Glassware Part 2 - The Non-essentials:

• Margarita Glasses: Unless you really love margaritas, and serve them at every party, you usually can get away with serving them in another kind of glass; especially if you’re serving them frozen. (various sizes)
• Punch Bowl & Cups set: The cool things about punchbowl sets are that they’re often sold pretty cheap, and there really isn’t too large an aesthetic difference between one made of plastic, glass or crystal, so going cheap on these isn’t really a big deal.
• Parfait glasses: Used specifically for frozen and juice drinks. But, as I said, you can get away with using pint glasses for those, so this one isn’t a truly essential item. (12 – 16 oz.)
• Red/White Wine Glasses: Yes, there is a difference between the two: White wine glasses are longer, more slender, and taller (like fatter champagne flutes with shorter stems), whereas Red Wine glasses are shorter and wider, so that the red wine is given a chance to “breathe” before you drink it. (4 – 8 oz.)
• Cordial glasses: Small, fancy glasses used to sip cordials (also known as liqueurs.) There are also slightly larger short stemmed, fancy glasses used for whiskey sours and other sweet drinks. You really don’t need either; in fact, they’re so not useful, that I lumped both into the same bullet point. (1 – 4oz.)
• Collins Glasses: These look like rocks glasses and pint glasses had a kid. They’re somewhere in between the sizes of both. Honestly, though, you really don’t need these; in fact, other than a Tom Collins, I can’t even immediately think of what kind of drink you’d serve in these, and I’m an expert, so you know they’re useless. (12 oz.)

Here’s a list of the different kinds of glassware you’ll want to have around in order to truly have the full-stocked bar that lesser hosts merely dream about. Well, actually, here are two lists. To be honest, you don’t necessarily need every single type of glass, and I’m not going to just assume that you can afford to stock every kind of glass in your home.

So, for the sake of practicality, I’ve broken this one down into two categories: the glassware you absolutely have to have, and the non-essentials—things that you technically should have on hand, but nobody’s going to give you a hard time if you don’t have them handy.

Part 1 - Essentials:

• Cocktail/Martini Glasses: The best kinds are the long-stemmed glasses: holding the drink by the stem keeps warm hands away from the cocktail, which means the drinks remain colder longer. And everybody loves a nice, cold drink. (4 oz.)
• Old Fashioned (Rocks) Glasses: These are the small tumbles you see used for drinks served on-the-rocks. It’s named after the Muddled Old Fashioned cocktail. (4 oz.)
• Highball Glasses: These are for the fizzy drinks—anything mixed with soda. Named after the Highball cocktail. (10 oz.)
• Pint Glasses: These are not only for beer—you can use these for mixing cocktails when the martini mixer is in use, for serving juice-based cocktails, frozen drinks and for non-alcoholic beverages. All told, you’ll need more of these than any of the other types of glasses. (16 oz.)
• Champagne Flutes: If you’re throwing a party to celebrate an event, then you will most likely be breaking out the bubbly. If you’re throwing a really large party, you can often pick up a box of plastic champagne flutes; people generally only have one or two glasses of champagne anyway, so they won’t really mind if it’s not glass. If a guest has had three or more glasses of champagne, (s)he probably already stopped caring what they’re drinking it out of at this point, so no worries. (4-6 oz.)

(Tomorrow: Part 2 - Non-essentials)

This one’s going to be the last “Iced Tea” drink for a while. Although there are literally dozens of different variations of the Long Island Iced Tea formula, I’m not going to dwell on this one variety of drink for the entire month. These series are basically here to introduce you to different families of drinks; once we’ve established a few of the most important drink varieties, I’ll begin posting individual drinks based on what’s most popular as well as the best tasting. So, for the end of our first series, I wanted to finish off with a winner: the Tokyo Tea.

This one has a sweet (but not too sweet) melon flavor, because of the Midori liqueur balance. They’re so good that you can barely tell you’re drinking liquor, but don’t get too crazy with these: each serving is around one third alcohol, which would make it about a 66 proof beverage.

Tokyo Tea - Recipe:

1 part vodka
1 part rum
1 part gin
1 part 1800® Tequila
1 part triple sec
Balance Midori® melon liqueur

Combine all ingredients in your cocktail shaker. Shake, strain into a small highball glass filled with ice, and garnish with a cherry.

We’re on the final lap of our Iced Tea drinks series, so I’m going International. Let’s start with the Jamaican Iced Tea drink. This one seems really similar to the Long Beach Iced Tea we saw yesterday, but with two very big differences. First, instead of light rum, this drink recipe calls for Myer’s brand dark rum, which instantly makes this a sweeter yet smoother beverage. We’re also going to go ahead and replace the cranberry juice with pineapple juice, for a much more tropical flavor. Jamaican Iced Tea is a really sweet, fun beverage; great for any summer event you’re throwing, or just any party with an “Island” theme to it.

