Big Ben

Tonic water works wonders as a mixer: It's clean, bitter, slightly sweet, and you don't want to drink it by itself. Let Bénédictine, the most elegant of liqueurs, be its base spirit, and you have a superbly refreshing and delightful afternoon long drink with subtle herbal and spicy aromas and flavours. Notes of honey and vanilla linger after each sip. Classy in every way.

4 cl Bénédictine liqueur

Tonic Water

Lemon zest

Pour the liqueur into a tall glass filled with ice, top with tonic, and add a lemon twist.

D.O.M, by the way, is an acronym for Deo Optimo Maximo which means God infinitely good, infinitely great. Bénédictine refers to the monks of the Benedictine Order in the abbey of Fécamp in Normandy who made the elixir that eventually became the liqueur we know today.

Source: madame Figaro, 2017

Tampico

This long drink is named after a popular non-alcoholic, citrus-juice beverage boasting flavours of orange, tangerine and lemon. Here, citrus flavours  are present in the Italian amaro, the French orange liqueur and the fresh, tart lemon juice. The combination of light sweetness, refreshing tartness and pleasing bitterness results in a delightful and colourful drink with a long aftertaste. A real treat on a summer's day.

3 cl Campari

3 cl Cointreau

1 cl lemon juice

3 cl tonic water 

Add the first three ingredients to a glass filled with ice and stir until the glass feels cold. Top with tonic water and stir once more, but briefly.

If you're not keen on Campari, try an amaro that is more to your liking.

Cachaça and Tonic

Long drinks are just so refreshing on hot summer days. And tonic water is the ideal mixer with almost any spirit: gin, brandy, whisky, calvados, or, as here, cachaça -  fermented, fresh sugarcane juice that has been distilled. It's Brazil's national spirit and is mostly known from the drink called Caipirinha. The various brands have their own characteristics, but they all share an initial sweetness that comes from fresh sugarcane juice.

4 cl cachaça

Tonic water

2 lime slices

Pour ingredients into a highball glass filled with ice. Add two lime slices. 

Seventh Heaven

Drinks with citrus fruit are always refreshing and as such appropriate in sunny seasons. Why not go old-school and try this cocktail from the late 1920s? If you appreciate earthy and delicately bitter notes in your drink, this combination of a liqueur based on maraschino cherries and fresh pink grapefruit juice is seventh heaven.

4 cl gin

2 cl Luxardo

2 cl pink grapefruit juice

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into an elegant glass. Some people garnish it with a mint sprig.

The Seventh Heaven cocktail appears in Harry Craddock's famed book from 1930, The Savoy Cocktail Book. His recipe is by some bartenders called the French version, and instead of grapefruit it uses a now little known South African vermouth called Caperitif. The recipe given here is known as the English version. In this version the ratio of the ingredients moves up and down. If you prefer a gin-forward drink add less maraschino liqueur and grapefruit juice. If the drink is too sour, go easy on the grapefruit juice.

Source: O. Blunier, The Barkeeper's Golden Book, Zurich 1935.

Milanese G&T

Gin and tonic is an all-time favourite and probably the most well known of all mixed drinks. And its popularity keeps rising with the appearance of small batch craft gins produced in almost every country in the developed world today. If you want to up the ante when inviting friends over for a drink on a sunny afternoon, you should try this version with the bitter Italian amaro from Milano, Campari. It adds spicy and herbal notes to supplement the botanicals from the gin and quinquina from the tonic water.

3 cl gin

3 cl Campari

Tonic water

A few drops of lime juice

Add the Campari and gin to a tall glass filled with ice, top with tonic water. Squeeze a few drops out of a lime and garnish with a lime wedge.

Source: Joe St Clair-Ford, co-owner of a recently opened club and bar in Soho, London, called Disrepute, 2017

Water Lilly

Crème de violette (violet liqueur) is an aromatic experience, especially if you give it some space. And that is what this take on the classic Aviation Cocktail does. Leave out Luxardo cherry liqueur, add Cointreau instead, use equal measures, and you get the Water Lilly.

The drink is a sour with strong floral and fruity notes. It's like a White Lady with flowers in her hair. A charming, afternoon drink and aperitif.

2 cl gin

2 cl Cointreau

2 cl crème de violette

2 cl lemon juice

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into a coupe glass. If you must, garnish with an orange twist.

The drink was created by Richard Boccato in New York 2007.

