Our Services

3 Easy Steps to Creating a Signature Drink for Your Party

by Teresa McEachern | Party Planning

Whether your guests are kids or adults, one way to make your party unique is to create a signature drink.

Now when I say make a special drink for your party, I don’t mean spend a week mixing concoctions in your kitchen like some mad scientist!

You don’t have to create something new . . . you’re just being creative with beverages that your guests already love.

Step #1 to a Signature Drink for Your Party

The first consideration is the color of the beverage.

A princess party needs a pink drink, a racing party needs a red drink, a monster party needs a green drink . . .

The easy answer to color choice: make it the same color as you’ve already decided for party decorations.

This means your signature drink will:

• match its surroundings
• add to the atmosphere
• look fantastic in the photos!

Now – what beverages are that color?

{Easy Signature Drink} Begin with drinks that are readily available:

• fruit juices & ades
• sodas
• teas
• sports drinks
• dairy beverages & ice cream drinks
• energy drinks

{DIY project} Consider mixed beverages:

• shakes
• smoothies
• punch
• infused water
• cocktails

For example, a pink drink can be:

• pink lemonade
• cream soda
• grapefruit juice
• pomegranate juice
• watermelon juice
• strawberry milkshake
• cherry infused water
• Hawaiian Punch
• shirley temple
• Tazo passion herbal tea
• pink cloud punch
• rhubarb syrup in Sprite
• Pink Lady
• Pink Martini
• Cosmopolitan

Next, consider these factors.

• Flavor: what would your guests prefer? Guy drinks are different than gal’s drinks, 2 year olds prefer different drinks than 12 year olds.

• Party theme: does your theme suggest a strong drink or a light drink, or is there a beverage that just goes along with your theme like fruit tea at a tea party or Sarsaparilla at a cowboy party?

• Season: select a cold drink during the summer or a hot drink during the fall or winter.

• Ease: do you want to use a beverage that they can serve themselves, that you can hand out or pour from the bottle – or do you want to {go big} and take the time to serve mixed drinks, milkshakes or smoothies?

Narrow your choices down to one or two favorites and have a taste testing mini-party with your closest friends to get a pre-party vote!

When you’ve made a selection, on to step 2 – you need to name your signature drink.

Step #2: Give Your Signature Drink a Special Name

Now that you have your beverage, you need to give it a name that matches the party theme.

“Dr No’s Electro Potion” makes green Gatorade sound oh so exciting!

When you were researching your party theme, did you come across any interesting names? Maybe Skeleton Canyon Sarsaparilla for a cowboy party?

Need some inspiration? Here are a few words you can use instead of “drink.”

• brew
• broth
• canned heat
• cocktail
• concoction
• cordial
• elixir
• extract
• fluid
• goo
• goop
• gulp
• hooch
• juice
• liquid
• mixture
• nectar
• potion
• refreshment
• sap
• sarsaparilla
• secretion
• solution
• swig
• swill
• tea
• thirst quencher
• toddy
• wassail
• water

Step #3: Serve Your Signature Drink in a Special Way

{Easy Way} This can be as simple as putting a sign with the special name beside a pitcher on your buffet table or printing a label to wrap around a juice box, water bottle, soda can or bottled drinks.

Here are a few ways you can {Go Big} and make your drinks unique.

• Special glasses
• Novelty drink dispenser
• Shaped or flavored ice cubes
• Special straws
• Rimming the glass
• Garnishes

Think of ways you can make the presentation of your party drink more exciting and appealing.

Specialty Cups & Glasses

Your princess pink beverage served in cute goblet makes your party a royal event.

And the great thing about special cups is that they look fantastic in the photos and then can be sent home as a party favor.

“Dr No’s Electro Potion” served in a beaker, mason jar, or glass milk bottle with an LED Coaster Sticker (so it glows) takes green Gatorade to the next level.

When buying LED coasters, make sure there is enough LEDs on the coaster to light up what you’re using.

• Bottles require more than a glass.
• A glass with a carbonated beverage looks awesome because the bubbles light up.
• Ice cubes look amazing too!

