Cocktails for Beginners: 9 Cocktail Party Themes to Get You Started

Dana Velden
Dana Velden
Dana Velden's first book, Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes from a Mindful Cook (Rodale Books) is available where ever books are sold. She lives in Oakland, CA.
updated May 2, 2019
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Serving cocktails can be intimidating to beginners. There are endless kinds of cocktails requiring even more kinds of booze that have so many variations in quality. It’s hard to know where to start! One helpful and fun thing for a cocktail newbie is to pair a single cocktail with a specific activity, like margarita night with fish tacos and a salsa making marathon. This way a beginner will only have to purchase ingredients for and learn how to make just one cocktail. Read on for some cocktail theme parings that are fun for everyone, even if you’re not a beginner!

Cocktail Party Themes

• Mad Men Marathon with Old Fashioneds
• Pimm’s Cup and lawn bowling or croquet
• Manhattans and Monopoly
• Lillet Liberte and Bastille Day
• Dirty Martinis and Sabrina
• The Sybil, the Mary, or the Edith and Downton Abbey Reruns
• Blue Moon Cocktails on a full moon night
• The Violet Hour served at the time of hush and wonder
• When your book club reads The Great Gatsby, bring out the The Fitzgerald

Other Helpful Links for the Beginner:
• Bar Tool Checklist: The Basics – and Beyond
• Mixing Cocktails: When to Shake and When to Stir
• Bar Basics: 12 Bottles Any Bar Should Have

(Image: AMC TV)

Filed in:
Beverages
Cocktails
Entertaining & Gathering