Recipe

• 50ml spiced rum

• 5g butter (1 individual pack)

• 7g sugar (½ tbsp)

• ½ small cinnamon stick

Put the butter, sugar and cinnamon stick in a saucepan on a low heat, stirring often, for a few minutes. After it's nice and hot and bubbly-looking, stir in the rum. When everything's dissolved and it's bubbling again, pour into small glasses (possibly via a jug for easy pouring) and serve. If you're using a bigger glass, add one of the cinnamon sticks as a garnish. Drink with loved ones while listening to Christmas carols.

A wonderful discovery from BBC Good Food, I've had my eye on this for a while. I love spiced rum, and having it hot really brings out the warm spices and vanilla. Sugar smooths out the alcoholic edges, and butter brings a cosy, nostalgic feeling to the whole affair, as well as seasoning the drink – unsalted butter is not welcome here.

If, like me, you don't keep real butter in the house, keep an eye out at hotels, conferences and so on for those little individual packets they hand out. One packet is a perfect amount for one person.

Recipe

• 4 parts vodka

• 3 parts bourbon whiskey

• 2 parts maple syrup

Cut a thin slice from the middle of an apple (preferably green), and admire the order-5 rotational symmetry. Place the slice in a martini glass. Put about 8 raisins on a cocktail stick, and stick it through the apple slice so that the raisins are suspended over the glass. Shake the ingredients together with ice, and pour into the glass, drizzling over the raisins as much as possible.

I think I've got this recipe sorted now, after a couple of unsatisfactory tries (1 2). This recipe balances the bourbon and maple flavours, and has enough vodka to keep the whole thing clean and gentle. It's very sweet, but somehow not sickly. It looks quite fun too!

Recipe

• 4 parts gin

• 1 part dry vermouth

• 1 part sweet vermouth

Shake with ice, and pour into a martini glass. Add a twist of lemon zest.

The latest in our tour of variations on the classic martini (see previously: 1 2 3) is one of the best-looking, a beautiful golden colour from the sweet vermouth we added. To taste, it's very like the wet martini, with a strong taste of vermouth over the top of the gin. But there's an additional fruitiness too, which was a pleasant change.

I decided that an olive wasn't the way to go in this case, so I went for the classic lemon twist.

I got a bit confused when I started about the different kinds of vermouth. To clarify, this recipe used Martini Extra Dry and Martini Rosso, respectively.

Recipe

• 2 parts clementine gin

• 2 parts Campari

• 1 part Scotch whisky

• 3 parts tonic water

Fill an old-fashioned glass with ice, pour everything in, stir briefly, and add a thin slice of lemon.

An Italian mixologist shared this recipe with me today, and I'm delighted by the result. My fears that the Campari would overpower everything were unfounded – it actually balanced beautifully with the sweetness of the gin and the tonic water, making the drink tart, sour and sweet in perfect proportions.

I couldn't taste the whisky, but both my drinking partners did, and agreed that it was enjoyable in its low concentration. The clementine came through nicely, which is good because I bought the whole bottle just for this. A slice of orange would've been better than lemon, but I'd just run out.

I'll be making these again.

Recipe

• 50ml cognac

• 7.5ml absinthe

• 7.5ml sugar syrup

• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake it all with ice, and strain into an old-fashioned glass with lots of ice already in it. Add a twist of lemon zest.

Rich, aromatic, and surprisingly smooth. The flavours all come together nicely, although even that little amount of absinthe was quite overpowering – less next time.

The IBA recipe says to put 10ml of absinthe in the glass, swill it round with ice, then throw it away before pouring the drink. This is obviously absurd, so I just put a smaller amount directly in. Perhaps 5ml would've been even better. I also went for ice in the final drink itself, as I felt the cold would be good, and a little water can do wonders for both brandy and absinthe.

I'm thinking of measuring how much a "dash" of bitters comes to, and reporting in millilitres in the future. I mean, who knows what a dash is supposed to be?

Recipe

• 45ml gin

• 15ml maraschino

• 15ml lemon juice

Shake with ice, strain into a martini glass, and add a cherry.

