The mercury is rising at Potion HQ. With warm weather, our thoughts turn to cocktails, here a roundup of our current favourite summer cocktails on rotation (just don’t forget your After Party for the morning after!)
First up is founder Elly’s personal favourite, the Picante De La Casa, straight off the menu at Soho House this chilli infused, limey tequila wonder is a perfect refresher for warmer nights. Here is the recipe from Difford’s
We recently spent an evening making cocktails and learning how to paint with watercolours with Lillet and the Coal Office. Lillet is a Classic French aperitif made from wine, fruits and herbs aged in oak, this refreshing mix was deliciously fresh and very fruity
Lillet Blanc with Orange Tonic: Pour 50ml Lillet blanc and 100ml Fentimans Mediterranean Orange tonic water over ice, garnish with a wedge of grapefruit, some crushed mint, strawberry slices, a sprig of lavender (honestly it really works) and a pinch of pink peppercorns for some underlying heat.
Our third choice is Arcimboldo’s Garden from Town and Country magazine which has proved very popular among our gin lover friends:
50ml Bulldog gin
30ml Cloudy apple juice
Dash of rhubarb cordial
Good squeeze lemon juice
Dash of Chambord
2 dashes of rhubarb bitters
6 mint leaves
1 pinch of pink peppercorn
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a glass (we like it over ice), then add the Chambord, pepper and bitters
Sometimes you want something strong and short, this Rhubarb martini really delivers, we found the recipe a bit sweet so counteracted that with some freshly squeezed lime
600 g (1lb 5oz) pink rhubarb
300 g (11oz) granulated sugar
Ice
40 ml chilled vodka
A squeeze of fresh lime
Put rhubarb, sugar and 1.1 litre (2 pint) water into a large pan. Simmer, covered, on a low heat for 20min until pulpy. Strain mixture through a sieve, discard pulp and chill the syrup. For each cocktail, fill a shaker with ice, pour in 75ml (3fl oz) rhubarb syrup and chilled vodka. Shake until well-chilled, then strain into a martini glass.
Number Five... Aperol is a decisive choice, this recipes tempers that sticky sweetness it can sometimes have but be warned, these are lethal! Aperol Margeritas…
25ml Tequila
50ml Aperol
A slug of fresh grapefuit juice
Juice of half a lime
Soda water to top up
Fresh mint and grapefruit slices to garnish
Shake the Aperol, tequila and grapefruit juice in an ice-filled shaker until well mixed and cold, strain into a glass with ice, squeeze over the lime and top up with a dash of soda
Lastly, where would a summer cocktail list be without Pimms, this recipe brings in a little twist in the form of a Pimms Royale, and it’s delicious, particularly if you muddle the strawberries slightly for extra fruitness.
Hope it’s given you some cocktail inspiration to get the cocktail shaker out this weekend!