This post may contain affiliate links from which I may earn commission from qualifying purchases at no cost to you.
Our dining room bar in our new home
To help set the scene: it was the night of our first real party since we moved into our new home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, last December. My husband, Erik, and I were dressed as the twins from The Shining.
Did I mention that Erik is 6’7”? 😂
Our corgis, Coco and Ringo, were dressed as a cave woman and Chucky. You'd think the corgi costumes would’ve been the talk of the night. They weren't.
They got a lot of sympathy treats that night with those sad faces
The talk of the night was a mini keg full of apple cider mimosas.
About 30 people came through our house that night. We refilled that keg three times, and somewhere between refill two and refill three I lost count of how many people asked me for the recipe.
So here it is, for everyone who asked and everyone hosting this season: the exact apple cider mimosa recipe we served, with prosecco, apple cider, a splash of brandy, and a little apple pie liqueur. It can scale from 2 people to 40, which makes it a natural fit for Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, or any holiday party. I've included a bonus caramel pear martini for when the crowd thins out, plus the hosting gear I reach for every time people come over, from the cocktail shaker to the hot tub cups.
Our living room is one of my favorite spots in the new house
We moved, and I haven't stopped hosting since
We moved last year, and I’ve been in full hosting mode ever since. Somebody is always in the hot tub or asking “wait, how did you make this?,” so when Erik and I threw our first Halloween party, the house finally felt like ours.
I’ve learned the fastest way to fall in love with a house is to fill it with people. Here’s the thing that sucks about my job: I’m gone a lot. As a small-group tour operator, I spend a big portion of the year on the road with our travelers, which means a big chunk of the year my own house is a very expensive place to store a suitcase. So when I’m home, I’m making up for lost time. I’m obsessed with our new place, and I truly love making food and drinks for people.
So I spent most of the summer hosting small gatherings with campfires and cocktails on the patio, homemade pizzas from our backyard pizza oven, charcuterie boards made with my many random international food purchases, and a lot of practice on our cocktail-making skills (we’re very dedicated students).
Our house is very mid-century modern with an international flair, so it's no surprise it holds some of my favorite travel treasures. A good chunk came home in my suitcase from the souks (here's what I bought in Marrakech and how I got it home).
The funny part is that I haven’t had to buy much for any of it. Years of Camp Lola Whiskey and past parties left me with a cabinet full of shakers, dispensers, and drinkware nobody can break. It turns out all that camp gear was hosting gear the whole time.
Hosting at home when I’m not traveling is quite possibly my favorite low-stakes version of Type 2 fun, the kind that’s miserable in the middle and great in the retelling. The prep is the miserable middle: the shopping, the cleaning, the batching, the moment you’re standing in a messy kitchen an hour before guests arrive wondering why you always do this to yourself. Then the doorbell rings, and by the second keg refill, nobody remembers the prep—especially me.
The apple cider mimosa recipe
The Good Wives, one of my favorite brunch spots in Eau Claire, serves an apple cider mimosa on weekends, and every fall I order it and think, this is the perfect fall drink. So when we started planning a party for 30 and wanted to batch some cocktails in our mini-keg, I knew exactly what was going in it.
I hate blogs that tell a long story when all I really want is the recipe, so let’s get straight to the reason you’re probably here. The recipe is equal parts apple cider and brut prosecco, with a little brandy and apple pie liqueur for depth. For reference, 1 bottle of prosecco and 3 cups of cider make about 8 drinks. A gallon jug of cider covers 5 bottles of prosecco, or about 40 drinks, which is roughly what 30 thirsty Halloween guests will get through (although our crowd powered through a lot more).
There she is, in all her glory
Apple Cider Mimosa
Serves 8 (6 oz pours) · Prep 10 minutes
Ingredients
1 bottle (750 ml) brut prosecco or cava, well chilled
3 cups (24 oz) apple cider, well chilled
2 oz brandy (apple brandy or Calvados if you have it)
1 oz apple pie liqueur, add more if you prefer
Cinnamon sticks for garnish (or a cinnamon-sugar rim and a thin apple slice if you're feeling fancy)
Instructions
Chill everything in the fridge for a few hours. Warm cider will kill the bubbles fast.
Pour the cider, brandy, and apple pie liqueur into your pitcher or dispenser.
Tilt the container and pour the prosecco slowly down the side to avoid it getting too bubbly. Stir once, gently.
Serve within about 30 minutes.
How to make it for a crowd
Scale by the bottle. Each bottle of prosecco adds about 8 drinks.
Date night (4 drinks): ½ bottle prosecco, 1½ cups cider, 1 oz brandy, ½ oz apple pie liqueur
Dinner party (8 drinks): 1 bottle prosecco, 3 cups cider, 2 oz brandy, 1 oz apple pie liqueur
Friendsgiving (16 drinks): 2 bottles prosecco, 6 cups cider, 4 oz brandy, 2 oz apple pie liqueur
Mini keg, 128 oz (about 18 drinks): 2 bottles prosecco, 6½ cups cider, 4 oz brandy, 2 oz apple pie liqueur. A keg needs empty space at the top to hold pressure, so don't fill it to the brim.
