*This post is part of the 31 Days of Party Tips October series. You can see all of the posts here.
If you’re hosting a party for adults and you plan on serving drinks, setting up a bar cart or a bar area is the perfect way to help guests feel at home. Also, you as the host can enjoy the evening and not worry that everyone is served. Here are some basics for setting up a home bar for your party:
- Have simple bar ware including an ice bucket, muddler, bar spoon, cocktail shaker, strainer
- Either have enough glassware for everyone, or use sturdy plastic cups. Your guests won’t mind the plastic and you won’t have to wash endless amounts of glassware. But if you’re stocking a home bar and you want to have glassware available, have stemware for both red and white wine, short glasses and tall glasses.
- Offer only a few liquors – there’s no need to spend hundreds of dollars on 15 different liquors. Just offer the basics such as vodka, gin, rum, tequila, bourbon and cognac.
- Have a variety of mixers – basic mixers are certainly enough and make very tasty drinks. A few mixers to have on hand include orange juice, soda, tonic and cranberry juice
- You can also offer a few fun items for their drinks such as stirrers, straws and fresh fruit
