For a long time in my teens, making cocktails consisted of mixing together the dregs stolen from my parents’ liquor cupboard; more recently, it involved combining things from my own cupboard and hoping for the best. However, if "beach-ready hair" and dinners I just "threw together" have taught me anything, it's that happy accidents take planning and preparation. Now, I mix to impress.
I have a few tricks up my sleeve to fake my cocktail-making panache. A simple spirit and mixer can look adventurous and instantly more appetising with the addition of a celebratory garnish. Edible flowers are available this time of year from Waitrose, health food stores and your neighbour’s window box. We won't tell. Also try coating the rim of a glass in anything that’s lying around, from sherbet to salt; invest in fun-shaped ice cube trays and put your glasses in the freezer to cool them, because as long as the drinks are ice cold, everyone's happy.
Try the 10 novel cocktail recipes ahead with the tips above and keep your friends and family refreshed and impressed all summer.
Summer Solstice Spritz
Perfect for the week before payday, this rosé spritz is easy on the ingredient list and super-quick to whip up.
Ingredients
125ml dry rosé wine
50ml sparkling water or soda
3 strawberries
Sprig of mint
Slice of lemon
Method
Muddle the strawberries at the bottom of a large wine glass and fill with ice. Add the wine and top with soda, garnishing with the mint and lemon.
Serves 1.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
Negroni Spagliato
Spagliato literally means 'mistaken' in Italian, and this cocktail is rumoured to have come about when a bartender mistook sparkling wine for gin when making a Negroni. Thus was born the love-child of Negroni and Aperol Spritz – rejoice!
Ingredients
25ml Campari
25ml red vermouth
25ml sparkling wine, such as prosecco
Ice
Slice of orange
Method
Stir together the Campari and vermouth in a short glass. Top with ice and the sparkling wine, followed by a chunky slice of orange.
Serves 1.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
The New Piña Colada
We can't help but reminisce about all-inclusive family holidays on the Costa del Sol, clutching a sickly sweet Piña Colada and feeling like the queen of sophistication. Try this lighter, more modern version made with coconut water or milk alternative (from a carton, not a tin).
Ingredients
25 ml white rum
25ml coconut water or milk
50ml pineapple juice
Slice of pineapple
Slice of lime
Method
Fill a tall glass with ice and pour over the rum, coconut water or milk and pineapple juice. Gently stir and top with a slice of pineapple and lime.
Serves 1.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
Grapefruit Salty Dog
The bitter yet fresh taste of ruby grapefruit is ideal for summer cocktails, and this salty number is our alternative to the classic margarita. If you can't get crushed ice, cubed is fine.
Ingredients
100ml pink grapefruit juice
25ml vodka
Crushed ice
2 slices of ruby grapefruit
Method
Circle the rim of a short glass with grapefruit, dip in salt and fill the glass with crushed ice. Separately, shake the vodka and pink grapefruit with ice and strain into the prepared glass, garnishing with a slice of grapefruit.
Serves 1.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
Camomile Spritz
I don’t want this to sound like an awful gendered cocktail found on hammy menus in Soho. So don’t feel you have to drink it on a rocking bench wearing white broderie anglaise with your homegirls but that is recommended. Dissolve sugar into any leftover camomile mixture and use as you would a cordial.
Ingredients
25ml camomile distillate (to make, soak 3 tbsp camomile flowers or 3 camomile teabags in 250ml boiling water for 10 mins, adding 1 tbsp of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice)
25ml St Germain
125ml prosecco
Mint leaves
Method
Chill a coupe or champagne glass, pour in the prosecco. Add the camomile distillate and St Germain liqueur. Garnish with mint leaves.
Serves 1.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
Kyoto Iced Tea
A spiked Japanese version of a peach iced tea. Plum wine is available in most Asian supermarkets. Otherwise Sipsmith’s Sloe Gin is the perfect alternative. Keep the oolong leaves after you’ve used them as the second brew is even smoother.
Ingredients
700ml oolong tea
400ml plum wine or sloe gin
Borage flowers or, if you can't get these, sliced cucumber with a twist of black pepper has a similar taste.
Method
Brew a strong jug of oolong tea and leave to cool. Fill a pitcher with ice and add the sloe gin or plum wine. Add the chilled oolong tea and stir. Garnish by sprinkling over the borage flowers or peppery cucumber.
Serves 4.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
Hard Cider
Turn your friends’ kind offering of cans of Magners into a sophisticated “summer cup”.
Ingredients
6 parts medium dry cider
2 parts dark rum
Fresh ginger
Cardamom
Orange peel
Method
In a large pitcher, muddle fresh ginger, orange peel, cardamom and 200ml dark rum. Top with lots of ice and stir. Slowly top with 600ml cider. Pour into tall glasses with ice and garnish with a slice of apple.
Serves 4.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
Side Chick
A sidecar, with the addition of thyme. If you’re lucky enough to live near a fruit and veg market, look for the knobbly, green-skinned Jamaican oranges, which make it even more aromatic.
Ingredients
50ml cognac
25ml Triple Sec
Juice of half a lemon and its rind
3 sprigs of thyme
Method
Muddle the lemon juice, rind and thyme. Add to a cocktail shaker full of ice, cognac and Triple Sec. Shake until the shaker is too cold to handle. Strain into a frozen martini or champagne flute.
Serves 1.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
Spanish Gin and Tonic
The best gin and tonics are served Spanish-style. Many bars in Spain, where the market for gin is actually larger than the UK, have a house special, featuring different spices to bring out selected notes in selected gins. I’ve gone with a classic choice of juniper and grapefruit, which bring out gin’s green notes. Experiment however you like: cinnamon, star anise, coriander seed and liquorice root are also good places to start.
Ingredients
50ml dry gin
150ml Fever Tree tonic
Grapefruit
1 tsp juniper berries.
Method
Fill ice cubes to the top of a chilled glass. Add the gin, juniper berries and stir. Top with 150ml of tonic or to taste. Gently rub the rim of the glass with the grapefruit and drop the slice in to garnish.
Serves 1.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.
Slushy29
Just as good on the morning after as it is the night before.
Ingredients
4 cups cubed watermelon
1 cup ice
12 basil leaves
50ml lime juice
Pinch of salt and pepper
200ml mezcal
Method
Mix all ingredients in a blender with blades strong enough to slush up ice (a Nutribullet would work well) until it's the smoothest it can be. You might have to do in two batches depending on the size of your blender.
Serves 4.
Photographed by Roxana Azar.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Rejoice! London Now Has A Vegan Doughnut Shop