When the sun is high and the Ashes are in full swing, I become less interested in martinis, negronis and other short intensities; instead, I want long, cold refreshment. Here are a few of my summer favourites. Each is highly adaptable – try ginger ale for the mojito, mint syrup in the gin and tonic, and so on – but the non-negotiables are that the ingredients (and, ideally, the glass) should be very cold and an excess of ice is almost always the way to go: the more you use, the colder everything stays and the slower the ice melts.
If you prefer your cocktails alcohol-free, there are so many spirits and beers to suit these days: Caleño’s Dark & Spicy, for instance, works beautifully in the dark and stormy, Seedlip’s Garden 108 makes a very happy-making G&T and Strykk’s Not V*dka works really well in the Dalmatian; and while alcohol-free beer was mostly carwash just a few short years ago, there are any number of exceptional ones now widely available.
