Drink Ideas for Brunch Feasts

You have to have some drinks for brunch! Food is obviously of upmost importance, you can’t have a truly fabulous Brunch Feast without something to drink. This page is a roundup of all the best hot & cold brunch cocktails, non-alcoholic brunch drinks and my best advice on what to serve and how to serve them.

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Just like with the food, the key to serving drinks is to set things up so that guests can help themselves as much as possible. You should have less waste and everyone gets exactly what they want whilst relieving you of some running around.

This collection was first put together to accompany my Brunch Feast recipes post. You’ll see various photos on this page from the feast that I photographed to accompany the original menu.

Hot Drinks for Brunch

I don’t think you can host a breakfast or brunch feast without offering tea and coffee. Whilst these drinks have to be last minute in a sense. Getting everything you can ready ahead of time will really help.

Tea & Coffee

I would suggest setting up a nice tray with the following:

• A jug of milk. (A cute milk bottle is nice to use)
• A bowl of sugar (with white sugar, no one wants brown sugar in their tea).
• Enough mugs for everyone and a couple of spares.
• More than enough tea spoons.
• A large cafetiere ready filled with ground coffee.
• A large teapot with the bags already in.

Hot water can simply be added once people have arrived. Your guests can then serve themselves.

Alternatively, if you have a pod coffee machine, that could be plugged in somewhere convenient.

If you don’t have a teapot then a bowl of teabags and a kettle is ideal. You can always move where the kettle is plugged in for a couple of hours – no harm!

Something Different

There is nothing to say that you cannot offer something a little fancier too. I think that any of these ideas would be great served at the end of the meal as they’re not really help-yourself kinda drinks.

Gingerbread Latte – Simply Sensational Food

A delicious creamy aromatic gingerbread latte with aromatic spices.

The Ultimate Hot Chocolate – Recipes Made Easy

Is there anything more comforting on a cold winter’s day than a steaming cup of hot chocolate? This ultimate hot chocolate is made with real dark plain chocolate and topped with marshmallows.

Thai Coconut Tea – Montana Happy

This tea takes just minutes to make, but it’s so delicious everyone will be begging you for the recipe.

Boozy Hot Drinks

An Irish coffee doesn’t feel terribly appropriate for a brunch party but a boozy hot chocolate or tea like these would be perfect!

Boozy Decadent Hot Chocolate – Fab Food 4 All

Boozy Decadent Hot Chocolate is the perfect warming treat with a touch of cream and Baileys Chocolat Luxe.

Bourbon Spiked Chai Tea – The Cookie Rookie

Spiked Chai is the perfect warm winter drink! This chai tea recipe is simple, delicious, and full of flavor.

Spiked Nutella Hot Chocolate – Will Cook For Smiles

Nutella Hot Chocolate spiked with hazelnut and coffee liqueurs, topped with marshmallows and more Nutella!

Soft Drinks & Mocktails for Brunch

Iced Tea and Coffee

If you are hosting on a particularly hot day, serving iced tea and/or coffee is a nice idea. Here are some recipes from my fellow foodies to give you some inspiration:

Instant Pot Iced Coffee Concentrate – Recipes From A Panrty

Used this easy Instant Pot Iced Coffee Concentrate to make the ultimate iced coffee to kick start your day or when you just want to beat the heat. You have definitely hit the summer drinks jackpot!

Berry Iced Tea with Ginger & Mint – Veggie Desserts

Try this refreshing and flavourful berry iced tea, made with berry loose tea, ginger and berries. It’s the perfect special drink for a hot summer’s day.

Soft Drinks

A selection of fresh fruit juices is nice to have available. Orange and Pineapple are my personal favourites, especially when mixed together. There are a vast number of lovely mixes available in the supermarkets too.

You can also mix it up with something a little fancier on the soft drink front, perhaps with one of these ideas:

Non-Alcoholic Mojito – Fab Food 4 All

Non Alcoholic Mojito – a refreshing blend of mint leaves, apple juice, lime juice, elderflower cordial and soda water.

Strawberry Rose Mint Fizz – Tin & Thyme

An easy to make refreshing summer non-alcoholic drink. Packed full of strawberries and sweetly scented with rose and mint.

Wake Up Mary – Fuss Free Flavours

The Coffee Bloody Mary – An astonishingly good combination of cold brew coffee and tomato juice – think of it as a grown up energy drink for the sophisticated palate.

Cocktails for Brunch

Is there really anything more decadent sounding than a Champagne Brunch? On an evening, I love the idea of booze with brunch. I want to be the kind of person that casually sips on a bloody mary or lounges about with a mimosa.