Glass dispenser, 1.5 gallons (about 21 drinks): 2½ bottles prosecco, 7 cups cider, 5 oz brandy, 2½ oz apple pie liqueur
If you like it drier and fizzier, go one part cider to two parts bubbly. This is honestly pretty hard to mess up, so do what tastes good.
In an open pitcher or dispenser, a big batch of prosecco goes flat faster than single glasses do, so mix it no more than about 30 minutes ahead. A mini keg with CO2 solves that, which is how ours survived three refills and 30 people. We have both the generic Amazon version (cheaper, but not as insulated) and the much more expensive Keggy. If you don’t have a keg, you can also put the cider in a glass dispenser and the prosecco on ice next to it, and let guests top off their own glasses.
For later in the night: the caramel pear martini
Once the keg's empty and the crowd's down to the people who stay till the end, I switch to a caramel pear martini. It's a pear martini dressed for fall, with caramel striped down the glass and shaken right into the drink. The secret outside of pear vodka is two liqueurs: Licor 43 for a warm vanilla flavor, and Mathilde Poire, a French pear liqueur made from pressed Bartlett pears, for a pear-on-pear hit. The glass needs a few minutes in the freezer, so stripe a few early and leave them there until you need them.
The caramel pear martini: caramel on the glass and in the shaker.
Caramel Pear Martini
Serves 1 · Prep 5 minutes, plus freezer time for the glass
Ingredients
2 oz pear-flavored vodka (I use Absolut or Grey Goose)
½ oz Licor 43
½ oz Mathilde Poire pear liqueur
1 oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz Torani or Monin caramel syrup
1 tsp Torani or Ghirardelli caramel sauce, for striping the glass
1 pinch flaky sea salt (optional)
1 pear slice, for garnish
Instructions
Stripe the glass. Warm the bottle of caramel sauce between your hands for about 10 seconds to loosen it, then drizzle it in lines down the inside of a martini glass. If you like, dab a little on part of the rim and add a pinch of flaky sea salt.
Set the caramel. Put the striped glass in the freezer so the caramel firms up and the glass gets ice-cold.
Shake. Add the vodka, Licor 43, Mathilde Poire, lemon juice, and caramel syrup to a shaker with plenty of ice. Shake hard.
Strain and serve. Double-strain into the striped glass and perch a pear slice on the rim.
To make a batch of four: shake it with 8 oz vodka, 2 oz Licor 43, 2 oz Mathilde Poire, 4 oz lemon juice, and 2 oz caramel syrup. My High Camp shaker handles batching perfectly.
And on that note…
What I use to host (and what's survived every party)
These are the things I reach for almost every time people come over.
Bar tools
Serving up cocktails at Camp Lola Whiskey with our High Camp Highball Shaker
My High Camp shaker is what I use for batching cocktails. High Camp makes my favorite wine and cocktail flask too, so I'm exceptionally loyal.
A citrus zester and channel knife does two jobs. One side zests and the other cuts long lemon twists, which is how a drink goes from "fine" to "where did you learn that?" Keep it close for a lemon twist in the caramel pear martini.
These waiter's corkscrews come in a two-pack, and I buy them in bulk. Airport security takes a wine key off me multiple times a year, usually along with whatever else I forgot was in my bag. At home they never leave the bar cart, and the double hinge pulls a cork out smooth instead of in crumbs.
Batching and serving
The Bebly is a game changer for boxed wine
This 128 oz mini keg is what we served the mimosas from. We ordered a Keggy and waited so long for it to arrive that we bought this as a backup, figuring we'd use both. We were right: the Keggy had the vodka sodas, and this one had the mimosas. A CO2 cartridge keeps the prosecco bubbly much longer than a pitcher does, and the cooler jacket keeps it cold.
This set of two 1.5-gallon glass drink dispensers is what I use all the time for batched cocktails or infused water. They sit side by side on a metal stand, high enough that you can get a glass under the spigot without dangling it off the table edge. Each one has a chalkboard label, so guests know which one is the punch and which one is the "punch."
Bebly is the best for wine. It turns an ordinary box of wine into something you'd want sitting on the counter. Bebly sponsored Camp Lola Whiskey in 2025, and it's been at every party since.
A chilled garnish caddy has five lidded compartments that sit over ice. Fill it with apple slices, cinnamon sticks, pear slices, and lemon twists, and you've got a mimosa bar where guests garnish their own drinks. It also does taco night.
Glasses your friends can't break
Friend-proof glasses that still look like you tried.
