Cocktail Mixers

Have a New Year's party at your own house this year? Playing bartender for the night could mean your work's cut out for you, so instead, make simple cocktail mixers ahead of time, and let your guests mix them with an alcohol of their choice. I've toyed around with a few and come up with three that'd be perfect for New Year's Eve in fresh fruit flavors: cranberry mint, grapefruit basil and pomegranate citrus.
All three of these mixers would marry well with a host of spirits, even sparkling wine. I mixed the cranberry mint in a shaker with rum for a refreshing holiday drink, while I mixed the grapefruit basil with vodka for a more herbaceous version of a salty dog. The pomegranate citrus served as an easy topper to a flute of sparkling wine (for extra flair, float in a few pomegranate seeds, too). I also recommend keeping sparkling water on hand to mix with as a nonalcoholic drink.

Set up a bar before your guests arrive with glasses, buckets of ice, pomegranate seeds, lemon slices and a couple of shakers to ensure your guests and yourself can celebrate into the midnight hour. Mix up your New Year's by reading more for this simple mixers.

Maybe The Cheesecake Factory was on to something with its new skinny cocktail program. At this year's Winter Fancy Foods Show, it was all about the health-oriented cocktail.

At food expos, cocktail mixers are nothing new, but at this week's show, it seemed like there were few liquid mixers that wasn't a fruit puree touting therapeutic benefits, fewer calories, sugar-free substances, Stevia sweetener, or a low glycemic index.

While the idea's great in theory, too many of these faddy food products were also skinny on taste. What do you think of low-calorie cocktail mixers?