This season, amp up your Bellini bar with plenty of cold champagne and a few easy fresh fruit purees made from scratch!
It’s college graduation season! I remember the day I graduated I was equal parts exhausted and so excited to celebrate with friends and family. That morning we all got together and came back to my extremely small 500 square foot college apartment (what was I thinking?!) for a champagne toast!
I put out a few bottles of Korbel and different juices for people to mix and match. You name the occasion and I was down for a little party (still am!).
If you’re showering a new graduate or throwing a party to commence the occasion, bubbly is mandatory! It’s a right of passage to toast a new graduate into adulthood and the world.
People always ask me the best kind of drinks to serve at parties and while beer and wine are always good choices, I love a few cases of champagne if you’re celebrating!
Champagne instantly makes people feel a bit more festive and excited to be at your party.
How to Make a Bellini Bar:
Grab a surface to set everything up on. You can use a table, buffet or a countertop. I love using my Design Ideas console table for this because it’s sleek and takes up hardly any room. Plus, it looks gorgeous just the way it is without a lot of added décor or linens.
Mix up 2-3 fresh fruit purees and get them chilling before people arrive. I love doing a mixture of stone fruit and berries. Simply blend them up in a food processor, strain and add in simple ingredients like lemon juice, sweetener (if desired) and herbs for freshness.
Chill the champagne bottles and your glasses so they are perfectly cold once everyone arrives. I love using a mixture of champagne flutes and coupe glasses for height on my bar setup.
Fill a few small bowls up with different berries and fruit slices for a festive garnish on each drink. If you’re feeling really festive you could also add herbs, stir sticks or little tinsel drink stirrers.
Herbal Spring Bellini Bar
INGREDIENTS
Strawberry Mint:
- ½ pint of strawberries, trimmed
- 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Mint leaves
Blackberry Basil:
- 8 ounces of fresh blackberries
- 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Basil leaves
Peach Thyme:
- 2 ripe peaches, seeded and diced
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Thyme sprigs
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place the peaches (or blackberries or strawberries), lemon juice, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until smooth.
- Press the mixture through a sieve and discard the peach (or berry) solids in the sieve.
- Place 2 tablespoons of the peach puree into each champagne glass and fill with cold champagne or prosecco.
- Garnish with fresh herbs and fruit.
