My friends would tell you that I love to plan things. Probably because I love to plan things. Trips, dinners, friends’ weddings, complete strangers’ weddings, happy hours, kitchens, game plans, Saturdays. You name it. I probably want to plan it.
So a few weekends ago I planned an impromptu barbeque on a lovely weekend. I know, impromptu means you don’t plan it. See previous paragraph. For this particular gathering I already had food covered (fish, steak and vegetables grilled plus my vegetarian baked beans and homemade cupcakes) and while we always have wine and beer on hand, I needed something else for beverages. I could have gone the cocktail route but it was a Sunday and somehow cocktails on Sunday after noon seem risky. I had some fresh lemons on hand so I made lemons into lemonade (sorry, I had to write that)!
I made sun tea in the large jug (it’s caffeinated so I also had a pitcher of herbal sun tea as well), fresh squeezed lemonade and then provided sparkling and still water. Folks could make their own mocktail with any of the beverages plus mix-ins. Just want strawberry lemonade? No problem. You’re just a fan of sparkling water with some mint? Have at it. I put out ice and wine glasses just in case people didn’t want to commit to a large glass of their creation, they could keep trying new things.
If you and your crowd might also like to imbibe, I highly recommend making vodka sun tea: pour vodka into a large jar (or other holding tank), add about five black tea bags, let steep over night then remove tea bags. Bam. Vodka sun tea. If you add simple syrup you have sweet tea vodka. You could also put out limoncello (which I am in the process of making myself) but I wouldn’t recommend mixing just the tea vodka and limoncello unless you want a really brutal next day.
My family has a reunion coming up — we have them every three years — and I generally commandeer where I can because that’s my nature. The past two reunions I somehow became bartender thanks to my now famous sangria but this year I suppose I got so excited talking about the cocktails I had planned and happy hours that people thought I was ignoring sad hours and mocktails. Not so, family. Not so. I have just as many fun things (if not more!) planned on the non-alcoholic beverage front. An old stand by, strawberry basil agua fresca, could make an appearance. Perhaps some totally new and unexpected things as well. We shall see.
As long as we’re on the subject of drinks, lay it on me: What is your favorite cocktail or mocktail? Does your sherbert punch blow everyone’s mind at your holiday party every year or does Grandma Betty’s rum punch steal the show?
Sun tea is always my old standby. Unfortunately I don’t make a lot of mocktails or cocktails.
I was reading something on Apartment Therapy about sun tea and one of the commenters basically said it can be dangerous because you make it in the sun and then bacteria can grow and you’ll be poisoned. That sounds a little crazy town to me mostly because it’s tap water and at most it only sits outside for a few hours. But I thought I’d bring it up because I also use sun tea as my standby and will continue to do so!
I’ve heard that too, and I’ve heard you should not keep it longer for 24 hours. I’ve never bothered to actually do some research to see if this is true though. I don’t see how it’s any different than eating a picnic outside as long as you take precautions.
I just drank 2 week old sun tea from my refrigerator last night and I’m still here to tell the story! I think as long as your container is clean and you have clean drinking water you’re pretty much fine.
Agreed!
An Arnold Palmer bar? LOVE that, what a great idea.
Thanks! And you know that if you add booze it becomes a John Daly bar.
Loving your idea – thanks for sharing! Have a Great Day:)
Thanks!