Pitcher Perfect Friendsgiving

Artega Wright is leading a cocktail workshop at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens on Wednesday, November 4, and the focus is on the pitcher. It's called Pitcher Perfect Friendsgiving, and the whole thing is built around learning how to make drinks in batches for family gatherings. If you're the one who usually ends up playing bartender while everyone else is eating, this is exactly the kind of thing you want in your back pocket before the holiday rush hits.

Batching is a different beast than shaking up a single drink. When you're making for a crowd, you have to think about how flavors hold up over an hour or two, and how to balance a drink so it tastes the same from the first pour to the last. Wright will walk you through the process of scaling up recipes and prepping ahead of time, so you can spend the actual party hanging out with your guests instead of stuck behind a counter. It's a practical skill that pays off every single time you host.

Since it's a cocktail class, it's for adults 21 and over. You'll be working with actual drinks, not just watching a demonstration, so you'll leave with a few new recipes you can actually put to use. The timing is a few weeks before Thanksgiving, which puts it right in the window when you're starting to plan who's bringing what and how you're going to handle the drinks.

The workshop runs from 6 PM to 8 PM, two hours of hands-on mixing. Tickets are $77, and if you're a member of the Conservatory, it's $72. It's held at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Columbus, so you'll be learning in one of the city's most recognizable spots.