Negroni

A Negroni is the easiest cocktail to make. Three ingredients in equal quantities and you’re ready to sip.

In my opinion a Negroni is the most perfectly balanced drink. It’s bitter enough to wake the tastebuds and then enough orange sweetness to urge many more sips. Though, I’ve happily accepted Negroni riffs from experienced bartenders I prefer not to mess with this classic, at home.

And there is no need. This is the easiest cocktail to put together and hit the spot. Other than orange peel this contains no fresh fruit. So, none of the ingredients vary in taste all that much. If you measure equal quantities the hardest part is avoiding over indulgence. A Negroni packs a punch.

Recipients: Guests that like strong drinks.

Type: Stirred in the glass.

White Lady Soul

White Lady Soul is citrusy gin rounded out with a dose of pineapple. It is served like a quintessential sophisticated gin cocktail so it can easily slip into your recipe repertoire.

A good friend of Sue’s, Kim runs the theatrical production company, Origin Theatrical. We created this cocktail during the Covid 19 pandemic to sweeten one of the online watch parties Kim organised to keep them socially connected. White Lady Soul is designed to be sipped while watching Dusty, the Dusty Springfield Musical.

We based this recipe on the classic, White Lady drink. Firstly, to make it easier, simple sugar syrup and egg white are replaced by pineapple juice. As a result, you still get a frothy top, but it is slightly less thick than what egg white would achieve. Secondly, we looked at sweetness, which wasn’t straightforward since both triple sec and pineapple juice have this job. And finally, we adjusted the amount of acid via lemon juice.

The result was exactly what we love, a simple, never fail recipe.

Recipients: Guests that love classic and citrus gin cocktails, like a gimlet or tom collins

Type: Shaken and strained

Waterfall

Waterfall is a picturesque landscape in a cocktail. Tasty and easy, too. You won’t be apprehensive pouring this layered drink. Follow our lead. We’ve worked out all the kinks.

Your guests’ tastebuds will adore the fruity flavour combination while her clear and cloudy aqua blue layers are sweet eye candy.

Recipients: Guests who love sipping long, cold cocktails by the pool.

Type: Built in the glass

Nigella

Nigella is named for Nigella Lawson.

Nigella embodies what Cocktails For Mums is all about. She encourages women to cook for themselves and for enjoyment every day, something we forget we can do. She is eloquent and clear in communication that reminds us of the strength of nurture.

I’ve spent years thinking how to embody our respect for Nigella in a cocktail. And this drink is deep, intense and shaken into a salt crusted coupe as a counterfoil to the initial sweetness with nigella seeds for the musky earthiness at the heart of every woman.

This cocktail isn’t licorice or aniseed forward. The sambuca’s job is to add depth and adultiness.

Recipients: Guests that can handle all the intensity in every sip.

Type: Shaken

Guavanother Gimlet

Guavanother Gimlet is a drink we can (and do) drink a lot. She’s just sweet enough, refreshing and oh, so zestily aromatic.

The sweet tang of guava, snappy perfume of lime and floral sharpness of gin come together in a cocktail that has extremely wide appeal for all our testers and goes down very quickly.

Recipients: Everyone, honestly.

Type: Made in the glass

Gin Genie

Magically, this has only 74 calories.* It is utterly drinkable and looks chic to boot. If you’ve made some New Year’s resolutions regarding healthy living, I can’t help you much. This contains gin.

Confession: Adele Bradshaw made us gin and tonic garnished with mint and cucumber. I loved the aroma so much I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But I wanted it in a relaxed, sipping drink instead of searching for it within the mouth puckering shock of tonic. Here is the result of my non original idea, my current favourite mixed drink.

Recipients: People sitting by the water, successfully wearing white and the rest of us.

Type: Made In Glass

Citrus Spacek

This is intensely lemony as well as sweet. strong and sour.

Confession: Adele gave the punny name to a drink I made one night. A few days later when I wrote out the recipe, it turned out to be a caipiroska, made with mandarin vodka, which doesn’t deserve a name like Citrus Spacek. The only option was to come up with a drink sassy enough to fit the name. Here it is.

Recipients: Lemon lovers, friends with a sweet and sour tooth

Type: Made In Glass

Measle

This was my first popular cocktail invention, and so it’s my namesake. It’s popularity stems from its looks because the previous failures had good flavour but looked like gumboots. Nobody wanted to taste them.

Blue curacao is one of those bottles you don’t buy but seem to have in the cupboard anyway. I don’t love its flavour, whatever that is, but if you have some blue stuff, you can make this. And the end result tastes good.

Bonus: The colouring will keep you dancing and bouncing off the walls like you’re 20 again.

Confession: The Measle is basically a frozen Fruit Tingle made with gin. You can make it with vodka but I think the aroma of gin works.

Recipients: Young friends, people who like bling, people who are content with one flashy drink because I don’t want to make another round of these.

Type: Frozen

Sting

This is our version of a cocktail we had in Malaysia, the Varda Gimlet, which had quite a few more ingredients than necessary, in my humble opinion.

Recipients: Sophisticates who like it spicy

Type: Muddled