Today we have something a little different because, well, the world is a little different right now. On New Year’s Eve we wanted to do something with some friends… ANYTHING really (#2020). So I came up with the idea to host a virtual cocktail party with a theme – a cocktail competition! Each couple made up their own drink recipe and created a large batch to divide up and distribute… then we got “together” on Zoom and judged each other’s creations!
This is a great way to mix things up a bit and do something creative and social – both of which I sorely need these days. Staying at home and indoors thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic is really taking it’s toll lately. It will give you something to think about and plan, and it will also provide a fun activity as well!
So let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Here’s how to host your own virtual cocktail competition:
First, select a few people that you’d like to invite to participate. We invited three other couples, which was perfect because we would have three cocktails to enjoy while we counted down to midnight on new year’s eve. Everyone lived near each other so we were able to trade cocktails in person (socially distanced of course), but you could also do it with people who don’t live near you by sending your recipe and having people mix it up themselves.
The day before the competition, each person/couple creates a large batch of their cocktail and divides it into enough smaller portions so that each of the other competitors can have one. Put them into jars and create some killer packaging (see ours in the first image). Meet up outside safely to exchange.
Set up a time that day or the next to hop on Zoom and have your “cocktail party.” You can create your own judging criteria, but here were ours:
- Flavor
- Presentation
- Name
- Creativity
Have fun chatting about your recipes. Here’s what we came up with for our cocktail, which we named Orange Spice Vax on Ice:
- 2 ounces spiced vodka (we used this mix)
- 1 ounce Averna
- 1/2 ounce of simple syrup
- 1/2 ounce of lemon juice
- Dash of cardamom bitters
- 2-3 ounces of ginger beer
- Orange twist for garnish
Pour first six ingredients over ice, stir gently to mix and garnish with an orange twist.
Tally the results and declare a winner – I’m happy to say that we won! The competition was stiff and so were the cocktails 😉 I hope you have as much fun with your virtual cocktail competition as we did with ours.
Hope you enjoyed this virtual cocktail party idea… be sure to check out some of my past drink recipes here.