The 2016 Academy Awards are fast approaching, and if you’re anything like us, you’ll use the Oscars as an excuse to don your finest party wear, pop some corn, get cozy with a box of Raisinets, and indulge in fancified Sunday night drinking.
Of course, this particular scenario is more fun with friends–and festive, Hollywood-inspired Oscars cocktails. That’s why we’ve rounded up a few drink recipes that are perfect for your Academy Awards viewing party. No matter if you’ll be serving a few or a gaggle of guests and regardless of your drinking style or bartending skills, there’s an option here for you.
Like a well-tailored suit or little black dress, the Classic Champagne Cocktail instantly elevates the atmosphere of any party.
Option 1: Simple Sparklers
Nothing complements a night dedicated to fancy people lauding and fawning over each other better than something luxuriously bubbly and golden-hued. And while you would not be remiss just to pop a few bottles of sparkling wine, you could also use awards night as an excuse to up your champagne game with one or two special but easy-to-prepare drinks, like a Classic Champagne Cocktail or Kir Royale 2.0.
A Kir Royale 2.0 puts a molecular gastronomic twist on the champagne and blackcurrant cocktail.
Classic Champagne Cocktail
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients
1 sugar cube
Cocktail bitters
5 ounces Champagne or sparkling wine, chilled
Kir Royale 2.0
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients
1 tsp Blackcurrant Flavor Pearls
5 ounces champagne or sparkling wine, chilled
Option 2: Brooklyn Cocktails for a Crowd
The Brooklyn Cocktail can be made and bottled in advance for easy serving.
You’d be hard pressed to come up with a more fitting cocktail for this year’s Oscars than the Brooklyn, given that a best picture nominee shares its name.
“Brooklyn” the movie is the story of Eilis Lacey (played by Saoirse Ronan), a young Irish immigrant who, in the 1950s, seeks a better life for herself in United States. Once settled, she falls in love with a first-generation Italian-American, but their romance is soon threatened by the protagonist’s sense of familial duty and ties to her homeland.
The Brooklyn Cocktail has come in many iterations over the years, but this version relies on a balanced blend of whiskey (use Irish whiskey if you really want to play up the movie theme), dry vermouth, Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur, and a bitter Italian (not unlike Eilis’s love interest) Amaro.
What’s more, absence of fresh juice make the Brooklyn Cocktail ideal for preparing and bottling in large batches in advance of your party. Here, we’ve done the math for you, so you can be sure you maintain the correct ratio of ingredients.
Large-Batch Brooklyn Cocktail
Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
18 ounces rye whiskey
6 ounces dry vermouth
3 ounces Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
3 ounces Italian Amaro (we used Ramazzotti)
Option 3: Revenant Rum Punch
Punch is perhaps the greatest party cocktail. It looks special, especially when it’s served in a handsome bowl; it can be made ahead of time; and it serves guest en masse with ease.
This particular punch recipe is just the sort of thing contemporaries of “The Revenant” character Hugh Glass (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) might have sipped on blustery nights. It is based on the historically significant recipe for Philadelphia Fish House Punch, which was regularly served to members of a gentlemen’s social club in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Revenant Rum Punch
Yield: 15 servings
Ingredients
4 cups dark Jamaican rum
2 cups cognac
½ cup lemon oleo saccharum
1 cup lemon juice
½ cup pineapple juice
3 cups black tea, chilled
1 cup water
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