We recently co-hosted a martini tasting party and it was so much fun! To begin, we sent out Evites with the following wording announcing the idea:
Join us for a martini tasting! We’ll provide the martinis. Please bring an hors d’oeuvre you think will complement a martini. Cocktail attire welcome! (Dressy casual okay)
Originally, we googled martini ideas and chose some of the standards, i.e., dirty, chocolate, and a cosmo. In the end though, we ended up coming up with a few of our own creations and served six martinis (in smaller tasting amounts). We had plenty of appetizers, and included food served in martini glasses, like this Caprese salad.
Our final tasting menu:
Round 1 – Dirty martini or Limoncello martini (for those that don’t like olives). For the dirty, we used Ketel One vodka and for the lemon martini, we used 360’s Sorrento Lemon vodka. These were made fresh to order.
Round 2 – The JC, our own creation. We premixed a batch ahead of time and just added the fresh lemon juice at serving time. The key to this drink is the cranberry vodka. Deep Eddy’s is smooth and delicious!
Round 3 – Bitter Orangetini, our own creation. We premixed this one too, just adding the bitters upon serving. We placed one mandarin orange segment in the glass before pouring.
Round 4 – the Citrus Biscuit, our own creation and premixed as well.
Round 5 – a Chocolate Martini. For the final dessert round, we went with a classic recipe that we also premixed and just added a Hershey’s kiss to the glass upon serving. This one was a big hit!
- 2 shots whipped cream vodka
- 1 shot Godiva chocolate liqueur
- 1/2 shot half & half
For the three rounds with our own creations, we asked guests if they could identify any of the main ingredients. It was a lot of fun to hear their thoughts and ideas and we had a great time serving them. I look forward to doing it again and coming up with a new set of recipes!
Let me know if you give any of the recipes a try!
-J
Want more cocktail ideas? See the Projects page for more recipes!
Did you rent a bunch of martini glasses or do you really own that many? What other snacks did you have?
We served about 15 guests. We really had that many glasses but if you don’t already have them, they are at the dollar store and I see them at Goodwill all the time for about 77 cents.
As for appetizers, we ended up with quite a variety: crab dip, cheese & crackers, prosciutto & cheese, ravioli, spicy shrimp, chicken lettuce wraps, cannolis,and chocolate covered strawberries.
I’m definitely trying the JC martini sounds fab.
I thought of you too when I tasted it! You will LOVE the cranberry vodka.
How fun! I love this idea.
this is a great idea, will have to mix up some of these drinks!!