Garden party drinks: what to serve and how to keep it all cold

Drinks outside are different from drinks in the kitchen. Everything warms up faster, glasses get knocked over on the grass, the wasps find the lemonade and the fridge is a walk away. Plan for that and the garden does the rest.

Make it by the jug

Jugs are the best friend of anyone hosting outdoors. You make one, put it on the table and people help themselves while you get on with something else. Two or three are plenty:

• Pimm’s. One part Pimm’s to three parts lemonade, with cucumber, strawberries, orange and mint. It’s the garden party drink for a reason.

• Something with wine. A white wine spritzer with soda and lemon, or a rosé with a splash of elderflower.

• One without alcohol that looks just as good. Elderflower cordial with sparkling water, lime and mint does it.

Add the ice to each jug just before it goes out, not when you make it, or you’ll be serving squash by four o’clock.

Keep the rest simple

Next to the jugs you only need a few things: a cold lager, a cider, a bottle of white and a bottle of rosé. Outdoors is no place for the drink that needs a shaker and three garnishes. For a fuller list and how to lay it out, see what to put on your home bar menu.

How to keep everything cold

The sun is working against you all afternoon. A few things help:

• Chill everything before it goes in the cool box. A cool box keeps cold things cold. It’s slow at making warm things cold.

• Use a block of ice, not just cubes. It melts far more slowly. A tub of water frozen overnight does the job.

• Keep drinks ice and glass ice separate. The ice that has been round the cans isn’t the ice anyone wants in their Pimm’s.

• Put the cool box in the shade, with the lid shut, and send people to it rather than leaving bottles out on the table.

• A bath or a paddling pool full of ice and water chills bottles faster than ice alone, if you’re expecting a crowd.

Glasses, wasps and the grass

• Reusable plastic tumblers are kinder to bare feet than glass on a lawn.

• Cover jugs with a clean tea towel or a plate between pours. Wasps go for sweet drinks first.

• Give people a way to tell their glass from the next one: a pen, a clip or a bit of ribbon.

• Put a bin and a washing-up bowl near the drinks, so empties go back to one place.

Don’t forget the water

A sunny afternoon and a few drinks is how people end up with a headache by six. Keep a big jug of water with ice and lemon on the table all day, and make the soft drinks good enough that people choose them.

Let them order from the deckchair

If you would rather not be walking back and forth across the garden, let people order from their phones. With Orders Up your garden bar gets its own menu and QR code; guests choose a drink and say where they’re sitting, and it lands on your phone. The Garden Grill look was made for exactly this.

Questions people ask

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