Your weekend cocktail project could begin with some of the easy DIY experiments to innovate your cocktail experiments during this quarantine. When it comes to mixing drinks there are many ways to be as creative as a bartender. Here are some of the best DIY Cocktail Party ideas to help you get started.
Here are some of the basic to advanced DIY projects for your quarantine!
DIY Projects for cocktail experiments
Citrus Juice Ice Cubes
Using freshly squeezed citrus juice is imperative for mixing quality cocktails, but squeezing lemons or limes each time can be messy and a hassle. Bartenders usually prepare a batch of fresh lemon juice before every shift, so it is not difficult to recreate this at your home considering you know how much would you require as it the life of fresh citrus juice is only for three days.
The alternative to this is freezing the freshly squeezed juice in ice cube trays. Not only does this maintain the fresh juice for much longer (up to three months), it offers the opportunity to pre-portion the juice in cubes — perfect for cocktails.
Peel the citrus prior to juicing, as this ingredient can be used for other DIY projects as well. And once the cubes have frozen solid (overnight should be enough time), remove them from the tray and place them in a sealed container or Ziploc bag. Otherwise, they’ll start taking on the flavor of anything else in your freezer. Spice up your DIY cocktail party with this delicious drink.
Liquor Infusions
The easiest DIY projects possible to make you feel like a professional bartender! Infusing liquor with flavors is a fun project that can help you create amazing new cocktails. While vodka infusions are the most popular, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t infuse extra flavor into gin, whiskey, rum, tequila, or even liqueurs.
Some great infusion combinations for tasty cocktails can be Apple-Pear gin, green tea gin, pumpkin scotch, hot pepper tequila and what! Game up with your creativity.
Ingredients
Any liquor
Infusions ( coffee, fruits, vegetables)
Tools required: Mason jars, Cheesecloth, Strainer, Funnel, 375ml bottle.
Method
- Combined all the ingredients in a mason jar.
- Allow the combination to infuse for 2-4 days, keep shaking 1 or 2 times a day.
- After you see that your vodka is infused, strain out all the solids through cheesecloth and store it in a bottle.
Beet Shrubs
Shrubs or drinking vinegar are beverages made from fruit, sugar, and vinegar often with an aromatic such as a herb or spice. It is one of the easiest DIY projects for drink making at home, especially with beetroot as it has a distinctive earthy flavor with a savory note that goes well in a shrub.
WHY USE THIS DIY PROJECT FOR YOUR COCKTAIL – Beetroot shrub adds vibrant color and earthiness to a cocktail. It goes well with a variety of spirits particularly gin, rye whiskey, mezcal, and tequila. Beetroot shrub can also be used as an ingredient in non-alcoholic cocktails such as when lengthened with soda water and garnished with lime zest.
Ingredients
5 Beetroots, Cut into small wedges
½ cup of apple cider vinegar
½ cup of distilled white vinegar
1 cup of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of black peppercorns
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
Tools Required: blender, mesh strainer, spatula
Method
- Add beetroot and both the vinegar to the blender and make a puree.
- With the help of a spatula strain down the puree through a mesh strainer into a medium bowl, you will be having 2-3 cups of liquid.
- Add sugar, peppercorns, and salt to the beet-vinegar liquid and store it in a nonreactive container, cover, and let it steep for a day at room temperature.
- Taste for the flavor, if it tastes more peppery let the beet-vinegar liquid steep for another day.
- Strain through a mesh strainer to the bottle and store it in the refrigerator for a week to fully develop the flavor, and it can be used for two months.
Coffee Liqueur
We’ve got some great DIY projects for coffee lovers as well! All you need for a homemade coffee liqueur is a base liquor, instant coffee, a vanilla bean, sugar, and water. It’s a fun project and you’ll find that it’s less expensive than the store-bought coffee liqueurs. Rum or vodka are the two liquors commonly used to make the coffee liqueur. The rum will produce a slightly sweeter version due to its molasses base, so it’s much closer to the popular brands you may be used to.
Ingredients
1 cup of aged rum
½ cup of sugar syrup
½ cup instant coffee grounded coarsely
Seeds from ½ vanilla bean
Method
- Combined all the ingredients in a jar, seal, and shake to mix it well.
- Refrigerate and steep the mixture for 24 hours.
- Strain it through a double layer cheesecloth.
- The drink is ready and can be stored for 3 months if kept in the refrigerator.
Oleo-Sacchrum
As fancy as it sounds, Olleo Sacchrum is a simple easy to make syrup from steeping citrus peels in sugar. That is it!
Oleo-saccharum is known to brighten up any cocktail with its lifted citrus perfume and bright, intense flavour. You can make the syrup from lemons, oranges, and grapefruits, or a mix of citruses.
Ingredients
- 200 grams Citrus Peels
- 150 grams Granulated Sugar
- pinch Salt
- 50 ml Boiling Water – (about 1/4 cup)
Method
- Peel the citrus trying to avoid the bitter white pith and place the peels into a clean glass or plastic container.
