Beverage dispensers

Count on about two glasses per guest in the first hour and one glass per hour after that. A five-litre dispenser gives you around twenty glasses of 25 cl, which is enough for ten to fifteen people at a drinks party. For larger groups, two dispensers side by side are more practical than one very big one: you can offer two flavours and you do not have to move anything to refill. Then look at the tap. If your drink contains pulp, mint leaves or cucumber, you need a wide opening, otherwise it will clog within half an hour. For clear water or iced tea a narrow tap is fine. An absinthe fountain is a case of its own: it is meant to release iced water drop by drop, not to fill glasses.

Fill the dispenser where it is going to stand, because five litres plus the glass itself soon comes to six kilos. Put it on an edge or a riser so a glass fits under the tap. Do not chill the contents with loose ice cubes, as they melt and dilute everything; use frozen fruit instead, an ice tube in the middle, or a dispenser with a separate ice chamber. With an absinthe fountain it works differently: you place a sugar cube on an absinthe spoon above the glass and let the iced water drip over it for about three minutes. For a filled dispenser, a sangria or alcohol-free versions from the mocktails are the most common choices.

Take the tap apart after every use. Sugar residue stays behind in the thread and behind the rubber, and that is the first place it starts to smell. Rinse the parts with warm water and a little washing-up liquid and let them dry completely before you put them back. Most glass dispensers should not go in the dishwasher because of the tap and the decorative knob. Do not pour boiling water into them and do not put them in the freezer; the sudden change in temperature will crack the glass. Before every use, check that the inner nut of the tap is still tight, because it almost always works loose in transit.

If a dispenser is too big for what you have in mind, there are smaller solutions. For pouring at the table there are the water jugs and, where wine is concerned, the carafes. If you work with absinthe, the spoons and glasses are with the absinthe accessories. The glasses that fit under the tap are among the long drink glasses, and the rest of the bar kit is at bar tools.