I mostly get like this on holiday where I am perpetually drawn to hotels with 24 hour all inclusive options. Drinks very much included.

But then brunch time comes around and realistically, I just want a brew. Perhaps a little juice. And the idea of booze is frankly, a little off-putting. And then I have that mimosa. And another. So who am I to preach sobriety!

Something Sparking

I asked some of my blogging buddies to share some of their brunch cocktail suggestions. This is what they came up with. ‘Hic!

Cranberry Champagne Sparkle – Recipes Made Easy

Get into the spirit with this delicious, sparkling champagne cocktail. Cranberry Champagne Sparkle is very quick and easy to prepare.

The Love Potion – Jacquelyn Clark

A little sweet, a little bubbly, it makes for the most delicious celebratory cocktail.

Pink Champagne Margarita – The Adventure Bite

Nothing says classy quite like these gorgeous Pink Lemonade Champagne Margaritas. The perfect champagne cocktail for weddings, showers or girls night out!

Something a Little Stronger

Jalapeno Strawberry Margarita – Recipes From A Pantry

You will love this easy Jalapeño Strawberry Margarita Recipe that makes amazing summer party drinks. Spice up your next BBQ, Potluck or Cinco de Mayo celebration with this awesome Jalapeño Margarita Recipe!!

Pomelo Chili Palomas – Brooklyn Supper

Classic paloma cocktails with a kick of chili powder, smoked sea salt, and pomelo citrus.

Tequila Sunrise Mimosa – Damn Delicious

Easy peasy 4-ingredient mimosas that are sure to impress everyone! Plus, you only need 5 minutes to whip this up. That’s it!

Southern Spiked Peach Iced Tea – Real Housemoms

This Southern Spiked Peach Iced Tea is a little bit country & a little bit rock and roll, but just the perfect amount of both to lend a flavor worth having more!

Bloody Marys

Spicy Bacon Bloody Mary – The Novice Chef

This recipe I created has both horseradish and sriracha to add a lot of spicy flavor. The glass is rimmed with some creole seasoning and topped with bacon, olives and celery.

Bloody Mary – The Cookie Rookie

Make Bloody Mary cocktails at home with this delicious recipe! This Bloody Mary mix is made from scratch with basic ingredients. It’s perfect for your next brunch.

Green Bloody Mary – Tidy Mom

Tomatillos give the traditional Bloody Mary a green twist for a Verde Mary or Green Bloody Mary. This spicy colorful take on the classic cure-all cocktail will have you serving them every weekend.

Drinkware for Brunch

What drinking vessels you need will obviously depend on what drinks you are choosing to serve.

Mugs, Cups and Saucers

I want to tell you that I’m not into old fashioned cups and saucers but as I own several vintage sets, that would be a lie! And actually a nice Brunch Feast is often the time that I’d bring them out of hiding. But mugs are still fine.

I would look to provide 1 mug or cup/saucer per person as an absolute minimum. Someone will inevitably want a tea then a coffee or vice versa (I’m usually that person – I enjoy variety) so more would certainly be helpful.

For a larger crowd, unless you can hire some mugs or are willing to buy a bunch of cheap ones, you could buy some disposable (recyclable) cups which are available in a few different sizes.

Glassware

Again this will be very dependent on what you choose to serve. I wouldn’t serve less than one type of juice and I’d also always have water available.

I also wouldn’t tend to serve less than one other drink – usually a light welcome cocktail.

For larger crowds, glasses can often be hired from wine shops and supermarkets so this might be worth looking into. Otherwise children’s or picnic tumblers can made a handy substitute.

I would expect to have a minimum of one and ideally two small tumblers available per person. This allows for a juice and a water glass each. It might feel excessive but realistically, most will likely get used.

The only need to be relatively small. Stackable glasses are preferable so they don’t take up too much space.

For your champagne, cocktail or virgin offering a champagne flute per person is ideal. Otherwise, pretty hi-ball tumblers are great.

Alcohol – When the Fun Stops, Stop!

As I’ve provided you with a whole bunch of alcoholic drink suggestions, it would be remiss of me to not remind you to be sensible.

Please don’t pressure your guests into drinking, drinking more than they want to or having ‘just one more for the road’. Especially if they’re driving.

The industry standard is to tell you to “drink responsibly”. To me that sounds like they want you to recycle all wine bottles.

I much prefer the gambling industry’s slogan. “When the Fun Stops, Stop”. I think that applies to both drinking on the day and generally in life.

So if the fun has stopped, do indeed stop. Have a look over at www.drinkaware.co.uk if you need some help doing just that.

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