lemonade and Tequila recipe on Leite’s Culinaria, republished from the Tequila: Myth, Magic & Spirited Recipes
This drink got a lot of compliments at the party and was requested from my cocktail menu several times when I was playing bartender. We had the groom’s bachelor party “Crash” our bachelorette event briefly, and the guys snuck some of the tequila while they were there as well. 😉 Partida has been a big hit every time I’ve served it – during the first bachelorette party I hosted last year, the bride-to-be told me that she didn’t really like tequila, but tasted it just to be a good sport. She ended up loving Partida and actually told me recently that she had been thinking about buying another bottle of Partida for cocktails. If it can convert someone who doesn’t like tequila, you know it must be good!
Ingredients
2 oz Sobieski Raspberry Vodka
1 oz cranberry juice
1 oz stevia
1 lime
5 raspberries
Instructions
Adapted from a recipe provided by Sobieski Vodka
Chop ends off lime and discard. Cut a lime slice and reserve for garnish. Chop remaining lime into quarters and remove seeds.
Add lime quarters, raspberries, vodka, juice, and stevia to a cocktail shaker. Shake up the mixture and pour over ice; garnish with slice of lime.
http://www.blogmywedding.com/skinny-raspberry-cosmo-recipe/