Pall Mall Martini

Need a cocktail without the sour element? Try this old-school cocktail that shows you what a cocktail was like in the 1920s. It's a perfect martini with a gentle hint of chocolate and orange bitters. By the way, a perfect martini is a martini that combines sweet and dry vermouth.

3 cl gin

3 cl sweet vermouth

3 cl dry vermouth

0.5 cl white crème de cacao

1 dash orange bitters

Shake the ingredients with ice, and strain into a coupe glass.

The recipe is found in Harry Craddock's famed book, The Savoy Cocktail Book, from 1930. Mr. Craddock bartended the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel, London, from 1920 to 1938. 

A later version of the Pall Mall uses white crème de menthe, taking the drink in another direction altogether.

Aviation Cocktail

Violets are synonymous with spring, and this cocktail gets its pale blue colour from a violet liqueur, in French called crème de violette. Think cherries and violets, and you are on the right track. Add lemon juice and you've got an aromatic and a pleasingly floral, perfumed drink that is not too sweet and lets the gin perform its wonders.

The Aviation cocktail was conceived in New York during the first decade of the twentieth century by a bartender at the Hotel Wallick called Hugo Ensslin.

Crème de violette was created when the Decadent Movement was its peak in the final decades of the 19th century. That's why its colour signals fin-de-siècle decadence.

3.5 cl gin

1 cl Luxardo cherry liqueur

0.5 cl crème de violette

1 cl lemon juice

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.

Buying a bottle of crème de violette may take you quite some time. You can get the same colouring from Crème Yvette or Parfait Amour, but the flavours are different.

Red Moon over Manhattan

Before starting on the lighther drinks of spring, let's try a drink that has red wine as its main protagonist with bourbon in a minor role. The result is a relaxed, low-alcohol libation that works well any time of day. Surprisingly, the red wine highlights the pleasing, aromatic make-up of bourbon.

As the name indicates, this is a take on the classic Manhattan cocktail which blends bourbon (or rye) whiskey with sweet vermouth and angostura bitters.

6 cl red wine

1.5 cl bourbon whiskey

1.5 cl simple syrup

Shake the ingredients with ice and strain into a glass of your choice. If you find the drink too sweet, go easy on the simple syrup. 

The Green Fairy

With spring round the corner it's time to dust off the bottles that were put away last autumn. What better way to evoke memories of spring than a pastis, the absinthe-like spirit from France taken with plain water as an afternoon apéritif.

The late Dick Bradsell, renowned London bartender, turned the casual long drink into a classy cocktail by using real absinthe and adding lemon juice and Angostura. The additions subdue the strong flavour of anise and create a perfect blend of aromatic notes.


3 cl absinthe


3 cl water


4.5 cl fresh lemon juice


2 teaspoon sugar


Dash Angostura Bitters

Shake the ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The name of the cocktail is a translation of la Fée Verte, a nickname for absinthe.

Pastis, like Pernod or Ricard, was created in 1932 as a substitute for absinthe which had acquired a reputation for causing madness because of its wormwood component. So pastis doesn't contain wormwood and sugar is added, making it a liqueur. Absinthe has no sugar added in the processing and the bottled strength is usually 60%+.

Champs-Élysées Cocktail

This sophisticated and herbaceous cocktail ought to be a standard prescription for lightening up a winter afternoon or evening. Its combination of cognac, yellow Chartreuse, lemon juice and bitters works wonders. It will revitalize your senses and set them on the task of catching all the aromatic notes that especially Chartreuse is full of. So allow yourself a mental stroll down Champs-Élysées.

3 cl cognac

1.5 cl yellow Chartreuse

1.5 cl lemon juice

0.5 cl simple syrup

1 dash bitters

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail or coupe glass. Add a lemon twist.

A note of warning: If you are not acquainted with Chartreuse, be prepared for its unexpected and unusual taste produced by its numerous herbs. Give it a chance, the taste grows on you.

Champagne Pick-Me-Up

If you need a little help to restore your good spirits this far into the winter season, a pick-me-up with sparkling wine could be the answer to your prayers. Its combination of sparkling wine, cognac and dry vermouth is certainly not mainstream, but that doesn't make it less enjoyable.

2 cl cognac

2 cl dry vermouth

0.5 cl simple syrup

Dry champagne or sparkling wine

Shake cognac, vermouth and simple syrup with ice, and strain into a flute glass. Top with dry champagne or other sparkling wine.

There are quite a few recipes that bear the same name; this is the best.

