Orgeat cocktail with limited bar?

[lutefisk]

I'm getting married this weekend - a country wedding in the Catskills - and I want to have a signature drink. I really like orgeat, so I'm making a big homemade batch right now. The thing is, our venue's bar is limited. Any suggestions for a tasty cocktail using selections from the following?

Orgeat (homemade)

Liquors

Vodka (Absolut, Smirnoff)

Gin (Tanqueray)

Rum (Bacardi)

Tequila (Jose Cuervo)

Scotch (Johnny Walker Red)

Whiskey (Seagrams 7, Jack Daniels)

Sweet and Dry Vermouths

Triple Sec

Mixers

Pepsi

Diet Pepsi

7-Up

Ginger Ale

Seltzer

OJ

Cranberry

Other

Various Beers

Red wine (Cabernet)

White wine (Chardonnay)

I can also bring additional non-alcoholic ingredients, but we're having 100 people and I don't want to spend too much more money, so...bitters, lemons/limes, stuff like that I could pick up, but I don't want to go out and get cases of some other juice, soda, etc.

Extra special bonus points if you come up with something that's also good virgin.

Thanks everybody! If I use your recipe I'll make another batch and send you a bottle after the wedding.

[KatieLoeb]

Do they have a well brandy or cognac available? You could make Japanese cocktails with orgeat and lime juice if you had that...

[haresfur]

I like cocktails with whiskey, orgeat, and Fee's old fashioned bitters (you could use Angostura). But it looks like a coffee cocktail and not exactly festive. You could fake up something tiki with orgeat, rum, orange juice, cranberry, and maybe some triple sec. Research would be required but it would be approachable for the masses (i.e. sweet as heck). Lime would help.

[Relish]

Lutefisk, I too am a big fan of orgeat.

This may be too late for your event, but nevertheless...

The king of orgeat cocktails for me is the Mai Tai. If the Bacardi rum stocked by your bar is, or includes, the gold, or the 8-year, you could do those (rum, orgeat, triple sec, lime, mint is the classic recipe).

If the bar included some kind of Cognac/Brandy, you could do Scorpion Bowls (white rum, gin, cognac, white wine, lemon juice, orange juice, orgeat, mint -- is the ingredient list in "Killer Cocktails").

It seems like the simplest drink within the constraints of your bar, so long as you could add a bottle of Maraschino, would be David Wondrich's really pleasant "Pearlescent", also from his Killer Cocktails book:

2.5 oz vodka

2 tsp orgeat

1 tsp maraschino

lemon peel

However, and on point for your needs, the "bibulo.us" website notes that this drink does well as a batched pre-mixed drink:

http://www.metagrrrl...es-pearlescent/

If you went this route, I would just make sure that the servers be sure to shake the individual drinks with the lemon peel, as I consider this an essential element to the drink.

Because the total amount of maraschino is so small, one bottle would probably be enough for even a large gathering.

Congrats on your big day!

[FrogPrincesse]

You could try the Rio Bravo from PDT. It calls for cachaça but rum should work too, and it would be a good drink to showcase your homemade orgeat.

2 oz cachaça

0.75 oz lime juice

0.5 oz orgeat

3 slices peeled ginger

orange twist garnish

Muddle the ginger and orgeat in a mixing glass, add the other ingredients, shake with ice, strain, add the garnish.

[thirtyoneknots]

I know this is too late now, but Eastern Sour would be the best choice with that bar.