Recipe

• 2 parts Campari

• 2 parts sparkling white wine

• 1 part tonic water (or soda water)

Fill a wine glass with ice, pour in all ingredients, and give it a quick stir.

I thought spritz was only made with Aperol.

How wrong I was.

An excellent cocktail-making friend of mine told me she was having a spritz one evening in lockdown, and mentioned that she'd used Campari. Surprised, I asked if that was something you can do, and she replied that not only is it normal, but that in Italy when you ask for a spritz, they ask you "Aperol or Campari?"

Well, I had to try it myself, and I was delighted with the result. I've tried a Campari and tonic before, but the prosecco gives this a much richer and more summery flavour – delicious! And compared to Aperol, it's of course much more bitter and powerful, in a very good way!

I used tonic water here because I'd run out of soda water. In those quantities there's not much difference, but this is a little sweeter than the soda version would be.

Recipe

• 1 part Scotch whisky

• 1 part Campari

• 1 part red vermouth

Pour into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice, and add a thick half-slice of orange. About 25ml per part should do it.

This is a variation on one of my all-time favourites, the Negroni, just substituting the gin for whisky. The result is striking, with the Negroni's searing bitterness still present, but a curious dark twist from the whisky replacing the crisp, clean gin. Every sip was fascinating, and, like its gin-based cousin, it can be savoured for hours. Just make sure to use plenty of ice.

It's nice to see Campari and whisky together in a well-known cocktail with an established name. I had thought it was just an innovation of my friend Ms Villa, but I'm glad to see people have been enjoying it for years.

The original recipe uses rye whiskey instead of Scotch. I imagine rye would be a lot smoother, but I haven't tried it.

Recipe

• 2 parts Campari

• 1 part triple sec

• ½ part tequila

• 1 part orange juice

• 2 parts tonic water

Shake all the ingredients together with ice, except the tonic. Strain into a wine glass, full with fresh ice and add the tonic and a thick slice of orange. You can get the orange juice from the rest of the orange if you want.

Superb, and a definite improvement on my first attempt. Firstly, an error in translation led to me using orange squash instead of triple sec, and that definitely wasn’t as good. Second, I halved the amount of tequila in this version, as the original designer did herself, and this made it a lot less overpowering. Much better all round!

This wonderful balance of sweet and bitter is super-refreshing, and I think I’ll be having it a lot more as the storms give way to the summer sun.

Recipe

• 2 parts Campari

• 1 part tequila

• 1 part orange squash

• ½ part fresh orange juice

• 1–2 parts tonic water

Shake all ingredients except the tonic together, then pour into a wine glass with plenty of ice, and add the tonic and a slice of orange.

Invented by a good friend of mine, this is a perfect tribute to the storm that recently ripped through the UK. It’s chaotic and bitter, enough to make anyone batten down the hatches, draw the curtains and hide under the duvet. However, it has another side to it, sweet and refreshing, with optimistic hints of spring and summer to come. This too shall pass!

Tempestuous metaphors aside, it’s a good drink – Claire even says a great one! The bitter and sweet flavours balance well, and there’s a curious innovation that makes it really interesting.

I know that Campari and tequila both go well with tonic, but I’ve never thought to put them together. It works well!

Many thanks to the mixologist of the day for this recipe. Storm Dennis is rattling my windows as I type this, and I feel like he might deserve a cocktail of his own…

Recipe

• 3 parts brandy

• 1 part lemon juice

• 1 part elderberry liqueur (or crème de cassis)

• 4 parts sparkling white wine

Shake the first three ingredients with ice, strain into a champagne glass, and top up with the sparkling wine.  Add a twist of orange peel.

A good friend of mine found this little cocktail game online, and decided to share it with me.  I chose the options based on what ingredients I had in the house, and it told me I had created a Coquette! It was tasty enough, but the elderberry was a bit overpowering.  I'm starting to think it's not actually a valid replacement for crème de cassis, and I should be using it in a different way.  In any case, it went down nicely!  Brandy and sparkling wine seem to match up quite well.

Merci beaucoup, Chichi!

Recipe

• Lots of olives (in brine)

• 50ml gin

• 10ml dry vermouth

Fill a martini glass with olives. Stir the gin and vermouth with ice and strain into the glass. Add a cocktail stick.

