D-I-Y Party Fun: The literary bespoke cocktail

By Amy Bird

So you’re having a party. You want a centrepiece, something to make your party special and unique, and to give tongue-tied new acquaintances something to chat about. A cake? Maybe, but you need significant frosting skills or cash for a truly impressive one. An ice-sculpture? Ditto. Bespoke cocktails? Now we’re talking.

A very chic party.

I went with the bespoke cocktail approach for the launch party of my second novel this week. The talented mixologists of House of Wolf (http://houseofwolf.co.uk/drink/) shook up some masterful creations, but you can easily take a DIY approach. Here’s what you should think about for a truly conversation-worthy cocktail:

1. What is the theme of your party, and how can you reflect it in a drink? My novel is a thriller, so my initial thoughts were something dark and compelling with a twist (of lemon or lime). We ended up with melon zest, because that matched the…
2. Colour scheme. Have a favourite colour? Launching an idea or a design with a distinctive hue? Design the drinks accordingly. The cover of my book is green, so we majored on mint, basil and melon.
3. What will you call your drinks? My book is called ‘Three Steps Behind You’ and is about a crime writer who believes he has to experience everything in order to write about it – method writing, basically. So we had the Three Steps Mojito and The Method-tini.
4. How will you recreate that cool, cocktail bar feel? At the Apothecary, they chalked the drinks up by the bar. You can do that at home with a mini-blackboard. That way, everyone gets to see the genius titles you’ve created.
5. What if you don’t want to design your own drink? Don’t worry, you needn’t be a master-mixologist. There are some great designs already out there. Check out this site for some literary-themed suggestions: http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/25-brilliant-and-literary-inspired-mixed-drinks/

Amy in launch mode.

And voila! In the flash of a cocktail shaker, you have some very excited guests, who are suddenly talking much more freely. Particularly if you’re generous with your measures.

Three Steps Behind You is published by Carina UK, the digital imprint of Harlequin UK and is available now from Amazon and other e-retailers. You can find out more at www.amybirdwrites.com or follow her on twitter @London_writer