Sure, there's the old standard cocktails like the Old Fashioned or a simple margarita.
But if you are in the mood for something new - and you're feeling adventurous before your New Year's Eve party - the first stop is your local liquor store.
Emmett Goss, owner of 129 Package on Athens Highway in Gainesville, said there are plenty of new liquors to get excited about on his shelves.
Specifically, he added, if you are a sweet tea enthusiast, there is something on the shelf that's right up your alley.
"The Firefly Sweet Tea vodka is real popular right now," Goss said. "I would do Firefly and water and lemon."
Katie Keddington, bar manager at Sweetfire Lodge in Gainesville, agreed that Firefly Sweet Tea vodka can be incorporated into drinks like a Long Island iced tea.
"We have a signature drink that has sweet tea in it, so that would be perfect for that," she said.
Keddington said she has tried Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka and "it tastes just like sweet tea, except it has alcohol."
Goss added that a new liqueur called Nuvo, marketed toward women, also has recently become popular.
"It's a new sparkling liqueur," he said. "It's actually geared toward women, even on the bottle it says, ‘For her' ... it has a twist-off top."
Nuvo is a sparkling vodka that has a delicate, fruity taste with a distinctive pink color. Nuvo incorporates a small amount of French sparkling wine that is then added to pure vodka, according to its Web site.
But not everyone is into hard alcohol. For some, a beer is a better choice for an evening's imbibing.
In late October a new beer hit the Georgia market - Yuengling.
Goss agreed that the new beer, which is produced in Pottstown, Pa., by the oldest American brewery, has been a popular seller.
At Sweetfire Lodge, Keddington said Yuengling will be on draft as soon as the beer is available.
But in the meantime, there are plenty of other trendy drinks to try.
"We've actually picked up a couple of new things," Keddington said. "Absolute Mango just came out and we have a couple good recipes to go with that. We also have Prairie vodka, which is an organic vodka and that's trendy because people are going green."
Using the Prairie vodka, Keddington suggested making one of the restaurant's signature drinks: the Blue Ridge martini.
The Blue Ridge Martini is dry vermouth, olive juice and vodka with blue cheese-stuffed olives as a garnish.
"I would never recommend buying the prestuffed olives; they do not taste good," she said.
Keddington said there is an easy way to stuff your olives with blue cheese. First, she takes a small drink skewer and adds three olives without pimentos.
"You line them up on a straw first and then you get your crumbles and you can just hold your pick still ... and then you poke it in there, the trick is to get them (olives) on the sword first.
"I have more and more people asking me all the time for blue cheese-stuffed olives."
Adding flavors and liqueurs to sparkling wine also is popular at Sweetfire Lodge, according to Keddington.
The longtime Gainesville bartender concocted the Blue Sparkler New Year’s Cocktail, along with two infused sparkling wine cocktails.
The Blue Sparkler uses 1 ounce Absolute Mango with a half ounce Blue Curacao, plus simple syrup and Malibu coconut rum.
All ingredients are mixed together and poured in a sugar-rimmed martini glass.
"Now, a good martini is going to have a 2- or 2 1/2-ounce pour," Keddington said. "So I just count to eight; that’s where my gauge is for martinis."
To rim the glass with sugar, Keddington has some suggestions.
"If you don’t have a rimmer and you are going to try and do it at home, just use two little plates and use a little bit of honey or something sweet and put sugar on a plate and just dip it from one to the second," she said.
The Sweetfire strawberries and Champagne and the rose royal Champagne cocktail are easy to make at home with just a little preparation.
For the Sweetfire Strawberries and Sparkling Wine, start out with a bottle of sparkling wine or Champagne.
"The strawberries soak in amaretto with a little strawberry puree and are added to the Champagne glass," Keddington said.
Add the strawberries soaked in amaretto to a Champagne flute and pour Champagne into the glass.
The same will be done for the Rose Royal — add the Chambord-soaked raspberries to a glass and top with Champagne.
"It tastes really good. The rose and raspberry go together so well, and then I have Champagne and strawberries. This is also going to be something good on Valentines Day," she said.
Even though specialty drinks are fun to try, Jeff Tickle said the old standards always are popular at his restaurant.
"As far as popular drinks, it’s the same drinks that are usually popular," said Tickle, the manager of Sweetfire Lodge. "Margaritas, martinis — you don’t see a whole lot of people experimenting these days ... people stick to what they know. They know how it affects them."