When I was hosting one of my fabulous soirées recently, one of my elegant guests impressed upon me how much she enjoyed the olives in her martini.  'I love olives so much,' she declared with a glint in her eye, 'and they're so good in this.  In fact, I'd love it if the whole glass was full of olives, with the gin just filling the gaps in between.' Well, how could I forget an idea like that?

This cocktail consists of around 12 queen olives in brine (thoroughly drained) with around half the normal amount of gin and martini, and a single cocktail stick.  Though I didn't try this one, I received very positive feedback, and I may try it myself at some point.

UPDATE: I tried this and I hated it.

Recipe

• 4 parts genever

• 2 parts brightly coloured triple sec

• 1 part lemon juice

• ½ part sugar syrup

Shake together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Last weekend I was at an exceptional combined stag and hen do, and there were a few bottles left over.  A Dutch friend of ours had brought the Dutchest drink he could find with him from duty-free, and couldn't take it back with him on the plane, so I leapt right in there and claimed it. Meanwhile the stag and hen themselves were begging me to take away the hideously bright orange liqueur they had brought back from holiday with them several years ago, and I obliged happily.  Arriving back home and reflecting on an awesome weekend, it seemed only right that my first cocktail should combine the two ingredients I'd brought back.

Genever is a very old style of drink from the Netherlands, flavoured using juniper berries, that was first imported into Britain following the Glorious Revolution (1688).  British distillers started making their own, with a drier, cleaner taste, and this eventually developed into gin; meanwhile, the Dutch carried on producing genever in much the same way they always had, and you can still find it over there today.  Compared to gin, it has a darker yellowish/brownish colour, a richer, deeper taste, and a sort of weird twist that's comparable to tequila.  In short, it's fascinating to drink, and each sip is peculiar and complicated.

The decision on how to combine the two ingredients was an easy one.  I have a standard go-to recipe for sour cocktails with triple sec, using the 4–2–1–½ proportions shown here, and I've even featured it before here on the blog (see Embassy, Yellow Bird, Lemon Drop, and Margarita for examples).  When the spirit in question is gin and the fruit is lemon, it's called a White Lady, a drink I tried once with some success, but never quite posted about.  Well, switching the gin for genever, and using the most orange triple sec the world has ever seen, what could I call it but a Dutch Lady? It's absolutely superb.  Every sip has all the richness and weirdness of this beautiful genever, but it's balanced perfectly with the sweet fruity triple sec and the sour lemon.  Far from being simply a variation on a White Lady, it reminds me more of a Margarita made with one of the darker golden tequilas, with that curious twinge complimenting the other flavours wonderfully.  If there's any criticism, it's that it's not so perfect as it warms up.  So chill your glasses/spirits, use plenty of ice, and drink it fast!

Many thanks to the three donators: I'll be drinking plenty more of these.

Recipe

• 5 parts gin

• 3 parts apricot brandy

• 2 parts orange juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

I've not had much success with orange juice before, but this is fabulous! Fruity but classy, with a strong hit of alcohol, rounded out beautifully by the sweetness of the apricot brandy, without becoming sickly. A pure joy to drink.

I went a little heavier on the apricot brandy and lighter on the juice than the IBA suggests. I was concerned about how overpowering orange juice can be, and it seems like my decision paid off!

Also note the gorgeous yellow colour.  It almost seemed to glow.

Recipe

• 3 parts gin

• 2 parts lime cordial (mmm…)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass (or a wine glass if necessary).

On the hottest day of the year, I was sitting in a garden in Aylesbury and slowly melting.  It was wonderful, but I realised that a cool drink would be excellent, and what better time to try a drink I've heard of so many times before? The result was great – very refreshing and well-balanced.  I actually had to fill the glass with ice, because in the 37°C heat it was just warming up too quickly.   But a little meltwater wasn't a problem in this case (see my ice post).

Note that lime cordial could be replaced with equal parts fresh lime juice and sugar syrup.  I might try this alternative another time to verify that this works.

Recipe

• 3 parts rye whiskey

• 1 part lemon juice

• 1 part sugar syrup

Shake with ice, and pour into an old-fashioned glass filled with fresh ice.  Add a thin slice of lemon and a cherry.

As usual, this is a huge improvement on my first attempt.  What's the difference?  I halved the amount of lemon juice (hitting the 3:1:1 ratio I've had success with recently) and used rye whiskey instead of bourbon (smoother and less sickly).  The result is surprisingly light and drinkable, but with that 60% whiskey still displaying the rich character you don't get with lighter spirits.