THE ULTIMATE PARTY DRINK BOOK BRUCE WEINSTEIN In memory of my dad L’chaim CONTENTS A Brief Introduction 1 Measurement Conversion Chart 5 BRUCE’S FAVORITES 7 BLENDED DRINKS 13 UP OR ON THE ROCKS 85 PUNCHES 133 TODDIES 165 Index 178 Acknowledgments 194 About the Author 195 Credits 196 Cover 195 Copyright 197 About the Publisher 198 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION You don’t need to be a professional bartender to make your party a success, and you don’t need to learn how to make every drink ever invented. What you need are a few simple ingredients, a blender, a shaker, a pitcher, and some friends. INGREDIENTS LET’S start with ice. Size matters. The smaller, the better. Smaller ice cubes blend into smoother frozen drinks. Smaller cubes also have more surface area to quickly chill a shaken drink without watering it down. The temperature of your ice matters, too. Right out of the freezer, ice is very hard. If you let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before throwing it into your blender, the ice will soften and make a smoother drink. Just remember to drain off any water before using the ice. Crushed ice is another way to ensure smooth frozen drinks. To crush ice without a machine, simply place your ice in a heavy plastic bag, seal it, and smash the ice with a heavy pot or pan. Drain off any water before using the crushed ice. Blocks of ice are great for floating in pitchers and punch bowls. To ensure that the block of ice fits your punch bowl or pitcher, first make sure the container you use to make the ice fits inside your punch bowl or pitcher. For free-form ice, use watertight, plastic Ziploc bags. Don’t fill them more than three-quarters full since water expands as it freezes. To remove the ice from the container or bag, dip it into hot water for a few seconds to loosen things up. Remember to drain any water before using the ice. Fruit juices make blocks of ice and ice cubes that are both functional and pretty. Simply fill your container or ice-cube tray with the juice of your choice instead of water. Your drinks will stay cold without having their flavor diluted. Frozen fruit (such as strawberries or melon balls) also makes a decorative and functional addition to ice cubes, in both punch bowls and glasses. Fruit and fruit juices are indispensable for making great party drinks. Unless otherwise indicated, use fresh fruit in your frozen drinks. Always smell the fruit before you buy it. If it smells sweet, chances are it is. Many recipes in this book call for semifrozen fruit. To do this, simply wash, pit (if necessary), and slice (if required) your fruit, then place it on a plate in your freezer for an hour or so before making your drinks. The fruit should be icy but not solid. Exotic and tropical fruit juices and nectars are showing up in stores everywhere. Flavors like youngberry, lychee, mango, banana, papaya, guava, guanabana, tamarind, passion fruit, red and black currant, pear, melon, strawberry, and peach are becoming as commonplace as orange and pineapple. A few good quality brands to look for include Ceres, Looza, Yoga, Goya, and Libby. If you can’t find them in your local supermarket or gourmet store, they are available by mail from a number of very reliable sources, including Central Market in Austin, Texas (800-360-2552), Healthy Pleasures Village in New York City (212-353-3663), Dean & DeLuca in New York City (212-431-1691), and Whole Foods everywhere (800-780-3663). If you are making drinks with alcohol, buy the best liquor you can com- fortably afford. No amount of lime juice, passion fruit syrup, or sugar can hide the taste of cheap booze. Fruit-flavored liqueurs are another important part of most mixed drinks. They come in a wide variety of flavors and prices. Your local liquor store owner should be able to help you choose the right ones to buy. It’s important to remember that fruit-flavored liqueur is different from eau de vie. Eau de vie is a clear, distilled brandy with a lot of alcohol, a nice fruity aroma, but very little sugar and very little fruit flavor. Eau de vie is not on the in- gredient list for most fruit-flavored drinks. Fruit-flavored schnapps and liqueurs called “crème de…” are perfect for making fruit cocktails. For example, crème de banane, crème de cassis, and crème de framboise—they are all rich and sweet and, despite their names, contain no dairy. Fruit-flavored brandies are also very good for fruit cocktails. They are usually not as sweet as “crème de…” or other fruit liqueurs, but they do have plenty of fruit flavor. Superfine sugar is called for throughout this book. It’s available in most supermarkets. Sometimes it’s called instant dissolving sugar or bar sugar. Unlike regular sugar, superfine sugar will never leave your guests with that “sandy” feeling between their teeth. EQUIPMENT GREAT party drinks need a good blender. I prefer those with narrow con- tainers (about 4 inches in diameter). Some blenders come with containers an inch or two wider, and they act like mini food processors. They’re great for pureeing soup but not for crushing ice into creamy drinks. The narrow blender pulverizes ice better, thereby creating smoother drinks. For shaken drinks, you have a number of choices. You can use a basic metal cocktail shaker with a lid, or a larger metal bar shaker, which often comes with a second glass that fits on top and acts as a lid. This second glass is usually marked for measuring liquid ingredients in ounces. If you don’t have any shaker, you can always improvise. One way is to fill a pitcher halfway with ice, add the ingredients, and aggressively stir with a long-handled wooden spoon. Continue to stir until condensation appears on the outside of the pitcher. Then strain the drink into glasses filled with fresh ice. Or serve up (without ice) as the recipe indicates. I have also used a quart-size canning jar to shake drinks with nothing but my hand as the lid. This can get cold and messy, plus you need big hands. So 2 THE ULTIMATE PARTY DRINK BOOK if you choose to use a canning jar, use the lid the jar came with, or cover the top with plastic wrap then use your hand to seal the plastic in place while you shake the drink. Whichever way you choose to shake your drinks, you will need to strain them afterward. You can buy a fancy bar strainer that fits the top of your shaker exactly, but the truth is, any small strainer will do in a pinch. Measuring your ingredients in ounces is an important part of making great party drinks. If you don’t have a shaker with the ounces indicated on the side, you can buy a two-sided cocktail jigger with a 1-ounce bowl on one side and a 1 ½-ounce bowl on the other. There is usually a halfway mark indicated on both sides to measure ½ ounce and ¾ ounce. If you don’t have one of these, you can use a tablespoon. Just follow the Measurement Conversion Chart. All of these shakers, blenders, and strainers are available at hardware stores, kitchen stores, and most department stores. For serving drinks, you’ll find glassware in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and prices—martini glasses, margarita glasses, highballs, iced-tea glasses, wineglasses, balloon glasses, old-fashioned glasses, and more. Picking a glass is a no-brainer—use whatever you like, or whatever you have on hand. When I serve a drink that has a beautiful color, I prefer to use a clear glass. Other than that, pretty colored glasses make for festive parties. Some people like straws, some don’t. I always put a straw or a swizzle stick in my drinks and let my guests decide whether to use them. Just make sure that the straws and stirrers are long enough to fit the glasses you’re using. It keeps your guests from having to fish them out. The most important thing about making drinks is to have fun. And whether you choose to serve party drinks with alcohol or without, remem- ber that aside from the company, a good drink is often the most memorable part of any party. To help you know which drinks don’t have alcohol and which do, simply look for a little martini glass with an x through it next to the name of the recipe. If you see one, you’re still on the wagon. If not, there’s booze in the blender. BRUCE WEINSTEIN 3