Josh and I were asked to make drinks for a birthday/New Year’s Eve party this year. (technically last year…) It was my mom’s friend’s 50th birthday and they wanted to host a big party with lots of good food and special drinks. Luckily, we got asked more than a year ahead! (I know, very Swiss) We had a lot of time to plan and think about the offered drinks. In November we met the birthday girl and we let them taste all the drinks and make their choice.

About a week prior to the event, we wrote a list with all the needed ingredients, aside from the alcohol. That, we bought ahead of time at a local liquor store to make sure we would have good quality beverages. I also made menus which I designed on the iPad using the Procreate App. My dad was then able to print it on plastic paper, which is a lot more resistant to spills.

We also decided to make aprons, so we would match. My parents were serving food and the drinks on that evening and with matching clothing we would be seen as a team. I designed a few words to write on the apron and then cut them out with my plotting machine.

On the day off we arrived early and set everything up at the location. It was a bit challenging since we didn’t have running water, so we had to use a bucket and pitchers of water to rinse everything.

At 5PM everyone arrived, and we greeted them with a Fish House Punch – A drink we were able to prepare ahead of time and so serve everyone at once. A Fish House Punch consists of rum, cognac, and peach brandy as well as oleo saccharum, which is sugar that extracted all the oils of lemon peels. Everyone had one drink and they were rather shy with getting more – we were scared that would last for the rest of the evening!

Eventually we moved up to the dinner room where our bar was set up. First, we helped serving all the food and around 9 o’clock we opened the bar. Our fears were soon drowned in work, and we didn’t stop making drinks until 2AM. Then the whole thing slowed down a little bit until we finally went home at 4AM.

The guests were very appreciative of our work and so was the host! We were very pleased that our drinks were received so well and happy we were able to work together as a team!

Bar Keeping at a Birthday Party