The 20 best drinks for your garden party

Summer is the season for an exuberant garden party with good drinks. Whether on the beach, in the park or in your own garden - people like to party everywhere. But before the summer break can get underway, many hosts face the annual agonizing questions: What to buy? And above all, how much?

We have selected 20 great drinks for you that will make every garden party a hit. We also have some exciting tips on how to buy the right amount of drinks and how you can chill them without a fridge. But let's start at the beginning.

Preparation: Calculating drinks for your garden party

Buying for parties is often like a game of chance. You usually buy far too much and then years later find bottles from that one party where you actually wanted to mix cocktails but everyone wanted wine spritzers. Or - the horror scenario - the garden party is over far too early because the beer didn't even last until midnight. There are a few things to bear in mind to ensure that neither of these things happen to you.

Anyone planning a garden party should consider a few things

1. what will the weather be like?

Anyone celebrating outdoors should always keep an eye on the weather radar. And not just because of the rain. Although the gray clouds have already caused one or two garden parties to literally fall through, parties on rainy days can usually be postponed or simply moved indoors. Much more important, however, is the temperature. This is because high temperatures reduce the desire for alcoholic drinks. At 30°C in the shade, people are usually more thirsty for light beers or tart or dry spritzers than for cocktails and sweet or even creamy drinks.

2. what are my guests like?

Calculating the right drinks for a party is an art in itself. Also because the drinking habits of guests vary greatly. So take a close look at your guest list: Who likes wine, who prefers beer, who needs non-alcoholic drinks and who can tolerate a shot or two? Of course, your calculations will also depend on this: if you have a lot of wine drinkers among your guests, you will need little to no beer. If there are a few boozeheads among your friends, you might want to pack an extra bottle of spirits in the basket.

3. less is more

We've all been there: for fear of looking like a bad host, you usually buy a huge range of alcoholic drinks in case someone asks for the whisky aged in a special barrel or the delicious cocktail from last time. However, half of the bottles usually remain untouched because everyone ends up sticking to one drink. It's therefore better to stick to a small selection of drinks that you can then get away with. This also applies to cocktail parties in the garden: it's best to make a small selection of drinks that you want to mix beforehand. This will not only make it easier for you to calculate which spirits you really need, but will also prevent you from getting bogged down between 18 different cocktail recipes.

Still looking for the right cocktails for your party? Here you'll find one in every color of the rainbow!

Once you've taken another look at the weather forecast and decided on a few drinks, it's time to get down to business: How much beer, wine and soft drinks per person should you buy for your garden party now? The bad news is that it's impossible to give exact figures, as drinking habits are simply far too individual. Even drinks calculators can only ever provide guidelines and never exact calculations.

We have collected the best drink recommendations for your garden party

The good news: there are rules of thumb that have proven their worth. On average, you can say that two liters of beer, half a liter of wine and half a liter of lemonade and/or soft drinks per person is a reasonable guideline. Bear in mind that even this figure is only a rough guide. If your guests almost exclusively drink beer or you have some friends who drink little to no alcohol, you should adjust your shopping list accordingly.

Drink recommendations for your garden party

Instead of simply buying the standard drinks from the supermarket for your garden party, you can also surprise your guests with special drinks that not everyone has heard of. There is only one rule for outdoor parties: refreshing drinks are a must! So here are our top XX recommendations for super fresh beers, wines & co:

Beer & shandy - also non-alcoholic

For a successful garden party, we recommend light and hoppy beers and non-alcoholic beers that refresh the palate. They don't just have to be pale varieties - red beers or light dark beers can also be perfect for sunny days: