Location: A house with a big table
Recommended timing: At least once a quarter to keep the hype real
The perfect pair: Friends and winning cocktails all around
When it comes to our group of friends, we are extremely competitive and we love game night. We also love getting together and drinking cocktails, hence our weekly happy hours. One day we had this crazy idea that we would turn making cocktails into a competition and it stuck. This silly idea has been so much fun for us and such a learning experience. Through this post, we will walk you through our concept and rules so that you can host one of your own with your friends.
The concept goes a little something like this:
- Everyone makes a cocktail and provides each person present with a half of a cocktail for them to try. Each person gets 3 votes at the end and the winner is the cocktail/person with the most votes.
- Winner of the competition has 3 months to host the next competition and they much provide the location, cups, and usually snacks too 🙂
- Winner notifies everyone of the new theme that they must follow. Themes for the competition can be almost anything. They can be the type of Liquor we use, a required mixer, a time of day it is consumed, or even a theme for a type of cocktail category. The ideas are really endless on that.
- We all use Uber or Lyft to and from these competitions and we completely recommend you do the same.
Our process goes a little something like this:
1. We split everyone into rounds. We usually have 3 people per round and we go as many rounds as it takes. We prefer a max of about 11 people, or else it just gets to be too much. The rounds are to make sure we’re not all in the kitchen at once and it draws out the game so that it lasts a full evening and we’re slowing down the drinking. This makes it much more feasible. (We also usually just finish our favorites 🙂 )
2. After the round of drinks is made, the creator explains to the group what the name of their drink is and a little description. We go through all three people and try their drinks. We don’t down the drink on the spot; we will sip on them throughout the night to help decide where our votes lie.
3. After the descriptions we take a break and talk together at the table and have some snacks. We have really gotten into doing conversation cards. We will ask the question and all go around answering. What a great way for us to get to know each other better and learn things we would have never thought to ask
4. Following all of the rounds, we vote. We get a little too intense on this part, but that’s what keeps it so fun. We give 3 votes, a first, second, and third. Your first place vote gets 5 points, second place vote gets 3 points, and the third place vote gets 1 point. Votes are tallied up and the winner is crowned!
5. The winner is awarded the trophy that they get to sign and keep until the next competition. LOL our trophy is a spray painted massive plastic martini glass and it is great. The winner then has 3 months to plan the next competition. They also don’t have to make a drink at the next one, but still get to participate.
This has been a blast for us so far! The first theme we had to kick everything off was a free for all, whatever cocktail you wanted to make. The themes since then have gone like this: Breakfast cocktails, rum, champagne, and then gin. Who knows what our next one will be??? We love trying new cocktails and drinks, but if you’re out, it can get expensive and there is a lot of pressure to order something you already know your going to like. This has been the neatest experience getting to try new drinks and figuring out what you like.
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on our cocktail competition. Let us know if you’re planning on hosting one of your own! We can’t wait to hear your thoughts and comments on this and would love to answer any questions if you have them!
Peace and Pinot,
The Perfectly Paired Pals
Perfectly Paired 