Cocktail menu tasting before a wedding or private event

A menu tasting is the meeting where hosts choose the cocktails for their event by drinking them, not by reading a list. Book it a few weeks before the date, once the headcount and venue are roughly known. Prepare a short selection built from what they told you — four to six cocktails, in small serves, including an alcohol-free option — and leave the meeting with a final menu, the number of serves per guest, the service times and what the venue provides. The tasting turns a vague brief into a plan you can buy and prep for.

Hosts describe cocktails in their own words: "something fresh", "not too sweet", "like the one we had on holiday". The same words mean different things to different people. A tasting settles it: they taste, react, and you adjust sweetness, strength or garnish on the spot. It also gives you what a brief rarely contains — whether they want a quick drink at the reception or a bar that runs all night, and how the bar fits around speeches, dinner and dancing.

Serve small portions in the glass you'll use on the day, so the hosts see what their guests will see. Start light and fresh, finish with the stronger or richer drinks, and keep water on the table. For each cocktail, ask what they like and what they would change, and adjust it in front of them. Note every choice as you go.

Couples and hosts may want one drink that belongs to the event: a name, a colour, a nod to where they met. Keep it simple enough to serve quickly to a crowd — a drink that takes several steps per glass slows the whole bar. Batching the base in advance can help, if the recipe allows it.

Give alcohol-free drinks the same care as the rest: a real recipe, the same glass, the same garnish. Let the hosts taste them too, so guests who don't drink get more than a soft drink.

Send a written summary afterwards, with the quote updated to match. It becomes the reference for both sides until the event.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. Create a tasting service and open slots for it at the length a tasting takes, one place per slot: the booking covers the couple or hosts who come together. Evenings and weekends suit hosts who work, and you can repeat slots each week on chosen weekdays until a date.

Durations and prices are examples: set your own, and say in the description whether the tasting fee is deducted from the event quote.

The public form asks for first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that you read in your new-booking email. In the service description, ask hosts to write the event date, venue and approximate headcount in the note, so you can prepare the right selection. The note can't be edited once the booking exists, so anything they learn later comes by message.

Clients can't move bookings online: they contact you, and you reschedule or cancel from your bookings list, then let them know yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Calendar sync (Google, iPhone, Mac) keeps tastings next to your events. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract. It doesn't take payments or deposits.