RECIPES: Make-ahead freezer cocktails for your holiday party
The holiday season is upon us, and that means gathering together. If you are playing host at a cocktail party, we have a suggestion to help you socialize, instead of spending your time tending bar: Serve freezer cocktails.
The freezer cocktail has been around for a while, but gained popularity during the height of the pandemic, when inventive bars and restaurants sold pre-batched and pre-diluted cocktails. Once chilled, the drinks could be poured straight into a cocktail glass and enjoyed.
While the ingredients for your favorite martini or Manhattan could be mixed together and chilled, the resulting drink would be too strong without the diluting that happens when it is swirled around a mixing glass with ice. An extremely cold drink, out of the freezer, also can intensify the alcohol.
There is a solution to these problems, without individually stirring 12 to 24 cocktails and funneling them into a vessel. With the right ratios, you can mix one or two bottles of your favorite spirit with vermouth, bitters or other modifiers, and the proper proportion of water, then store this batch in the freezer while you work on appetizers or other details of your soiree.
With a little research — and our own trial and error — we have come up with a ratio for your favorite stirred cocktails, right out of the freezer. We found a few recipes by some of the country’s best mixologists, and compared them with our own preference.
Houston’s Bobby Huegel used a high proportion of water, almost one third of the volume, in his freezer martini. It also had two types of high-proof gin, to balance.
We also saw one from Julie Reiner, bar owner and current judge on Netflix’s “Drink Master” (where you should look for our dear friend, Atlanta’s own Tiffanie Barriere, as a guest judge). Reiner’s water ration was about 14%, but sounded delicious in a classic recipe.
After several trials, we found that 20% water by volume was our ideal proportion. We think that it can be applied to both Manhattans and martinis. But, as always, your individual taste matters, and we encourage improvisation with your favorite cocktail components.
We do not recommend this freezing technique for traditionally shaken drinks, such as a daiquiri. Because they generally are lower in alcohol by volume, and have a higher volume of sugar and juice modifiers, they tend to freeze solid. Besides, the aeration from shaking that type of cocktail is part of what makes it delicious.
- 1 (750 milliliter) bottle gin or rye whiskey
- 12.5 ounces (half a bottle) vermouth (dry vermouth, if using gin; sweet vermouth, if using rye whiskey)
- 10 ounces filtered or spring water
- ½ ounce bitters (orange bitters, if using gin; angostura bitters, if using rye whiskey)
- Lemon peel or maraschino cherry, for garnish (optional)
- Combine all the ingredients in a large pitcher and give them a good stir. If you have any vermouth remaining in the bottle, transfer it to a small container and store it in the refrigerator.
- Pour the batched cocktail back into the empty rye/gin and vermouth bottles, and seal tightly with caps. (Alternatively, transfer the batched cocktail to clean plastic quart containers and seal tightly with lids.) Place in the freezer for 2 hours, or until chilled.
- To serve, pour directly into cocktail glasses. Garnish each serving with a lemon peel or maraschino cherry, if desired.
Nutritional information
Serving size: 4 ouncesPer serving: 195 calories (percent of calories from fat, 0), trace protein, 4 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, trace total fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 3 milligrams sodium.
The Slaters are beverage industry veterans and the proprietors of the Expat, Slater’s Steakhouse and the Lark Winespace in Athens.
