I served highballs to my colleagues & won approval from those who don’t drink much

At one point in your career, you might be tasked to go about organising a cohesion activity for your team.

After all, bonding and camaraderie between teammates in the office is key to a productive and healthy workplace (or so my boss says).

This might seem like a daunting task — so many people’s needs to take into consideration, and how would one even go about making everyone in the group happy??

Here’s what my predecessor told me: Some alcohol will help.

But what happens if you don’t drink that much? Fret not, here are some tips that may hopefully help make your life easier.

1. Settle the food

The key to ordering food for large groups is to get something that everyone can share. Some safe bets are pizzas or sushi platters.

Since Christmas is coming up, consider getting a festive platter with a huge turkey. Most restaurants are likely to have various festive deals for Christmas meals during this period. Start keeping a look out and you may find yourself some good deals or early bird discounts.

Once you’ve thought of two to three food options, you can let the group decide by doing a poll. If your team is on Telegram, it’s pretty easy to set one up on the app — and then simply go with the majority vote.

Ta dah, food done.

2. Settle the drinks

Next, the alcohol. After all, it helps to loosen everyone’s tongues and put party-goers at ease.

One can be spoilt for choice with the different types of alcohol available — beer, soju, sake, cider — but in my humble opinion, highballs are the perfect party drink.

They’re easy to make, requiring only two or three ingredients, and are refreshing and easy to down.

Additionally, you can adjust the parts of whiskey in each drink to ensure your colleagues get drunk enough to have some fun, but not drunk enough that they end up vomiting or blacked out on the floor (which will save you the clean-up and any awkward interactions on the next working day).

This is where Jim Beam’s Highball Gift Box comes in handy.

It comes with:

• 1x Jim Beam
• 2x soda water
• 1x Jim Beam mug

Whip up a classic highball with the ingredients from the gift set and a lemon for that tartness.

You can easily make flavoured variations of highballs with a few simple mixers as well. These are great for those who don’t drink as much, or prefer their alcoholic drinks sweeter.

Simply mix the whiskey with soda water of your choice, flavoured fruit syrup or even some juice, to create these drinks in a jiffy.

“Refreshing drink”

New to highballs?

Here’s how our unofficial in-house expert describes highballs:

“Highballs are gateway drinks to whiskey for people who don't like whiskey. They also have fewer calories than beer. You can mix flavours unlike beer, but doing that will add calories.”

A perfect highball is typically one part whiskey to four parts soda water.

I also put the highballs to the ultimate taste test, so you don’t have to.

I asked a bunch of colleagues who aren’t huge fans of alcohol to try them out, and their reactions were largely positive.

Here’s a review of the classic highball by one happy coworker: “Very refreshing after a long day at work. 10/10.”

Another coworker mentioned that the flavoured cranberry pomegranate highball was “smoother” and “easier to down” compared to the classic one.

A third coworker commented that the drink “reminds me of Zouk”. Nice.

All in all, a pretty well-received drink among colleagues. The bottle of Jim Beam is also big enough to last around 10 or more highball drinks.

What’s more, you can vary the amount of whiskey mixed into each drink depending on each colleague’s preferences.

If you have more time on your hands and are feeling inspired, you can check out these other highball recipes by Jim Beam.

3. Settle the games

Lastly, up the fun at parties with games.

Dig out your old set of cards or play simple games like pictionary or charades.

If you’re undecided about what to play, perhaps Jim Beam’s nifty online minigames might help you out.

More about the Jim Beam highball gift box

Ready to party now?

If this article has tempted you into buying your own Jim Beam Highball gift box for your office party, or even gatherings at home, here are the details.

The gift box costs S$55, and is available in-store at Cold Storage, FairPrice and Don Don Donki . It can also be purchased online via Shopee, Wines 'N' Spirits and Alcohol Delivery

This sponsored article by Jim Beam let the author drink during work hours.

Top photo from Ashley Tan