Top Mixed Drinks for the New Year

I'm planning to throw an engagement party. It's just but the best time of the year to spill the exciting news and welcome 2009 with a new milestone. Isn't it hitting two birds with one stone?

I might as well try some of the best mixed drinks listed by amateur mixologists at the Daily Top 10 to make the night truly unforgettable. These cocktail drinks are definitely a must-try.

1. Long Island iced tea Who says that it is just an ordinary iced tea. This was was first made by a bartender named Rosebud (Robert Butt)at the Oak Beach Inn in Hampton Bays near Long Island's Jones Beach in the 1970.
Recipe from cocktail.com

3/4 oz tequila
3/4 oz rum
3/4 oz gin
3/4 oz vodka
3/4 oz triple sec
3/4 oz sour mix
splash cola

Shake liquors with sour mix. Pour in hurricane or tall glass. Add splash of cola and garnish with a lemon wedge.

2. The Manhattan, also called as the "king of cocktails," has been considered a drinking man's cocktail: strong yet simple. It is one of the six basic drinks in David A. Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. This drink was said to have originated at the Manhattan Club, New York City (1870) for a banquet hosted by Winston Churchill's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, in honor of Samuel Tilden, a presidential candidate.

Recipe by: drinksmixer.com
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
2 1/2 oz bourbon whiskey
1 dash Angostura® bitters
1 maraschino cherry
1 twist orange peel

Combine the vermouth, bourbon whiskey, and bitters with 2 - 3 ice cubes in a mixing glass. Stir gently, don't bruise the spirits and cloud the drink. Place the cherry in a chilled cocktail glass and strain the whiskey mixture over the cherry. Rub the cut edge of the orange peel over the rim of the glass and twist it over the drink to release the oils but don't drop it in.

VARIATION: No bitters. Substitute a twist of lime for the cherry and orange. Hold the lime twist in a lighted match over the drink and then drop it in. The heat really zips up the lime flavor.

3. Margarita is surely my favorite cocktail drink.
Recipe by: drink-recipes.org.uk

1 1/2 oz Tequila
1 oz Lemon or lime juice
1/2 oz Triple Sec

Dip rim of glass in lemon juice then in salt. Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker / stirrer and pour into an unusually shaped glass. Add Crushed Ice and decorations to create a great speciality drink from an easy to make recipe !

The presentation of your classic Margarita speciality recipe is most important according to .drink-recipes.org.uk. By adding decorations like drink umbrellas, swizzle sticks, paper flowers, drink coasters, straws, or sparklers and by using attractive drinking glasses, your classic Margarita will be a hit. These add-ons are affordable and easy to find

4. The Martini Classic was stirred, "so as not to bruise the gin."According to W. Somerset Maugham, a famous English playright "martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other."James Bond of Albert R. Brocolli films was knwn to have ordered his shaken, not stirred".

Recipe by: in-the-spirit.co.uk

1 Shot Hendricks	Dry
1 Shot Noilly Prat Dry

Shake ingredients together well in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into chilled martini glass and serve. Garnish with sliver of lemon peel if desired.

5. Pina Colada/Blue Sky is known as the official beverage of Puerto Rico.

Recipe by drinksmixer.com

3 oz light rum
3 tbsp coconut cream
3 tbsp crushed pineapples

Put all ingredients into an electric blender with 2 cups of crushed ice. Blend at a high speed for a short length of time. Strain into a collins glass and serve with a straw.

Happy New Year Celebration to All!