What cocktail goes with pizza?

January 11, 2007 1:30 PM

What cocktail can I make in advance and serve at a party for thirty-somethings that will go well with pizza?

I'm having a pizza party and would like to have a pitcher of some mixed-drink out that people can help themselves to.

Over the holiday I made this sparkling ginger pineapple punch and added rum and holy crap it was tasty and perfect for a brunch. I'm tempted to serve it at this pizza party next week too but am thinking that there might be something better out there that will go well with pizza.

I've googled and searched epicurious.com but despite the popularity of pizza as a party and bar food I'm not finding articles or websites that talk about cocktails or "punch" type drinks that mix up really well with it. Maybe lots of people just drink beer with their pizza? We will have beer, and we can also just leave a bunch of booze and mixers out and let people make their own favorite, but some people (me!) don't really like beer and not everyone is a bartender.

So, what do you think? Sparkling ginger pineapple rum punch? Margaritas? Something else?

posted by onlyconnect to food & drink (30 answers total)

Red wine sangria? Or is that too fruity?
posted by miss lynnster at 1:34 PM on January 11, 2007

Sangria, a pitcher of white and a pitcher of red.
Beer for those that don't like wine.
A few fruity smirnoff type things for those that can't stand beer or wine. Soda for the rest.

Sangria
Properly steep the fruit in the wine+liquor for at least 24hours. Pour over Ice + Club Soda to serve.
posted by gomess at 1:35 PM on January 11, 2007

Sangria
posted by Grod at 1:42 PM on January 11, 2007

I like the sangria idea. I imagine a mojito could also be nice with pizza. You could premix everything but the soda and the ice.
posted by Good Brain at 1:44 PM on January 11, 2007

Mojitos?
posted by Kololo at 1:54 PM on January 11, 2007

Oh god the name is atrocious, but what about Pink Panty Pulldowns? It contains Sprite, 7-Up or Fresca. Soda always goes nicely with pizza.

Pink Panty Pulldowns

Ingredients:
1 750ml bottle of vodka (a fifth)
3 oz Lemon juice or 1 can of lemonade concentrate
9 oz jar of maraschino cherries
2 L Sprite

I omit the cherries and use pink lemonade concentrate instead.
posted by LoriFLA at 1:57 PM on January 11, 2007

Serve a batch of Negronis for before-dinner cocktails

Nagroni
- 1 oz Gin
- 1 oz Sweet Vermouth
- 1 oz Campari
- Garnish: Lemon Twist

Serve a selection of Italian red wines and beers with the pizza.
posted by xod at 2:02 PM on January 11, 2007

Yeah, beer and pizza is pretty much a classic combination. Sangria's a good idea, too--you can mix it up without additional liquor or soda, and let the guests decide if they want to add booze, club soda, or even Sprite (or a Sprite clone). I went to a fabulous wedding reception where the hosts did that.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:07 PM on January 11, 2007

By the way, one good way to make Sangria is with cheap Kosher wine; since it's already sweet, you can omit any sweetening ingredients (OJ, ginger ale) and just add fruit, ice, maybe something bubbly, and a shot of brandy. If it's too sweet, cut it with some regular red wine.
posted by staggernation at 2:15 PM on January 11, 2007

Something with coke/pepsi. Long Island Iced Tea perhaps?

I find the acidy goodness of coke contrasts nicely with the dripping down your chin greasey goodness of pizza.
posted by oxford blue at 2:17 PM on January 11, 2007

Even in Italy, where no one drinks beer with dinner, Italians drink beer with pizza.

I love cocktails, but I'm having a hard time seeing them go well with pizza unless they're Coke-based, as oxford blue suggests. Maybe Jack and Coke or rum and Coke? Or ginger ale and Jack Daniels, maybe.
posted by occhiblu at 2:29 PM on January 11, 2007

I think the option someone mentioned in passing above needs greater consideration. My friends and I always call these things "malted fruitydrinks" (although not all are malted). Stuff like:

Mike's Hard Cider
Woodchuck Cider (especially the peach)
Smirnoff Ice

And their whole group of kin would be absolutely perfect for this. They're not cocktails, but cocktails really really really don't go with pizza. Punch kinda sorta might, but not really.
posted by kavasa at 2:35 PM on January 11, 2007