These sage green plastic champagne flutes and matching stemless wine glasses are friend-proof. They come in a 12-pack, hold 7 oz each, and the retro green looks like a thrift-store find instead of party supplies. They're our go-to when friends come over, and nobody has to sweep up glass at 1 a.m. We even used them at our surprise wedding.
These ribbed acrylic coupes from Khen come in a set of six in muted colors with an Art Deco ribbed design that reads like vintage glassware. They hold 8 oz, so they work for a martini, a margarita, or a pour of bubbly. They fit right in with our mid-century house, and nobody has to know they're shatterproof.
Glassware for the friends you trust
Just a small snippet of our extensive glassware collection at home
If you trust your guests a little more, these blush pink Art Deco gin glasses are adorable. They're a set of four 13.5 oz crystal balloons with gold rims that look like they came from a 1920s speakeasy. Pour them a G&T with the gin I infuse with Indian spices.
I love these hand-blown colored martini glasses so much. They're a set of six 14 oz coupes, each a different jewel tone, with a faceted surface that catches the light. Every guest gets their own color, so nobody loses track of their drink. This is where the caramel pear martini goes when I'm feeling fancy.
These Saludi hand-blown coupes are beautiful. They're a set of six 10 oz coupes in bold colors, seamless and lead-free, and they feel expensive in your hand (’cause they kinda are). They're the splurge set, so they come out for the espresso martinis and the friends who've earned them.
Outdoor and hot tub
A party isn’t a party without some tunes, and I have zero regrets about buying this JBL Authentics 300 speaker. It’s beautiful and useful enough to have earned a permanent home right on my kitchen counter, and I can unplug it and take it down to the hot tub without missing a beat.
The YETI Beverage Bucket. It felt like a silly splurge when I got it, but we use this thing constantly. It holds a six-pack or three bottles of wine on ice, but we mostly use it for extra ice. It's double-wall insulated so the ice lasts, and it goes from the coffee table to the hot tub and back. Mine is Sandstone Pink, which matches our house so well it looks planned (it wasn't).
The RTIC Happy Hour 12 oz wine tumbler is for cocktails on the go, and it's the perfect hot tub cup. It's insulated stainless steel with a ceramic lining, so a cocktail doesn't taste like metal, and the lid snaps on so nothing sloshes into the hot tub (’cause our guests never drop things in the hot tub). The soft-touch outside doesn't sweat, and nothing breaks if it gets knocked off the edge or falls in.
These Stanley Stay-Hot Stacking Cups are 10 oz and insulated, and we use them all the time for smaller cocktails. They have a press-in lid, they stack inside each other, and they keep a cold drink cold for hours.
On the coffee table
This green checkered tray earns its keep in our home. It's 12 inches across, with shell hand-inlaid by Vietnamese artisans, and it's a bit mid-century meets beach house. On a normal day it holds a candle and a book, and when people are over, it holds a round of drinks.
Rebel School of Wine by Tyler Balliet is a great coffee table book. It's bright, illustrated, and cheeky, and it skips the wine snobbery entirely. Guests pick it up, flip to a region, and suddenly we're debating natural wine at 11 p.m. If you want the wine story that changed how I think about it, that happened in Georgia, the country that taught me what wine is actually for.
More of my favorites live in my Kitchen & Dining Style list on Amazon.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
More cocktails I brought home from somewhere
Almost every drink I make at home started on a trip.
The Cuban cocktails I learned in Havana, from the mojito to the canchánchara
The gin I infuse with Indian spices after India
The drinks we poured at Camp Lola Whiskey and our signature camp cocktails
The ultimate Wisconsin Bloody Mary, for the morning after
Apple cider mimosa questions I actually get asked
Can I make apple cider mimosas the night before?
Mix the cider, brandy, and liqueur the night before and keep the batch in the fridge. Add the prosecco no more than about 30 minutes before guests arrive (unless it's going in a keg with CO2), or it'll be flat by the second round.
What's the best prosecco for cider mimosas?
Use anything labeled brut, which means dry. The cider brings plenty of sweetness, so a sweet sparkling wine tips it into dessert. Cava works just as well and is often cheaper—this isn’t a drink to splurge on since you’ll barely taste it.
How do I make the cinnamon-sugar rim?
Run a cut apple slice around the rim instead of water. The apple juice is a little sticky, so the cinnamon sugar actually holds. Do the glasses an hour ahead and they'll be dry and set when people arrive.
Can I make it without alcohol?
Yes. Swap the prosecco for sparkling apple cider or plain sparkling water and skip the brandy and liqueur. It's still festive in the dispenser, and nobody has to explain why they aren't drinking.
When the party's over and you want the next story
If your favorite part of hosting is the stories that come out around the drinks, you'd fit right in on our trips. We're Type 2 Travel, a small-group travel company for people who'd rather sit in a local's kitchen than on a tour bus. Over half of our travelers show up alone and leave with a crew.
