HOW EVENTS WORK

Here are examples of popular event formats ⤵

While these are tried and true crowd favorites, keep in mind each event is tailored specifically to your needs and intentions.

Brand Event · Business Opening

Three to four signature or customized cocktails, each with an accompanying simple ritual to help guests connect with specific aspects of your business and brand (alcohol free options available).

Corporate Team Bonding

A guided tasting of a flight of custom cocktails, with each cocktail referencing either a season of life or an aspect of your company / team. Each drink begins with simple tasting notes and evolves through emotive elements, and onto related questions which each guest can answer about themself, beginning at a surface-level and inviting progressively deeper levels of sharing with each round. Participants get to know each other in new ways that help them better understand and support one-another. 

Major Birthday / Anniversary Celebration

Open-bar style service of four cocktails representing seasons of life, each with tasting notes and questions that get to each guest’s relationship to the guest(s) of honor. During / following dessert, a sharing ceremony is held where each guest is given the option to share their responses to each of the questions, sparking moments of delight, hilarity, and poignance.

Rite of Passage

These sacred ceremonies begin with a palate cleanser and clearing of the senses, thoughts, and emotions for full presence, then an invocation and sanctification of the space. The rite includes personal and group statements of intention, support, release, and readiness prior to the transformative crossing of a sacred threshold. After a big moment of celebration, the transformation is formalized, the ceremony is closed, and a benediction is given. We also facilitate the group creation of a custom gift, as well as group sharing and celebration after the rite is complete. Cocktail service can be woven-into the rite itself, and / or provided before / after.

Processing

Various ritual arcs to support accepting, manifesting, and releasing, initiating or signifying personal change, connecting, disconnecting, reframing, etc.

FREQUENLTY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can I request specific rituals that are important to me?

Yes! We’re happy to incorporate rituals or traditions that are important to you, provided we’re able to appropriately honor any lineage from which they came.

Are you insured?

Yes, we carry liquor liability insurance, and our bartenders are all ServSafe certified.

Do you serve AF (alcohol free) cocktails? If so… are they any good?

Yes, and YES! Our AF cocktails receive just as much care and attention as their alcoholic counterparts so they’re just as sophisticated, meaningful, and delicious.

Can underage (younger than 21) people participate?

Yes! Although they can’t have alcohol, they can fully participate with AF cocktails.

Are your rituals and ceremonies religious or spiritual?

No, and also yes. Our baseline rituals are not tied to any religion, and we don’t push any specific teachings. That said, the nature of ritual includes elements of spirit, although our lighter touch offerings focus primarily on the drinks and helping guests be present and able to connect, which can be done subtly without any explicit reference to spirit or spirituality.

Why combine cocktails and rituals?

So much about craft cocktails relates to elements of ritual–from intention and curation to sensorial embodiment, the intimacy of consuming a custom creation, and the slightly altered states they induce–so they’re a perfect jumping-off point! They’re also great for communicating through symbolism, our senses, emotions, and deeper psyches, and lend themselves to integration within a broader ritual context.

How would Mixed With Meaning define the word “ritual”?

A ritual is any act which intends to simultaneously engage the fullness of a human’s being: body, mind, heart, and soul, for a specific purpose. For us, this can be as subtle as crafting these elements into a drink and serving it to you with a helpful description, or a more complex and explicit approach that’s woven into a ceremonial arc.

Do your rituals stem from a specific tradition or a certain lineage?

Generally, no. Most of our ritual elements are “home grown” in that they are developed specifically for the format in which we work. While we’ve been influenced by aspects of the many rich traditions of our world, our typical incorporation tends toward universal themes rather than any specific lineage. We deeply respect cultures that maintain long-standing rituals and ceremonies, and yet our approach is to revive ritual’s value within the modern world, rather than to reintroduce specific ritual approaches.

How does Mixed With Meaning view its role, in light of the fact that many traditional cultures are working hard to maintain and pass-on their long standing rituals and ceremonies?

We fully support the maintenance of traditional rituals, and we hope society will grow in its respect for their value. Our role is not to promote and pass along any specific traditional rituals, but to help revive ritual as a sacred and practical tool that all humans can personally engage with. We aim to help guests experience something profound that they can access from their everyday lives.

Where did this idea come from?

The first hint came from the little “magic moments” of connection with guests while serving specialty cocktails. Out of curiosity, I explored and found that these moments tended to occur when I included elements of ritual in my service. This led to a deep-dive on ritual and the realization that it’s become so scarce in our society, and a desire to re-introduce ritual through cocktail ceremonies.

Are there limits on the kinds of rituals you’re willing to perform?

Every ritual we perform must have a positive intention for everyone involved, and must let all participants consent to their involvement. Some rituals are simple enough that consent is received when guests choose to ask or participate, but in other situations we explain things for guests’ awareness and buy-in first.

What if I want to book you, but I don’t have any major purpose or “ritual” in mind?

Go ahead and put in a request and let’s talk. If you’re hosting a gathering, you have a purpose. If you don’t know exactly what it is, we’ll be happy to help you put your finger on it! After we get clear on your “why,” we can discuss the “what” of how best to support your event.

How does alcohol licensing work?

We hold a alcohol catering license under MA 12C, which allows us to sell alcohol at private events. A “private event” is one that is not publicly advertised, and for which tickets have not been sold.