Post #645689 by Chip and Andy on Thu, Jul 26, 2012 10:36 AM

Basic rules of being a host apply in situations like this.... you should make your guests comfortable and focus on making the evening as pleasant for everyone as possible.

If you are entertaining a few people (3 to 5) then you can make a show of making a fancy drink our pouring some top-shelf or rare thing. You can talk story about what you pouring and why.

If you are entertaining a small group (3 to 10) then you can't spend as much time focusing on what your pouring so it is probably a good idea to keep it simple. Have something that will make the most amount of people happy and then 'get fancy' when asked or when the time is right.

If you are entertaining a large group (10 or more) then you are hosting a completely different kind of party and shouldn't spend any amount of time behind the bar because that is time spent away from your guests and as the host it is your responsibility to make sure you get to spend as much time as you can with each of them. It is usually a good idea to put your best booze out of reach for large parties so the guest who ventures behind your bar doesn't start pouring shots out of the lemon hart bottle with the teeny-tiny little red triangle on the label .

Basically it comes down to what makes your guests happy.... If you guests are happy with the mixer-and-a-shot drinks then line up the shot glasses and get to pouring.