The Best Mixed Drinks For Back To School

If you are already struggling with school and have recently been found by a concerned spouse huddled in a closet Googling ‘European Boarding Schools, not Hogwarts’- perhaps try taking the edge off this September with these carefully selected back to school cocktails (and special drinkware suggestions so I can earn that sweet affiliate cha-ching).

Back to school is a stressful time. Kids are figuring out their new schedules, teachers, classmates, subjects, and books, while simultaneously trying to decide what to hate the most. Us moms are either trying to get back into the habit of sending kids out the door of the house or car properly dressed with their 2,494,291 must have belongings, or reminding ourselves that homeschooling is indeed the right choice for our family even if waking up with the sun and grading math homework is a trial greater than Job’s.

There are even a few of us who get to enjoy the “perks” that come from sending some of our kids to school, and educating some at home. Surely it is only a coincidence that my desire to learn how to mix cocktails coincided with deciding to send the boys to school.

All of us have our bad days…or weeks. In those times of trial we should always remember to rely on our Lord and pray for His guidance and peace beyond all understanding. And then, when we’ve turned our worries over to Him, with complete confidence in His ability to save us and our children from our inadequacies (and those of the schools), we can turn to alcohol and these back to school cocktails to help manage our human frailties just a bit better.

Special thanks to ‘Drinking With the Saints’ for helping me learn about some of these beverages (page numbers are marked). Many of the remaining drinks I found in a cocktail book my grandfather purchased in 1957. It’s now proudly displayed on our basement bar. The front and back covers are made from thin sheets of wood with literal shots embedded in them. As in, my grandfather was cleaning out a shotgun when it accidentally discharged into the floor of his living room. The pellets travelled through the floor and lodged into the book which was laying on his basement bar. Thankfully, I can still read all the recipes on the inside and get inspiration for the best back to school cocktails.

First, a note to the public, private, Catholic school, and religious education teachers: Thank you for your service! St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, founder of the Christian Brothers, and a great educator himself would want you to enjoy Christian Brothers brandy on the days when our little angels are driving you to the point of madness. …just not in the classroom, but definitely in this mug.

What would you add? Or is your back to school going so smoothly you can get by on herbal tea? You can go away now please.