Another is that if your idea of hospitality requires that you serve "different" drinks as often as possible, there arc innumerable sources you can tap for recipes. You can also try any sort of mixture your fancy dictates and come up with your own inventions. As with food, however, never try out a new drink on guests until you've sampled it yourselves.

   There are a few basic principles to remember with alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks: they will be exactly as good as their ingredients; cold drinks should be served ice cold and hot drinks, hot. In mixing cocktails you should ice only exactly as many as will serve one round-then start over again for the next. Use iced glasses for cold drinks, if it is at all possible.

   There are all kinds of gins, whiskies, rums, and brandies. Your own taste will dictate which you buy. Again, if you think you've found a bargain, or for some other reason have bought a brand hitherto unfamiliar to you, taste it before you present it to guests.

   It is wise to use a measure in making drinks, no matter how fine a "bartender's wrist" you may think you have. When you once discover what is, to you, the perfect blend for a Martini, you can make it again if you measure the ingredients. You will also discover at a large party where highballs are being served that far less whisky is consumed if a measure is used. Those bartenders' wrists tend to loosen up as an evening progresses! A jigger, which is frequently the base of drink recipes, is an ounce and a half, though bar measures can be obtained for a variety of quantities.

cocktails

Martinis

   These you will make according to your taste. When you have decided exactly what you like, always measure for a consistent result. A sweet Martini is made of 1/2 gin and 1/2 Italian sweet Vermouth. A very dry Martini is made of 4 or 5 parts dry gin to 1 part dry Vermouth. You can, however, make a Martini in any proportion of dry gin to dry Vermouth which suits your fancy. Some like a dash of orange bitters in Martinis; others no bitters at all. Ordinarily, Martinis are stirred with ice, though some very good bars shake them. It is customary to serve Martinis with a twist of lemon peel or a small pitted olive in them.

Gibson

   A Gibson is a dry Martini with a small pearl onion in it, and some people put a drop of the onion juice in also.

Manhattan

   2 parts rye whisky to 1 part Italian sweet Vermouth, with a dash of bitters to suit your taste. Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass in which there is a maraschino cherry.