Beer with pizza is classic. Definitely have beer. Some Sangria would be nice too. There's not a whole lot else that I would think would go with pizza.
posted by xammerboy at 2:59 PM on January 11, 2007

I love red wine with pizza.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 3:01 PM on January 11, 2007

beer or captain and coke
keep it simple
posted by evilelvis at 3:03 PM on January 11, 2007

Yes, I did mean to mention that red wine with pizza is good (though I'm having a hard time seeing this extend to sangria, which seems like it would be too sweet in the wrong way).
posted by occhiblu at 3:04 PM on January 11, 2007

Thanks everyone so far for all the suggestions. Looks like the popular options (besides beer, which we definitely will have) are sangria, plain old wine, the smirnoff-type drinks, or something coke- or sprite-based. We have a bunch of wine on hand so maybe we'll have both wine and sangria and see what goes faster.

I'll wait to mark some best answers until NortonDC weighs in. MrMoonPie's answer may get special consideration since he may be in attendance!
posted by onlyconnect at 3:35 PM on January 11, 2007

I can imagine a Dark and Stormy would be good with pizza. 3 parts (or 4, if you can't stomach the taste of alcohol in your mixed drinks) ginger beer, 1 part dark rum. Serve over ice. If you're fancy you can pour the rum over the top for a nice blended effect.
posted by bobot at 4:12 PM on January 11, 2007

Another vote for sangria. It's the only option other than beer that'll go well with pizza. Plus, it's not so strong... you can drink a few of them washing down pizza without getting blitzed. Unless that's your goal, of course.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 4:39 PM on January 11, 2007

It might be nice to have the fixin's for snakebites (cider and beer), black-and-tans (stout and ale, in the US usually Guinness and Bass) and other beer-based mixed drinks.
posted by box at 5:10 PM on January 11, 2007

Also, I might as well nth the sangria and soft-drink suggestions.
posted by box at 5:11 PM on January 11, 2007

Margaritas go great with pizza.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:12 PM on January 11, 2007

I once had a Mojito at an Italian restaurant that had lemon instead of lime juice and basil instead of mint. It was quite good, actually.
posted by exceptinsects at 5:27 PM on January 11, 2007

OK, pizza should be tangy and salty (just a bit). The reason beer goes so well is because it's bitter and not fatty. A lot of the sweet drinks are too overpowering to be refreshing and wines are too "dark" to be refreshing, except for white wine.
You can try, if the theory is that this is for women (sorry for stereotyping, but the general gender lines break down to guys with beer and women with wine, especially white) is to make a pitcher of homemade spritzers. Part of why wine spritzers suck so much is that they use really shitty wine, and the other general reason is that they're way too sweet. Try a dry reisling, with some straight sparkling water. Add some brandy, and maybe a little citrus. In fact, I've made a dry white sparkling sangria (at which point it's more a punch than blood, but whatever) that was really popular at the party.
Mojitos or Caipirinha can also be a great choice.
posted by klangklangston at 6:08 PM on January 11, 2007

Nthing sangria.

Opposing mojitos or anything else with lemon or lime juice if you're planning on making it ahead -- lime juice in particular starts tasting stale and kind of "off" rather quickly. If you can make them fresh, though, go ahead.
posted by desuetude at 6:16 PM on January 11, 2007

Beer sounds good, and I like having the flexibility to branch out with snakebites. I've seen but never had black and tans. I'm a little skeptical about the sangria, but game.
posted by NortonDC at 6:58 PM on January 11, 2007

Zombies always go over well with my friends. But then, I'm kind of biased.

Maybe this is wrong of me, but I just make them in a big pitcher, making sure I match the proportions correctly to the recipe.
posted by tastybrains at 7:26 PM on January 11, 2007

Sangria
posted by crewshell at 7:47 PM on January 11, 2007

Carlo Rossi Sangria (available in a 1-gallon screw top jug, no less).

Seriously.
posted by friezer at 5:55 AM on January 12, 2007

Okay, for the record we made a pitcher of sangria and it was tasty and the pitcher was empty by the end of the night (using this easy recipe from epicurious). But as many people predicted above, really mostly people drank beer and wine.
posted by onlyconnect at 8:11 AM on January 23, 2007