Cocktail buffet. Obviously, we're starting off 2016 right.

It's been a month since we've moved into our new little pink home and I've been really really busy twirling around and hanging ivy in places and picking out rugs and buying kitchen islands like the damn twenty-two-year-old-going-on-fifty-year-old that I am. After getting everything mostly together, we figured it was time to invite our friends into the house for a little boozy housewarming. Folks brought over sage for burning and sending out good #vibes, more sparkling wine than we could possibly drink in one day (we'll require at least two days), and there was even a cute pup who never seemed to really bond with Fox, but, shit happens.

Usually when we have company we prefer to stick to wine because it's easy and we're lazy. Butttt, after talking to the chill folks over at Bayou Rum about their sweet collection of rums, we had the idea to set up a little make-your-own cocktail buffet. It was a damn hit, y'all. A damn hit. It also was surprisingly easy to throw together. To make the buffet, we offered a different soda and garnish pairing for each of the four rums. It really just depends on your taste, but we settled on the pairings below after a little (a lot) of taste testing. The one fun thing I learned from this experience is that people will be inclined to just try every pairing to see which is their favorite, and, four drinks later... it was a fun party! Check out the pairings below, and as always, feel free to get creative with it!

Silver & Gold

The bayou meets Italy in this weird but deliciously refreshing little lemony rosemary number. Definitely one of those cocktails you can drink at 10 a.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m. or any time in between.

1.5 oz silver rum
3 oz lemon soda
Ice
Rosemary sprigs for garnish and aromatics

The Dreamsicle

Y'all! This thing tastes like a damn dreamsicle ice pop, but boozy.

1.5 oz satsuma or orange-flavored rum
3 oz cream soda
Ice
Orange for garnish

The Classic

Aged rum, craft cola, and lime wedges make for a dope cocktail that's as easy as it is timeless.

1.5 oz aged rum
3 oz good quality cola
Ice
Lime wedge for garnish

The Dark and Spicy

This Dark & Stormy variation gets a few chunks of candied ginger to kick up that spicy ginger thing that happens when you eat candied ginger. That sentence was pretty poorly constructed, but this drink is not.

1.5 oz spiced rum
3 oz ginger beer
Ice
Candied ginger for garnish

Huge thanks to Susty Party for sponsoring this post, and to Bayou Rum for supplying the boozy goodies to make this cocktail buffet possible. Get those star-speckled Susty cocktail cups here or sustainable cleaning supplies for your own party, here, or check out their paper towels to help clean up after your own party, here, and use the discount code "PTTOWELS" for a free roll! All opinions are our own.

Bayou Rum Cocktail Buffet