The Art of Hosting a Dinner Party

Make every occasion sparkle with SodaStream®

A great dinner party is an artform, but hosting can be easy with a few simple tips, tricks, and tools. Your SodaStream® sparkling water maker is the perfect solution to create a delicious, personalized, and easy event. Below you will find our top 4 tips and tricks on how to use your SodaStream® sparkling water maker to unlock a sparkling celebration around your dining table.

1.Treat your guests to a delicious cocktail*

Stylish hosting means stylish drinks, and nothing is more chic than a cocktail. You don’t have to be a professional bartender to create delicious drinks at home. The easiest way to give your guests cocktail-lounge-quality beverages is to simply sparkle water, add SodaStream Crafted™ Cocktail Mixers, and pour into a selection of elegant glassware. Add your preferred spirit to make these alcohol-free mixers into cocktails or leave them as is for the perfect mocktail.  With SodaStream Crafted™ Cocktail Mixers and a few garnishes, your guests will have a variety of options that will lighten the load for you: simply fizz, mix, and enjoy.

Need a signature drink for your soirée? Browse our library of simple, but delicious recipes here and get easy-to-mix flavors for your SodaStream beverages here. You can find tons of inspiration and beverage ideas in our recipe library and even order a few extra SodaStream flavors for your event.

2. Give your guests the million-dollar treatment

Elevate your event by personalizing beverages to your menu and to each guests’ tastes. Not only does SodaStream® empower you to easily customize beverages to cater to dietary restrictions, flavor preferences,  and fizz levels, but you can also easily create a signature drink or flight of beverages that bring out the best of your cuisine. One hosting hack that accomplishes both these gestures is to create a beverage board. 

Beverage boards are just like charcuterie boards, but filled with garnishes, flavors, fruit, spirits, and utensils for guests to customize their drinks. Many beverage boards include small recipe sheets to instruct your invitees on how to simply mix a few classic cocktails/mocktails. By selecting drinks and beverage board ingredients that compliment your cuisine, you can enhance everyone’s dining experience. 

For example, if you’re serving fish to your guests, create a beverage board that includes citrus, like lime wedges, lemon juice, lime bubly drops™ and SodaStream  Crafted™ Cocktail Mixers - Pineapple & Jalapeno, to “brighten” the seafood flavors and contrast the briny tones of the fish. 

Theming your beverage board around a flavor profile allows you to reuse the same ingredients for multiple drinks. For example, if you are serving steak, whiskey* has a great flavor profile to compliment the buttery, rich tones of beef. So, create a beverage board with ingredients for multiple, whiskey-based cocktails. Guide your guests to start with a slightly sweeter cocktail, like a New Old Fashioned, to begin their evening, before progressing to a more bitter Sparkling Manhattan that will complement your main course.  

Offering your guests beverages that pair with your menu will give them a world-class dining experience, but by creating a beverage board, you make your job as host a lot easier by letting them customize cocktails/mocktails to their tastes. 

3. Make it fun, make it social

No one likes to get stuck alone or with the same person too long at a dinner party, so consider structuring the evening with some events and conversation starters to help keep things flowing. 

Create a seating chart that mixes up couples and old friends to make sure your guests are interacting with new folks. Or do like the French and make guests change seats after every course to keep conversation fresh.

Give everyone a chance to speak by going around the table having each guest answer the same ice-breaker question. Have them explain a fun life event or wish like “where was the best place you traveled to?” or “Where would you love to travel to, but haven’t yet?”

Create a competition. Leverage your beverage board and challenge guests to see who can make the best beverage or see who can guess the ingredients. 

4. Be present, be prepared

Elegant hosting requires an elegant host, and the key to effortless, elevated entertainment is being present. So, ditch the dishes and spend some time with your guests! After all, they’re here to see you. It may seem obvious but making sure you have all the ingredients you need will help ensure you can spend the most time with your friends.

Have plenty of appetizers laid out before guests arrive and make more food than you think you’ll need. Leftovers are always great, and you don’t want to be caught without enough. Grab a spare SodaStream CO2 cylinder to make sure you don’t run out of bubbles. You can easily create more beverages with a few classic SodaStream flavor bottles and a stockpile of inexpensive limes. 

Having these beverage ingredients and appetizer backups will avoid stress and allow you to stay in the here-and-now with your guests.

Conclusion:

With these 4 effortless, but effective hosting tips, you’ll be able to master the art of entertaining. The SodaStream® ecosystem can help you shake up your dinner party routine, ensuring every event gets the inspiration and elegance it deserves. So, whether you’re celebrating something special or just welcoming in the weekend with some friends, make every occasion sparkle with SodaStream®.

*This content is intended for viewers 21+. Please drink responsibly. Excessive drinking can be harmful to your health. Never drink and drive. This content is not intended for readers under the legal drinking age.