Simple and superb! This recipe allows the taste of the gin to take centre stage, but complements it with perfectly balanced sweetness and sourness, as well as some lovely fruity fragrances. It looks beautiful too. With Christmas coming, the colours remind me of a snowy landscape and Rudolph's bright red nose. I drank it while eating beans on toast, a delightful clash of elegance and shabbiness.

Recipe

• 45ml sherry

• 45ml Campari

• 15ml agave nectar

• 7.5ml lemon juice

• Small cup (about 170ml) Earl Grey tea

Make a pot of Earl Grey tea. While it brews, put all the other ingredients in a glass mug (I used a half pint mug). Top up the mug with the hot tea, and stir.

The nights are getting colder, and I fancied a nice hot drink to warm me up when I got home late tonight. I got this from Town & Country magazine, who unbelievably use three different units for volume, none of them metric: fluid ounces, pots, and bar spoons. After converting them all to millilitres and changing most of the ingredients for stuff I already have, I was ready to go.

I wasn't disappointed. I love a nice Earl Grey, and it goes surprisingly well with the dominant flavour, Campari. It's less than two thirds tea, but it came out at a good temperature: it warmed me up without burning my mouth. There's a good balance of bitter and sweet, and there are some good fragrant notes to it. I drank mine up very fast. Next time I'd like to try a more traditional tea, such as Assam or Darjeeling, as suggested in the original recipe.

Recipe

• 5 parts brandy

• 2 parts triple sec

• 2 parts lemon juice

Shake together with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon zest.

This is like a margarita wearing a suit and tie. The crazy tequila and lime have been replaced by conservative cognac and lemon, and it all ends up tasting very grown-up. I'd almost go so far as to call it boring, but the undisguised boozy hit of alcohol is actually quite pleasant, and I feel like the cocktail is doing what it's trying to do.

Possibly a better brandy would've been good – I just got the cheap cognac from Aldi. I'd also like to try this again with more triple sec and less cognac, since that's what the guideline on the side of my cocktail shaker says.

Recipe

• 3 parts gin

• 1 part dry vermouth

Shake with ice, and strain into a martini glass. Put three green olives (in brine) on a cocktail stick, and add.

According to Wikipedia, the usual gin to vermouth ratio for a martini started at about 2:1 in the early 1920s, and then gradually increased over the course of the twentieth century, through 3:1, 4:1, 6:1, and so on until the present day. It seems people now insist on absurd ratios such as 15:1, 50:1 and 100:1, at which I'm certain no one can taste the vermouth at all, and the whole exercise is just a pretentious way of drinking a massive glass of gin.

I've always gone for an approximate 6:1 ratio (see my previous post) on the basis that it's what the IBA recommends, and we should stick to international standards wherever possible. But today I thought I'd try something different. I decided to step back in time to the 1930s and taste the sort of martini my ancestors would've enjoyed. Hence a nice sweet 3:1 ratio, and everything else the same as usual.

I was delighted! It's still 75% gin, but it's so much smoother and more drinkable than its modern equivalent. Ice-cold and slightly sweet, but still revealing the flavours of the gin, it's everything I was hoping for. Claire said it was "a bit sickly", but I'm pretty sure she was just messing with me.

So, for the time being, it seems I prefer a good dose of vermouth. Maybe in time I'll change my mind. I'll be sure to update this blog if I do.

Recipe

• 45ml Jägermeister (or Messerschmitt)

• 1 sugar cube

• Angostura bitters

Take a sugar cube, and drip bitters onto it until saturated with colour. Drop it into an old-fashioned glass, pour in a little hot water (perhaps 10ml) and stir until dissolved. Add the Jägermeister, lots of ice, a slice of orange and a cherry.

I'm very proud to have invented this, because it's quite nice! The herbal flavours of the Messerschmitt – sometimes unpleasant on their own – are improved by the aromatic bitters and the sugary sweetness.

Quite Christmassy, though not as much as the original Old-fashioned.