Cosmopolitan, Gimlet, Old Fashioned, Margarita, Mai Tai and Martini, the list of cocktails is endless and, according to drinks writer, Alice Lascelles, every one is easy enough to shake, stir and sip at home.
In her new book, The Cocktail Edit: Everything You Need To Know About How To Make All The Drinks That Matter, Lascelles shows how 12 classic cocktails can be remixed into six more delicious drinks, all with only 12 bottles of spirits, which can be sourced for less than £200.
Creating a home bar, she says, doesn’t have to be complicated, but to get the perfect pour you do need to invest a little time.
“Writing the book, I was really reminded how fun it is making cocktails at home,” explained Lascelles, who writes a drinks column for the Financial Times. “The smell of mint, the clink of ice, all the beautiful bottles, different tastes and aromas. And there’s something quite luxurious about setting aside some time to make a nice drink.
“You don’t need expensive ingredients, but you do want to spend a bit of time investing some attention in the details. Things like freezing your favourite glass for a couple of minutes before you use it, or cutting a really nice lemon twist, or hacking a nice big chunk off a homemade ice block. Those little things can really elevate quite a simple drink.”
As well as sharing recipes for everything from a Vesper Martini (a riff on James Bond’s recipe from Casino Royale) to a Negroni Sbagliato (recently made famous by House Of The Dragon star Emma D’Arcy), Lascelles shares advice for elevating every drink. Choosing the right spirits, making fancy garnishes and preparing your own sugar syrup are all covered and, according to Lascelles, once you know the basics, there’s no end to what you can make.
“Even if you just have a bottle of gin and some lemon, you can actually do an amazing number of different drinks,” she said. “You can throw in some extra mixers or infuse your gin with something like jasmine tea or add a little sparkling wine.
“Most recipes really are just tweaked versions of a dozen or so classics – and a lot of those tweaks you can do without buying extra booze.
“You can do it using extra non-alcoholic ingredients. Part of the fun is the improvising.
“And once you learn the formula of four-two-one – a Gimlet, for example, is four parts gin, four parts citrus and one part sugar syrup – you will always be able to make a drink from what you have to hand. I call it your cocktail survival kit.”
If you want to feel as effortlessly cool as Don Draper sipping an Old Fashioned or as glamorous as Carrie Bradshaw holding a Cosmo, it all comes down to preparation, like making your own slow-melting ice block by filling up an old Tupperware box or ice cream tub or choosing eye-catching stemware to serve.
However, if you would prefer a winter warmer this festive season, Lascelles has a cocktail for that, too.
“I really liked a hot spiced apple punch that you can make with any kind of brandy or cognac, but it’s particularly nice with Calvados,” she said. “It’s got apple juice, ginger, star anise and cloves, making a really nice variation on the mulled wine theme.
“Another one is a really historical drink called the Negus, which was loved in Victorian times around Christmas. You can make it with sherry or port and then it’s just a bit of hot water, citrus peel, and a bit of sugar or honey.
“It’s just like a toddy but because you’re making it with a fortified wine instead of spirits, it’s not quite as boozy. It’s really flavoursome and delicious.”
Mulled apple punch
By the time Christmas comes around I’m heartily sick of mulled wine – I much prefer this hot punch with its apple and ginger kick, writes Alice Lascelles.
If you haven’t got any Calvados apple brandy, it’s good with cognac, too. If you don’t have ginger liqueur, you could substitute with ginger cordial. If your apple juice is on the sweeter side, you may need less honey, or even no honey at all. All that stirring, tweaking and tasting is very much in the spirit of punch.
You’ll need:
- 230ml Calvados apple brandy (or cognac)
- 230ml ginger liqueur (or cordial)
- 1 litre cloudy apple juice
- 100ml lemon juice
- 20ml honey
- 320ml boiling water
- 1 clove-studded orange
- 6 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- A few orange and lemon wheels
Method:
Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat (but don’t boil) for 10 minutes. Serve in mugs or sturdy punch glasses. Garnish with the clove-studded orange slices and a grating of fresh nutmeg.
The Cocktail Edit, Quadrille, £16.99, available now
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