Specialty Drink Dispensers

How  you serve the drinks can add to the party fun.

Novelty drink dispensers – such as this one that looks like an Hospital IV pole – pump up the party spirit as they pump out the drinks.

There are so many different types available – you’ll be surprised by what you can find.

Search the internet for “your-party-theme-name beverage dispenser” and check it out. You may even find cool tutorials like a pumpkin drink dispenser.

Specialty Ice Cubes

Make designer ice cubes.

Do a Google search for ice molds in your party theme. There are specialty shaped ice cubes for everything imaginable!

Create your own by using a regular ice cube tray:

• freeze juice in your party theme color
• insert fruit slices , lemon curl, a small mint leaf or edible flowers for a sweet drink
• insert a grape tomato, 1/4 cucumber slice or basil leaf for a savory drink
• insert a small toy like a plastic bug or a plastic ring like a spider ring or princess ring (please ensure that it is age appropriate – no choking hazard)

Specialty Straws

When you’re researching party decorations for your party theme, you’ll probably find some specialty straws that would be perfect. Or quite your party printable package can include a straw decoration or a circle you can use as a decoration.

Garnishes for Beverages

Beverages – alcoholic or non-alcoholic – can be decorated with one or a combination of the following types of garnishes.

Rims

You can rim your glass with sugars, salt, cocoa powder or spices depending on the taste experience you prefer.

You can even add a touch of food coloring to your sugar or use colored sugars to get the look you want, such as red rims for a vampire party or blue rims for a space or under the sea party.

• Put the sugar, cocoa, salt or spices on a plate large enough to accommodate the glass.
• Moisten the rim of the glass with a little of your drink by dipping it in a saucer of the beverage, or sliding a lemon or fruit slice around the rim, depending on the flavor and/or color you’re looking for.
• Turn the glass upside down on your plate of sugar, salt or powder, give it a little shake and then carefully turn it right side up so none of the powder ends up inside the glass.

Remember – you can rim the glass of non-alcoholic punch or fruit juice in sugar too.

Glazes

Glazes are syrups that are poured down the side of the glass before they’re filled with the beverage.

They are a decorative touch to add a little fun to the party experience.

Glazes can be combined with a rim for extra pizzazz.

This glass shows a red syrup used to look like blood dripping on a Vampire’s Kiss drink for Halloween.

Adding a glaze to your glass is a lot of fun, but takes practice. Make sure you give it a few tries before party day to perfect the art!

Dusts and Toppings

A light dusting of cocoa powder, cinnamon or other spices can add to the experience of the first taste and the overall appearance of a beverage.

A dusting of cocoa powder is a must for hot chocolate!

Toppings such as whipped cream, butterscotch sauce, chocolate sauce or chocolate shavings adds to the flavor of the beverage and makes drinking it extra fun.

Hangers & Drops

Hangers are garnishes that are placed on the rim of the glass and drops are garnishes that are – of course – dropped inside the glass.

They can be fruit, vegetables, picks, umbrellas, peppermint sticks, cinnamon sticks, flowers and almost anything one can imagine as a decoration. (Just keep in mind that the glass has to be able to bear the weight of the garnish without tipping over.)

Hangers can be as simple as one slice of fruit with a slit cut so it can hang on the side of a glass to a spear of fruit. You can also add a little kitsch such as an umbrella or a sword – or something to match the theme of your party.

Almost any kind of fresh fruit can be used – banana, kiwi, strawberry, peach, star fruit, cherries, cranberries and pineaple are the most common.

Lemons, limes and oranges can be a wheel (one whole cross-section slice), a slice (half a wheel) or a wedge.

Citrus twists can be cut around the peel, but when making many for a party here is an easier way:

• cut both ends off the lemon, lime or orange
• slice it down one side lengthwise
• remove the peel in one piece
• cut the peel lengthwise into quarter inch slices – remove any excess pulp
• hold peel slice over the glass and twist into a corkscrew shape so the oils are in the drink
• save the fruit part to squeeze as juice to rim the glass