Jamaican Iced Tea - Recipe:

1 part vodka
1 part gin
1 part Myer’s® dark rum
1 part triple sec
2 parts pineapple juice
2 parts sweet and sour mix

Fill a mixing cup (or your martini shaker) with ice, and add the vodka, gin, triple sec, and Myer’s. Balance with pineapple juice and sweet and sour mix, pouring in both at the same time (typically only bartenders pour like this, so this move will really impress your guests!). Shake, then pour into a pint, highball or collins glass. This drink uses a flag garnish: to make a flag, spear a pineapple down the middle with a toothpick. Stick a maraschino cherry on the top end of the toothpick, then hang your flag off the side of the glass (also a very impressive touch.)

We’re heading over to the West Coast today, for a look at the Long Beach Iced Tea, another popular iced tea drink. A friend of mine (yes, also a bartender) orders this whenever we go out in a big group. He does it mainly because everyone else always orders Long Islands, and he likes to be different for the sake of standing out. It’s a really gimmicky move, but it’s also a really tasty move; this drink is delicious!

Long Beach Iced Tea - Recipe:

1 part vodka
1 part light rum
1 part gin
1 part 1800® Tequila
1 part triple sec
Balance cranberry juice

Mix ingredients together, over ice, in a pint, collins or highball glass. Pour into a shaker. Shake a couple times and pour ingredients back into glass. Garnish with an orange slice.

Not as in “Black gold, Texas tea.” This “Iced Tea” variation was invented in the Lone Star State. And because everything’s bigger in Texas, this recipe is, too. This particular drink recipe is measured for mixing in a pitcher. The next time you have a few friends over, show them a good time, Texas Style. (Oh, and make sure they take cabs home.)

Texas Tea - Recipe:

2 oz 1800® Tequila
2 oz rum
2 oz vodka
2 oz gin
2 oz bourbon whiskey
2 oz triple sec
2 oz sweet and sour mix
Balance with Cola

Fill a 1 gallon pitcher with ice. Add all the ingredients except the coca-cola. Stir it up, add the cola and then stir again. Serve up to your friends in glasses.

This is a drink I heard nothing of until my last trip to Florida last December. They told me all about it, and I was skeptical, because it sounded suspiciously like a Georgia Peach Iced tea. The bartender, offended, served me one for free, guaranteeing that I’d love it so much, I’d be ordering them all night.

Try out this recipe, and enjoy the drink that proved me wrong that night.

Miami Beach Iced Tea - Recipe:

The easiest way to tell whether or not a drink is popular is by the amount of similar drinks that piggyback on the original name. But, just because there are a lot of drinks derived from the original doesn’t mean it isn’t great on its own!

This one is a particularly refreshing concoction: the Georgia Peach Iced Tea. I personally think that this is the best time of year to enjoy this drink; saying one last good-bye to summer’s warmth, as fall sets in.

Georgia Peach Iced Tea - Recipe:

• 1 part Vodka
• 1 part Gin
• 1 part Rum
• 1 part Peach schnapps
• Balance with Sweet and Sour mix

Fill a pint, collins or highball glass with ice, add Vodka, Gin, and Rum. Fill with Sweet and Sour mix, leaving a little bit of room in the glass. Pour Peach Schnapps on top, and garnish with a cherry.

Every bartending site I’ve been to starts off with the same drink - the martini. I understand why, of course - martinis are classics, and a cornerstone of bartending history. But, because I’m from Brooklyn, NY and because its a drink that’s equally as popular, with almost as many variations, I’m going to start off with a series on the Long Island Iced Tea. (Note: Then, in the second series, we’re doing martinis. Yeah.)

I mean, think about it - what does everyone order when they get to the bar? Unless you have a specific favorite drink in mind, or are the type who asks the bartender to make you something special, chances are the first cocktail you order when you get to the bar is a Long Island Iced Tea. And who can blame you? They’re both strong and delicious - always a great combination!

This is the first part of a series of articles on Long Island Iced Tea and the many drinks based on them. For a bit of background, Long Island Iced Tea is a highball that was, indeed, invented in Long Island, New York back in the 1970s. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of drinks based on the Long Island Iced tea recipe, and we’re going to be covering the most popular variations over the next several days.

Long Island Iced Tea - Recipe:

Mix ingredients together over ice in a glass. Pour into a shaker and give it a firm shake. Pour back into the glass and make sure there is a touch of fizz at the top. Garnish with lemon.