The Ultimate Girls’ Night Cocktail Menu

The ultimate girls’ night cocktail menu, if people are going to finish the drinks, is four proper serves for four adults. Not a lecture, and not a pile of sweet pink things chosen for the colour. Grapefruit gin, bourbon and blackberry, a classic margarita, and a bitter spritz with enough gin to taste like a decision. Keep a lighter Aperol glass for anyone who asks. I would print this and stop.

Four people is a friendly number. You can juice in advance, you can keep one bottle of each spirit, and you are not running a bar. I would offer two of the four in any given hour, not all of them at once. Choice is good. A twelve-drink list is how the ice runs out and the host stops talking.

What this menu is for

The brief I gave myself was simple. Everyone gets a full-strength drink unless they ask for the lighter spritz. Nothing requires a speciality bottle you will use once. The food can be cheese, crisps, and something salty from a shop. You are there to be in the room, not to perform. If a guest wants wine instead, open the wine. A menu is an offer, not a uniform.

Grapefruit is here because it is bitter and bright, not because it is pink. Blackberry likes bourbon, and three berries will not turn the glass into jam. The margarita is the tequila drink people actually mean. The spritz has bubbles, and Campari so it does not taste like fizzy pop.

Grapefruit gin, bitter and bright

This is the long one, and the gin is 50 ml rather than 60 because the grapefruit juice is doing real work. Built in the glass, it is the easiest drink to repeat.

• 50 ml gin
• 30 ml pink grapefruit juice
• 15 ml lime juice
• 10 ml simple syrup
• Cold soda, to top, over ice

Shake the gin, juices and syrup with ice, strain over fresh ice, and top with soda. For four: 200 ml gin, 120 ml grapefruit, 60 ml lime, 40 ml syrup. Keep that jug cold and add soda in the glass, never in the jug. Pink grapefruit from a carton is fine if it is unsweetened. If it is already sugary, drop the syrup.

Bourbon and blackberry

A smash, not a dessert. Three berries, not a punnet, so the bourbon stays in charge.

• 60 ml bourbon
• 3 blackberries
• 20 ml lemon juice
• 15 ml simple syrup

Muddle the berries with the syrup and lemon, add the bourbon and ice, shake, and strain over fresh ice. Double strain if you hate seeds. For four: 12 blackberries, 80 ml lemon, 60 ml syrup, 240 ml bourbon. Muddle fruit with lemon and syrup, strain the pips, then add bourbon and keep it cold. Shake each serve. Frozen berries need twenty minutes on the counter or they stay as ice.

A classic margarita

No bottled mix, no sugar rim the colour of a highlighter. This is the drink I actually want.

• 60 ml tequila, blanco
• 25 ml lime juice
• 20 ml triple sec

Shake hard with ice and strain over fresh ice, or up into a chilled coupe. Salt is a separate decision, which I have set out under salt, no salt or Tajín. For four: 240 ml tequila, 100 ml lime, 80 ml triple sec, in the fridge, shaken to order. Salt the rim, not the tin, or the next drink from that shaker will be briny.

A spritz with a backbone, and a lighter one

An Aperol spritz is fine when someone wants it lighter. It is not the only spritz, and it is not the one I would pour if the table wants a drink they can still taste after the crisps. My house version puts gin and Campari in the glass and uses prosecco as the lengthener, not the entire point.

• 30 ml Campari
• 30 ml gin
• 20 ml lemon juice
• Cold prosecco, to top

Stir Campari, gin and lemon with ice, strain over fresh ice in a wine glass, and top with prosecco. An orange slice is enough. For four, pre-mix 120 ml Campari, 120 ml gin and 80 ml lemon. Prosecco goes in the glass only. The lower-alcohol option, labelled on the card, is 60 ml Aperol, 90 ml prosecco and 30 ml soda, over ice. For four, 240 ml Aperol, with bubbles added as you pour. It is a lighter drink. Say so.

How to run the hour

Shop one gin, one bourbon, one blanco tequila, Campari, a small Aperol if you want the lighter glass, triple sec, prosecco, soda, lemons, limes, pink grapefruit, blackberries, sugar and an orange. Juice in the afternoon. Simple syrup is equal parts caster sugar and water, stirred clear. Make more than one evening needs.

Ice is the thing that sinks this menu. Four people, two rounds, highballs and rocks glasses: fill a bowl twice the size you think, and keep a spare bag in the freezer. Build the grapefruit highballs and the spritzes in the glass. Shake the blackberry and the margarita. If you want the longer version of this arithmetic, including how not to water a jug down, that is how to batch cocktails.

Put the four specs on a card so people can order without a speech. Water goes on the table in a jug you would not be embarrassed by. One round, then food, then ask who wants a second and which. The menu works because it is short, the measures are honest, and nobody has to drink something silly to be welcome.

These are full-strength serves for adults of legal drinking age. One is a drink, not a starter. If you are driving, pregnant, or on medication, skip the alcohol.