Mr. Bartender on Beer & Wine Parties

Parties. Everyone wants to have one, but no one wants to pay for it (kind of like sex). Naturally, people are budget conscious and want to save money wherever they can. Who wouldn't. However, much like sex, there are plenty of people who are still doing it completely wrong. I'm constantly amused by the way people try to save money when throwing an event.

One of the biggest ways people try to save money is by having only beer and wine available. This tends to cost a lot more than if you also had cocktails. When hosting a beer & wine party, people try to overcompensate for the lack of selection (rightfully so) by having better beer and better wine. This will cost even more.

Moment of truth: An overwhelming majority of your guests will opt for hard alcohol. If I had a nickel for the amount of times I've been told "oh my friends are really only beer & wine drinkers," I would bean the next person who said that to me with my bag of nickels.

Do you feel lucky, punk?

The only reason you think your friends are only beer & wine drinkers is because most people who host parties now-a-days are in their 30s to 60s and grew up in the dark ages of cocktails where artificial mixers and cheap booze roamed the bar top. If you had the kinds of drinks we make at your event, they would drink those instead. 

Now, down to the numbers. A decent bottle of wine at the cheap end will run you about $10. There are 5 servings in 1 bottle of wine. That is $2 per serving. A better bottle of wine will cost up to twice that, making it $4 per serving. Decent beer will run about $22 for a 24-Pack, roughly $0.90 per serving. Good micro-batch or import beer will run you twice that, or roughly $1.80 per serving.

A bottle of hard alcohol has about 16 servings. You can get good vodka for roughly $12, good rum for $10, good gin for $15, good whiskey for $20, and good tequila for $20. That's $0.75, $0.63, $0.93, $1.25, and $1.25 per serving respectively. Any juice/soda mixer will run you about 3-7 cents per serving, and ice cost is so small, it's negligible. By this logic, a whiskey & coke (using good whiskey like Maker's Mark) will cost you about $1.30 per serving, about 32% less than if you serving a good beer or a cheap glass of wine.

And this is just for the cheap mixed drinks. If you were to order a craft cocktail from us, with an average of 1 bottle of juice ($15), 1 bottle of syrup ($15), and 1 liqueur (~$15), your cocktail cost would be about $2.07, or roughly the same price as expensive beer and only moderate-priced wine. When you see it on a grand scale, and if you had a big party, you'd be spending no more than $20-$40 extra to have really unique craft cocktails using premium brand liquor at your event. 

You've just been mathed!

Another reason people opt for the beer & wine option is because they don't wan't their guests getting too drunk. ERRR!!! A 1.5 oz. serving of hard liquor, a 5 oz. serving of wine, and a 12 oz. serving of beer contain the same amount of alcohol, so now you're wrong twice.

The one way you WOULD be saving money is by hiring less staff. A beer & wine event can be run with half the staff of an event that serves up craft cocktails. Craft cocktails, but not regular cocktails. You can usually get away with the same amount of staff if you're serving regular mixed drinks.

However, you're already hiring us and we are not the cheapest service on the block (for a reason). You can pay us our premium rates to pour beer & wine, or you can squeeze every buck out of our service and have us make you some unbelievable drinks. Your choice; Choose and drink wisely.

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Mr. Bartender on Syrups in Cocktails

I do a lot of parties and make a lot of drinks for a lot of different people with different tastes, and I have heard the same things regarding how people like for their cocktails to taste. Some like sweet, some like sour, some like bitter, and so on and so on. One thing I keep hearing people request is for me to add less syrup. This is problematic for two reasons.

1) A lot of my drinks have a syrup for a reason. They are used to add flavor to the cocktail. Most of my syrups are flavored, so by decreasing the syrup, you are decreasing the desired level of taste of thyme, strawberry, grapefruit/etc. that the drink was intended to have. Some drinks are meant to be sweet. If it's too sweet, don't order that one. There is usually a variety of cocktails on the menu that have different flavor profiles. Pick the other ones. Granted, there are some cocktails that can take a reduction of syrup flavor, but most can't. I have one cocktail called The Bungle Bungle that has vodka, muddled cherries (which don't add a ton of flavor, just a little tartness and earthy tones), fresh orange juices, thyme syrup, and ginger beer. Now granted, the syrup and ginger beer combo does make the drink a bit sweet, but if you take out the thyme syrup, it'll just taste like OJ with ginger beer, a weird haphazard virgin mimosa, and no one likes a virgin anything.

No one.

2) If you really don't like the drink being too sweet, you don't have to get rid of the syrup; just push the sour quotient up. The extra sour component (usually lemon or lime juice) won't alter the flavor of the drink too much, but it will make it taste less sweet. We're really only adding half an ounce to three-quarters of an ounce of syrup per drink anyway. You're really not getting that much sugar.

I think the problem lies a lot in the negative connotation syrup has. When you google syrup, images of cough syrup, maple syrup, and other sickeningly sweet and artificial products litter your browser page like a coffee table book honoring diabetes. 

If you're depressed about having the sniffles, this cocktail is basically a panacea.

We make our syrups with real sugar and actual fresh ingredients. We don't use strawberry flavoring and red food coloring; we use real strawberries. You may as well consider drinking our cocktails as your recommended daily fruit serving (Don't do that; I'm not a doctor.)

It's just sugar water people. Drink it in moderation, and it won't kill you or give you a headache. 

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