Throw the Perfect Mocktail Party
The keys to any party, even a Mocktail party, are planning, planning, planning and planning. Planning a theme. Planning what to serve. Planning your preparation. Planning your presentation.
Steps
- Choose a theme. A theme doesn't mean that people have to dress up (but that is fun too). For this example let's choose a Tiki/Polynisian theme.
- Plan what you are going to serve. For food, you can go as simple as pineapple and Canadian bacon pizza, or as fancy as homemade hors d'oeuvres. For drinks, you can serve a lot of alcoholic-inspired drinks in a non-alcohol recipe. For this party, pick Margaritas, Pina Coladas, and Tiki Punch.
- Margaritas are easy. Use 2 cups of frozen strawberries (buy the large bags, especially from a warehouse store), 4 cups of ice, 1 cup of strawberry margarita mix, and 1 Tablespoon of lime juice. Put it all in the blender and fire it up. You can add more juice or more ice if the texture isn't right.
- For Pina Colada use 1 cup of coconut milk, 2 cups of pineapple juice, and 4 cups of ice. Mix together in the blender until smooth.
- Tiki Punch uses a special ingredient for effect. Check your local supermarket or look in your yellow pages for ice companies and purchase a small block of dry ice (please follow all precautions for dry ice it can burn you if you touch it). You will need: 1 can frozen orange juice, one can frozen apple/raspberry juice and 3 bottles of sparkling apple juice. In a large punch bowl, mix the frozen juices and only one bottle of apple juice, so you don't waste the fizz. Add the other bottles right before the party starts. Now for the fun: drop small pieces of dry ice into the punch bowl. The punch will bubble and smoke and give a great appearance.
- But make sure you don't touch the dry ice or it will sting really bad.
Tips
- If you order pizza, ask the pizza place to "Sicilian-cut" the pizza. This style cuts the pizza into squares rather than slices and make for easy finger food.
- Look for inexpensive decorations and novelties. Try your local paper and party supply store, or check out Oriental Trading Company
- Get more than one blender, or at least get multiple pitchers so you can prepare one pitcher while serving the other.