Whisky Buck

Buck is a mixed drink that involves ginger ale or ginger beer and citrus fruit combined with a base spirit. In the whisky buck the smoky flavour of whisky blends well with lemon and ginger making a simple, tasty long drink that packs a punch if you use ginger beer. With ginger ale it reveals its more pleasing side.

4 cl whisky

2 cl lemon juice

Ginger ale

Pour the whisky and lemon juice into a tall glass filled with ice, top with ginger ale. Stir gently.

Any whisky type will do just fine. Ginger ale is generally sweeter and less spicy than ginger beer.

William and Tonic

Poire William, the French pear brandy, is a marvellous eau-de-vie in its pure form - an exceptionally strong aroma of pears is its distinguishing trait. Mix it with tonic and it is pure delight. If the tonic is an elderflower tonic, it gets even better.

3 cl Poire William

12 cl elderflower tonic water

To a glass of your choice add ice and the ingredients. Stir gently. Could it be more simple?

Vermouth Cassis

Created in Paris in 1891, the Vermouth Cassis soon became quite à la mode and reached a peak of popularity in the 1930s, not just in France but also in the USA. The same year it was created it was mentioned in a French journal, Journal d'Hygiène, and that may account for its popularity.

Dry vermouth and blackcurrant liqueur is a perfect match of opposites. An intriguing blend of herbal, spicy notes and sweet fruity flavours is the result. A delicious, low alcohol longdrink fit for all seasons.

12 cl dry vermouth

1.5 cl crème de cassis

Splash of club soda

Fill a highball or similar glass with ice. Add the ingredients and stir. Garnish with a lemon twist.

White Lady

The White Lady is a cocktail that sticks to the same basic formula as the Margarita and the Sidecar: a base spirit shaken with Cointreau and citrus juice. The gin makes her the elegant one in the group and she is classy in a clean, crisp and discreet way. A lady's age should never be mentioned, suffice to say that her first appearance was in the 1920s. A very civilized drink indeed.

4 cl dry gin

1.5 cl Cointreau

1.5 cl lemon juice

0.5 cl simple syrup

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or don't.

Egg white is often added to give the drink a creamy mouthfeel and thin foam. To try it, add 1cl pasteurized egg white to the other ingredients.

Sidecar

"Less is more" said the master of the international style, architect Mies van der Rohe. He was talking about architecture but the slogan also rings true when we look at the noble art of mixology. The previous drink I offered you, the Margarita, was one example, and the Sidecar is another. 

Believed to be created soon after World War I, the drink became popular in the 1920s and is still going strong. And what is a more appropriate drink in the winter season than one based on cognac? The warm, cosy feel and caramel taste of French brandy is topped with Cointreau's orangey notes and a refreshing tartness from lemon juice. So jump in and enjoy the ride; you won't regret it.

4 cl cognac

1.5 cl Cointreau

1.5 cl lemon juice

0.5 cl simple syrup

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist, or don't.

The recipe is a present-day version. In the 1920s the drink was made with equal parts of the first three ingredients, later known as the French School of Sidecars. In the 1930s an English School emerged with a ratio that said 2:1:1. Both of these two classic versions omitted syrup.

Margarita

The Margarita is a dink with character due to its wide palette of aromas and flavours from the tequila. Fruity, herbal, woody notes blend with spicy, floral and slightly cocoa-like flavours. Combined with the taste of bitter and sweet orange peels from Cointreau and pleasingly tart lime juice balanced by a small dose of simple syrup you are in for a treat.

4 cl tequila

2 cl Cointreau

2 cl lime juice

0.5 cl simple syrup

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail or coupe glass.

Margarita's name suggests that the drink originated in Mexico but the USA is also a possibility. The drink is commonly believed to hark back to the 1930s or early 40s.

Starry Night

A frosty evening is a perfect time for stargazing and getting back on your feet after New Year's Eve. Some of us also find it helpful to turn the gaze inwards for some soul searching, and to get one into that mood a dreamy, aromatic cocktail like Starry Night might do the job.

The dry, clean taste of Chablis, the white wine from Burgundy based on Chardonnay grapes, is accompanied by delicate, slightly earthy notes from the Italian cherry liqueur and the strong fruity fragrance of the French pear brandy.

6 cl Chablis

1.5 cl Poire William

1.5 cl Luxardo

Stir the three ingredients with ice and strain into a wine glass.

The name of the cocktail is perhaps a reference to the painting "Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh. 

Source: Jamie Boudreau, American bartender.