Vertigo

Another drink with Averna, the almost forgotten Sicilian amaro. This time the mixer is spicy ginger ale. The result? A full-bodied beverage, pleasing to the palate and low on alcohol.

6 cl Averna

1.5 cl lemon juice

12 cl ginger ale

Pour the ingredients into a highball or rocks glass over ice. Add slices of lemon and lime.

Source: Duggan McDonnell, barman and writer from San Francisco

Averna Tonic

Averna is an amaro, i.e. a bitter, from Sicily. It belongs to the mild and sweet category of Italian bitters and it's been around since 1868. With the help of herbs, roots and citrus zest it gives off a sweet and spicy taste and aroma heading towards the orangey. Mix it with a dry tonic water and you get a lovely long drink.

4 cl Averna

Tonic water

1/2 lemon slice

1/2 orange slice

Pour Averna into a highball glass filled with ice and top up with tonic water. Add the citrus slices.

You may want to try this recipe with another, slightly less orangey Italian amaro: Ramazzotti.

Guadalajara Sour

A cocktail with a surprising combo: tequila and rosé. The duet is performed surprisingly well and combines earthy and fruity notes. A real summer treat.

4,5 cl tequila

2 cl lemon juice

1.5 cl simple syrup

2 cl rosé

Shake the first three ingredients with ice in a shaker. Strain into a rocks or wine glass filled with fresh ice. Pour the rosé slowly over the back of a spoon that touches the surface of the drink.

Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city and is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Tequila comes from Jalisco.

Take 3

A low-alcohol, highly refined summer drink that has a mild Italian amaro based on artichoke in the lead role. Supporting star is the French elderflower liquour St-Germain. To balance the sweetness from these two participants, the sour role is delegated to fresh lemon juice. And together they perform wonderfully, each giving delicate and complex notes of spices, herbs and flowers together with pleasing bitterness and refreshing tartness.

8 cl Cynar

3 cl St-Germain

3 cl lemon juice

Sparkling water

Stir the first three ingedients with ice in a highball glass. Top up with sparkling water.

If you want a garnish, a slice of orange would do nicely.

 

This drink was created in 2011 by Zachary Gelnaw-Rubin, a bartender from Dutch Kills Bar in Queens, NYC.

Caipirinha

This is not just another summertime drink with Brazilian cachaça - it's the most popular drink with cachaça. Combining the spirit with lime gives you a sour that is spicy and with notes of musty fruitiness and honey. Be careful, this tipple is addictive.

6 cl cachaça

1 lime cut in four pieces

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Muddle the four wedges of lime in a rocks glass. Add crushed ice and cachaça. Stir vigorously.

If you haven't got a machine of some sort to crush your ice cubes, you just roll up you ice cubes in a towel and bang it with a meat pounder or a rolling pin.

Feel free to balance the ingredients to suit your taste.

Brandy Daisy

High summer and brandy seem at odds with each other but not after you've tasted this long drink. The complexity of the brandy is set free when combined with the herbal notes of Chartreuse, and the tart taste of lemon juice adds lightness to the two heavyweight ingredients. With sparkling water it is simply   refreshing.

4 cl brandy

2 cl yellow Chartreuse 

2 cl lemon juice

Sparkling water

Stir with ice in a shaker and strain into a highball glass with fresh ice. Top up with sparkling water.

The drink has quite a track record. It dates back to the second half of the 19th century.

Batida de Coco

It's high summer in the northern hemisphere so let's get inspired by drinks from tropical and subtropical parts of the world where they know how to mix or shake up enjoyable, simple and sunny concoctions. Where better to start than Brazil? No, it's not a Caipirinha, but another drink with cachaça: a Batida de Coco. Cachaça is the Brazilian national distillate made from sugarcane juice. One of its many nicknames is abre-coração (heart-opener). So open your hearts to this gorgeous drink, ladies and gents!

4 cl cachaça

2 cl coconut milk

1,5 cl simple syrup

Shake ingredients thoroughly and pour into a highball glass filled with ice.