My first question is whether this is at a bar or restaurant with its own permanent-ish supply of alcohol, or at a location where all alcohol and food and drink has to be specially brought in for the event. A bar specially set up for an event with special drinks is going to want to simplify a few things. * Reduce the number of spirits that will need to be on hand: if there are special drinks they might be mostly vodka based with a few others. * Reduce the number of mixers and such: if more than one drink uses the same apertif, fruit juice, and/or fruit for garnish, that's great. * Reduce the amount of on-the-spot labor: pre-cut garnishes rather than things that require the bartender to do a complicated thing with an orange peel as the drink is made. These should be easy to transport for an offsite event, and be able to be stored compactly. * Reduce the amount of prep labor: if it can be done with a vegetable spiralizer rather than someone slicing and then additionally cutting a cucumber, do it that way. Or perhaps there's a cookie-cutter like stamp for cutting the snake spiral in one step. * Reduce the expense: none of the themed drinks are going to be using the finest vodka, it'll be normal vodka and the other ingredients should also not be super expensive. This means using small amounts of expensive items, or larger amounts of cheaper items. This is also why most drinks that use a flavored alcohol also use an unflavored, less flavored, or stronger alcohol to add punch.
Some of these things are mitigated if the venue is a full bar: you have whatever spirits and cordials and mixers and fruit and vegetable that are there normally, you don't have to account for the space and weight of every single ingredient the way you would if you were doing a pop-up at a venue that usually doesn't have its own alcohol. And for events that are deliberately trying to impress with a big budget or that expects the people attending to have a large budget, things can be fairly difficult and expensive.
For Shelter I might use a wide glass like a martini glass and an impressive but simple if you know the trick setup: sugar domes. That Chocolate Guy does it by heating probably isomalt to liquid, stretching cling film over a bucket, setting a cookie cutter or other round metal form in the right size on top, pouring a little cooled but still liquid sugar on the film, then pushing down around the growing dome with the metal form. The heat from the liquid sugar warms the air inside the bucket and expands it. Then once it's just set, he removes the form and pulls out the cling film from underneath. https://www.facebook.com/amauryguichon.chef/videos/the-sugar-dome-technique-is-so-satisfying-to-watch-%EF%B8%8Famauryguichon-sugarart/309457583069272/ Not shown, you trim the bottom with a hot knife (an easy place to have Marinette accidentally set her knife on fire because she hasn't wiped it down before reheating it).
Muddled blackberry is also a great way to get black dots.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
momijizukamori and
no subject
Date: 2023-01-19 12:25 am (UTC)* Reduce the number of spirits that will need to be on hand: if there are special drinks they might be mostly vodka based with a few others.
* Reduce the number of mixers and such: if more than one drink uses the same apertif, fruit juice, and/or fruit for garnish, that's great.
* Reduce the amount of on-the-spot labor: pre-cut garnishes rather than things that require the bartender to do a complicated thing with an orange peel as the drink is made. These should be easy to transport for an offsite event, and be able to be stored compactly.
* Reduce the amount of prep labor: if it can be done with a vegetable spiralizer rather than someone slicing and then additionally cutting a cucumber, do it that way. Or perhaps there's a cookie-cutter like stamp for cutting the snake spiral in one step.
* Reduce the expense: none of the themed drinks are going to be using the finest vodka, it'll be normal vodka and the other ingredients should also not be super expensive. This means using small amounts of expensive items, or larger amounts of cheaper items. This is also why most drinks that use a flavored alcohol also use an unflavored, less flavored, or stronger alcohol to add punch.
Some of these things are mitigated if the venue is a full bar: you have whatever spirits and cordials and mixers and fruit and vegetable that are there normally, you don't have to account for the space and weight of every single ingredient the way you would if you were doing a pop-up at a venue that usually doesn't have its own alcohol. And for events that are deliberately trying to impress with a big budget or that expects the people attending to have a large budget, things can be fairly difficult and expensive.
For Shelter I might use a wide glass like a martini glass and an impressive but simple if you know the trick setup: sugar domes. That Chocolate Guy does it by heating probably isomalt to liquid, stretching cling film over a bucket, setting a cookie cutter or other round metal form in the right size on top, pouring a little cooled but still liquid sugar on the film, then pushing down around the growing dome with the metal form. The heat from the liquid sugar warms the air inside the bucket and expands it. Then once it's just set, he removes the form and pulls out the cling film from underneath. https://www.facebook.com/amauryguichon.chef/videos/the-sugar-dome-technique-is-so-satisfying-to-watch-%EF%B8%8Famauryguichon-sugarart/309457583069272/ Not shown, you trim the bottom with a hot knife (an easy place to have Marinette accidentally set her knife on fire because she hasn't wiped it down before reheating it).
Muddled blackberry is also a great way to get black dots.