- Add the sugar onto the peels and muddle for a minute or so.
- Let the peels and sugar sit covered at room temperature overnight.
- Strain to separate the peels.
- Rinse the peels in the original container using 2 tablespoons of water to dissolve any sugar left behind and add it to the oleo.
- Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Add a splash of neutral alcohol to help preserve if you would like.
Creme De Cacao
As fancy as Creme De Cacao sounds, it is super easy to make it at home. Any DIY projects with chocolate are absolutely irresistible! Homemade crème de cacao is known to capture the toasty, nutty flavors and delightful bitterness of dark chocolate.
Ingredients
750 ML of Vodka or Rum
500 g of Cacao Nibs
3 No(s) Vanilla Beans, split
250 g Brown/ Demerara Sugar
250 ML Water
Method
- Toast the cacao nibs in 350 degrees F in the oven until it is aromatic.
- Add vanilla beans, rum or Vodka, and the toasted cacao nibs to a swing-top bottle.
- Rest the mixture for two weeks, ensure shaking periodically.
- Add 1:1 ratio of syrup to the bottle, Rest for further 1-2 days and Creme de cacao is ready.
Note: if you wish to make Creme de cacao instantly, you can speed up the process by heating the bottle in a water bath for 30-60 minutes.
Ginger beer
Ginger beer is a key component for some of the warm weather drinks like Moscow Mule. Ginger beer and ginger ale both are basically the same, but with a slight difference in the process of making. Ginger beer is just a beer that is been fermented with yeast to have a combination, while Ginger ale gets its fizz from force-carbonated with carbon dioxide. It is really easy and inexpensive to make ginger beer at home.
Ingredients
200 g freshly grated ginger
½ cup of water
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon of molasses (thick dark to light brown syrup that is separated from raw sugar)
3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon Juice
7 cups of filtered water
Tools Required: Funnel or Cheesecloth, 2-liter plastic bottle, Blender
Method
- Blend the ginger with 1 quarter of water, make a rough puree.
- Place the ginger water, sugar, and molasses in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Now remove the pan from heat and let it cool to the room temperature. Using a 4xlayer of cheesecloth strain the prepared liquid in batches into a plastic 2-liter bottle.
- Add lime juice and a remaining quart of water until the liquid level is about 3 inches from the top and sprinkle yeast on top of the liquid in the bottle.
- Squeeze the bottle Until the liquid comes to the neck of the bottle then screw the cap tightly, let the bottle sit in the room temperature for 12 hours, till the bottle feels firm at squeezing. Be careful don’t let the liquid ferment for too long at room temperature.
- Once you feel the bottle is firm, transfer it to the refrigerator. Keep the ginger beer refrigerated and consume within 1 week.
Tepache
DIY projects all the way from Mexico! Tepache is one of Mexico’s most beloved street drinks made of fermented pineapple rinds. Brewers traditionally made it with corn but now, contemporary brewers typically use pineapple, cane sugar, and spices. Tepache’s flavor is vibrantly sweet and tart. Further, you can add cinnamon and star anise to infuse some tepache recipes with a distinct, sweet-spicy aroma.
Ingredients
- 2 pineapples
- 1 to 2 cups sugar or sweetener of choice, depending on taste
- Water to cover
Method
- Warm sugar and 2 cups of water in a pan and set over high heat, stir them until the sugar dissolves completely and wait till the syrup cools down.
- Chop the pineapple peel and add cinnamon stick and clove to the gallon-sized jar.
- Pour the sugar syrup in the jar containing pineapple peel and add the remaining water and water kefir if using.
- Cover the jar and let the combination ferment until bubble and foam for at the surface of the jar. Strain away the pineapple peel and spices to the bottle.
- Allow the tepache to ferment in the bottle for 1 -2 days. Serve with ice.
Pickled onion
One of the trickiest DIY projects on the list! A particularly hearty variation of the Martini, the Gibson adds a pickled onion into the cocktail’s classic mix of gin and dry vermouth. Martini lovers, homemade cocktail onions can add a truly personal touch to your Gibson, and making them is a really simple process with results that are infinitely better than store-bought alternatives.
Using fresh onions, rather than pre-peeled frozen ones, is important. Not only are they generally much larger, they maintain their shape and crunch better throughout the process.
Ingredients
- 400 g pearl onions
- 500 ml vinegar
- 100 ml dry vermouth
- 3 small bay leaves
- 4 black peppercorns
- 2 cloves
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (toasted)
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
Method
- Combined all the ingredients excluding pearl onion in a pan.
- Bring it to simmer, then remove the pan from flame and let it cool down to room temperature.
- After the liquid cools down, pour the liquid over the onions in a jar and cover for two weeks.
Try on these DIY projects to game up your cocktails at home!
