It is not necessarily important to understand what your guests or friends desire to drink because essentially they may drink what ever you offer but during holiday seasons this changes so you need to be prepared and be armed with the most suitable ingredients.
Getting your guests to create their own cocktails or ending up having to produce cocktails for your guests may not be the best alternative for some people as it is very inefficient. The best way to tackle this is by finding a barrista who knows make cocktails. You can then equip him with a list of the top 10 classic cocktails and he can then start creating them and the host can focus on their guests and enjoy their party. Of course this will cost money but it will be worth it in the end. You're able to then watch people sipping on am old fashioned or cosmopolitans whilst appreciating that somebody else will take care of the order. It may be even better if he stayed to clean up the mess afterwards too but that may be a little too much unless he/she offers that type of service or you plan this from the start. Asking your guests to help you clean up at the end of the night is not ideal and not advisable. Having to deal with the trash the next morning is also not great so perhaps a cleaner or a helpful mate is a effective alternative.
Assuming you have guests who are very picky and ask for sour cocktails then the white lady cocktail should be on the top of your sour drinks menu. It is not hard at all to make and you just need fresh lemon juice as a mixer. It is recommended to squeeze the lemon juice in the morning as it will give it a natural sweetness which will be necessary as it won't taste great otherwise. Many of the drinks that contain lemon juice will be favored by guests who appreciate a sour cocktail and it definitely is one of the top classic cocktails out there. A similar option is a tom collins but it is nowhere near as tasty as the white lady.
The holidays are starting and you hope to delight your guests but you just don’t want to settle for the same old drink options much like beer and wine. What might you do? Create cocktails! Your guests will truly appreciate it. You could pin a list of cocktail names to the wall and let people pick. Below each cocktail name you can include the ingredients they will require and then they can start shaking or stirring their very own cocktail. Be sure that you have shakers, ice and nicely shaped glasses available to give it that professional touch. Fresh fruit juice will be muchly appreciated too. You will also require sufficient brown sugar for a mojito cocktail.