Stock the Bar Party

Event Details

Everyone brings a bottle to stock the bar, and the host provides mixers as well as food. The host can make the cocktails/mocktails for the guests or the guests can make their own cocktails. I think that the host should at the very least provide food because they should try to provide a goods/services that approach the value of the bottle that people are buying and bringing.

Rules:

1. Beware being basic: If you bring the same bottle as someone else, you both have to take a shot.
   1. Please do not collude with other teams, the risk is the fun part!
   2. Try to find something with a unique bottle or flavor.
2. Nothing too weird: In an effort to limit waste, please try to stay within the limits of palatability, I don’t want to have a bottle collecting dust on the shelf because no one wants to drink it.
3. Don’t break the bank: There’s no need to spend too much money on a bottle, so also feel free to form a party to buy the bottle and split the cost. Size doesn’t matter, 500mL-750mL is perfectly okay.

I provided a bottle wishlist to guide my guests on what to buy, and to steer them away from things that I already had. I had some basic liqueurs and liquors in my cabinet like bourbon and Midori, so I made sure to not include those in my list. My main goal was to build out and diversify my liquor cabinet for further hosting endeavors. It seemed like it worked, because all of my guests bought something that belonged to the wishlist and no one went rogue.

My bottle wishlist:

• Cream Liqueur
• Coffee Liqueur
• Blanco Tequila
• White Rum
• Spiced/Dark Rum
• Vodka
• N/A Spirits (Gin, Apertif)

Event Retrospective

1. You can’t really prevent collusion.
   • People might snitch on each other, but that’s really the only way you can know. You can easily institute a punishment of shots for collusion but then if you want to punish the people who were colluding that means that you have to reveal the fact that there was a snitch.
2. The gamification can be tweaked a lot depending on what you want.
   • The game becomes less risky when there are fewer bottles being brought and more chances to be unique.
   • I think that there could be other rules implemented to make it more risky and fun like cheapest or most expensive bottle has to take a shot.
3. The rules incentivize certain buying behaviors.
   • My rules optimized for uniqueness because there was punishment for bringing the same bottle. I liked this because I wanted to diversify my liquor cabinet, but your goals may differ.
   • If you stated that you wanted people to bring a bottle of their favorite liquor, the results would be different because multiple people could have the same favorite or it could be something that you personally don’t like.
   • Alternate rules: buy a bottle that they think you would like, buy the basics/staples of a liquor cabinet
4. Not everyone wants to drink a (fancy) cocktail.
   • A lot of people made their own mixed drinks rather than requesting that I make them a cocktail (like I advertised in the invitation). Some people wanted maybe one mixed drink and then to stick with beer/seltzer for the rest of the time. You should try to know your audience before and plan accordingly with what you buy and provide.
   • Having mocktail supplies on hand is a must so that you can be more inclusive.

What bottles people brought

1. Platinum 7x Vodka
2. Jameson Cold Brew Irish Whiskey
3. Tito’s Vodka
4. Kahlua
5. Kraken Dark Rum
6. Limoncello

My food menu

1. Stir Fried Glass Noodles (Japchae)
   • Vegan, Gluten Free (if using Tamari)
   • I omitted eggs and/or beef because I knew I wanted the noodles to be the base that you can add the various proteins on top of.
2. White Rice
   • Rice was the other carb base that could be mixed with the proteins.
3. Braised Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou)
4. Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken (Dakgalbi)
5. Soy Garlic Pork Belly
6. Spicy Korean Pickles (Oi Muchim)