Freezer Door Cocktails Are The Easiest Way To Batch Drinks For A Crowd

Unless you're a pro bartender, serving mixed drinks to party guests can be a time-consuming task. Fortunately, you can avoid a backup of thirsty guests with a batch preparation method known as freezer door cocktails. This way of pre-preparing drinks is different from mixing up a huge pitcher of sangria or bowl of punch, and can be adapted to many different drinks.

Freezer door cocktails entail adding all the necessary ingredients of a cocktail to a bottle, such as a large liquor bottle, following the golden ratio for perfect drinks. Next, shake the ingredients together, and store the bottle in the freezer for at least a few hours before you're ready to serve your drinks. A single repurposed liquor bottle can serve as many as eight drinks, saving you precious time during a party, as there's no need to prepare individual drinks one a time — just pour, garnish, and serve. Two or three of these bottles, and you're good to go for an entire night.

Prepping multiple drinks in a single bottle also reduces the equipment needed to make drinks, since the bottle replaces any shakers, stirrers, jiggers, or other tools you'd normally use. This is great for novice mixologists who might not have lots of bar tools on hand, and also limits the number of dirty dishes, as all you've have to wash are the glasses for the cocktails. Sounds like a win-win.

Although freezer door cocktails are simple enough to make, store, and serve, you can get the best possible results by following a few guidelines. Firstly, you should use high-proof liquor (at least 50 proof) over low-proof liquor, as a higher alcohol content (and lower water content) will keep your drinks from freezing solid. High-proof liquors include whiskey, tequila, rum, vodka, and gin, while low-proof includes beer, wine, and hard seltzers.

When adding your ingredients to your bottle, be sure to fill the bottle as close to the top as you can, which minimizes the amount of trapped air. After all, exposure to air triggers oxidation, which is one of the main reasons why liquor expires. What's more, too much air left in the bottle can also lead to your drinks freezing solid.

Last but not least, when you're ready to serve your freezer door cocktails, you should always give the bottle another good shake. The components could have separated or settled during their time in the freezer, and you'll want them evenly dispersed for the best drinking experience. Top your glasses with fresh garnishes, and your party guests will never know that their drinks were prepared en masse.

So long as you stick with alcohols that are less likely to freeze, you can turn just about any drink into a batch of freezer door cocktails. For instance, you can make freezer door margaritas by adding tequila, lime juice, orange liqueur, agave syrup, and salt to a bottle. You might even add a bit of avocado for a creamy touch.

Similarly, you can make Manhattans in a big batch by adding vermouth, rye, water, and bitters to a bottle. Keep in mind that the bitters' flavors will intensify over time, especially in such large quantities, so you might want to cut back the amount in your recipe, taste it before serving, and then top it off with more bitters if needed (which takes just a minute). When you serve these drinks, be sure to stir your Manhattans for the perfect distribution of flavors. After all, no one wants a watered-down first sip, followed by a swig of straight alcohol.

Other excellent candidates for freezer door cocktails include martinis, negronis, old-fashioneds, cosmos, and daiquiris, but the possibilities are almost endless. Who knows, your friends might just make you the designated bartender moving forward — and you'll be ready to take on that role with no sweat.