Celebrate New Year's Eve with These Cocktails

When going to or hosting a New Year's Eve party, there are a few different stages to the party, each with their own type of drink.

Of course, the most important thing is to drink responsibly. Many hotels offer New Year's Eve packages which include a room for the night, dinner, entertainment, party favors, snacks and, usually, at least some drink tickets. If you are hosting a party, please make sure your guests have a way to get home safely or make arrangements for them to stay.

Now that the public service announcement is out of the way, let's get back to the cocktails.

Often, there may be some nervousness or anxiety at the start of a New Year's Eve party, so I like to start with a martini. Often, these holiday celebrations involve people getting dressed in some of their finest clothing, so a martini is a good way to go at the beginning and serves two purposes. One, it's a classic, and two, it's very potent. In fact, my wife has a joke from her bartending days: Martinis are like breasts, one's not enough and three's too many. A martini or two, but no more, will certainly loosen things up in a hurry. There are a couple of different variations, though I prefer the one below.

Dry martini:

Take a generous measure of gin, preferably cold, and a dash of dry white vermouth. What's a dash? About a drop. My father-in-law said he would pour a drop of vermouth in the glass over the ice, then strain it out. The residue is all that was supposed to be left. However, you can add a little more based on preference. Mix it in a shaker filled with ice and strain into a martini glass. Add olives if you want, but I can't stand the things and they just get in the way.

Or, you can try the vodka martini. Here, the mixture is more 50-50 between vodka and dry vermouth, still shaken over ice and poured into the martini glass.

Now that the party is going, you and your friends will want to pace yourselves some. Here's a mojito you might serve.

Passion Fruit Mojito:

2 parts Passion Fruit Mojito mix

1 part white rum

Ice

Club soda

Mint sprigs

Lime slices

In a pitcher, combine the ice, mojito mix and white rum. Mix, then pour into ice-filled glasses. Top with a splash of club soda and garnish with mint sprigs and lime slices.

Just before the ball drops, you can break out the Champagne, or you can go a little different route with this Champagne-based cocktail.

Happy New Year:

¼ ounce brandy

¾ ounce ruby port

¾ ounce orange juice

4 ounces of Champagne

Shake the brandy, port and orange juice well over ice, strain into a Champagne flute and fill with Champagne.

This is supposed to be all about New Year's Eve, but after all that, there has to be some brief discussion of New Year's Day. Even just laying on the couch and watching all the bowl games will seem like the most difficult task. Here's something that might help.

Bloody Mary:

Vodka

Slice of lemon

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Tabasco sauce

Salt

Pepper

V-8 juice

Put the slice of lemon, several ice cubes, the Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper to taste (you can use celery salt also) in a glass, stir to coat the ice, then fill near the top with V-8 juice (traditionally tomato juice, but we prefer V-8). Finally, add a generous measure of vodka.

Of course, if you can gather all these ingredients and make the Bloody Mary, you may not be in as bad a shape as you think. Or you've had your spouse do it for you.

Enjoy the New Year.

Sources:

"The Bartender's Companion to 750 Cocktails" by Stuart Walton, Suzannah Olivier and Joanna Farrow

"The Daily Cocktail" by Dalyn A. Miller and Larry Donovan

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink14xy585.html

Much personal experience.