Mixed summer drinks for mixed summer days.

Brave hearts among you have already dusted off your deckchairs and dragged out your parasols, determined to enjoy the odd rays of sun we have seen so far in the company of a long, cool, mouth-watering mixed drink. The rest of us are huddled indoors with a good bottle of wine, hoping summer will not be rained off again. Something for everyone, then.

Cheat’s Pimm’s

This archetypal English gin sling is still my most requested recipe. It summons up summer in a glass, which is good on those dull days we see too many of.

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Dubbed Cheat’s Pimm’s because it costs a fraction of the hefty £12.99 a 70cl bottle Diageo now charges for its wishy-washy 25 per cent alcohol version, once topped up with fruit, herbs and lemonade, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference. The rub is having to hunt for the essential Bols Orange Curaçao, beloved by barmen but sadly with erratic distribution. Try selected Booths (50cl for £9.39), Gerry’s (£10.95, 020-7734 2053), or mail-order from The Drink Shop (0800 169 6760, £11.79 plus £4.99 for mainland UK delivery). The chase, as a few of you have admitted, is all part of the Cheat’s Pimm’s experience.

1 measure 40 per cent gin
1 measure French or Italian red vermouth
1ž2 measure Bols Orange Curaçao
A slice each of lemon, orange, cucumber
Sprig of mint and borage (optional)
Lemonade or ginger beer

Use a good, flavoursome 40 per cent or more gin, such as Tanqueray’s divine angelica-scented 47.3 per cent Export Strength London Dry Gin (£15.19, Waitrose). Mix and give the ingredients a chance to marry with a slice each of fresh lemon, orange and cucumber per person – a couple of fresh strawberries look summery, too, as do extras such as mint and borage. Just before serving, top up with ice-cold fizzy lemonade or ginger beer. The best proportions are one part Cheat’s Pimm’s to four parts mixer, but if you want a weaker drink, try five parts of mixer to one of Cheat’s Pimm’s.

Raspberry Vodka Shot

Vodka continues to be the über-spirit for everyone, from chalet girls shaking it up in their dishwashers with UHT cream and Mars bars (I kid you not) to sophisticates blending it with summer fruits. Home-grown raspberries are here soon. Celebrate with this gorgeous muddle of fruit and vodka, perfect for promising summer days that end in thunderstorms.

450g raspberries
1 bottle 40 per cent vodka

Wash the raspberries without bruising and place gently in the bottom of a large, thoroughly clean glass jar with an airtight lid. Add the vodka (Waitrose stocks the sublime new creamy, grain-based Ketel One Vodka from Holland, 70cl, £17.99) and steep the contents for a week, upending the jar once a day. After seven days, you will have a seductive, rosy-pink summer shot that is best strained before serving – and served in frosted shot glasses. You can make the same mix with strawberries. A terrific summer Sunday morning drink is a Cooch Behar, made by steeping red-hot chilli peppers in vodka for a week before
pouring yourself a shot and topping up with fresh tomato juice.

Daiquiri

Almost every fruit under the sun has been turned into a daiquiri in some bar or another, but the best and most summery is the classic, fresh, lime-based version.

Fresh lime
3 measures white rum, chilled
Dash of egg white
Sugar syrup (optional)

Squeeze the lime into a shaker (two glasses that fit snugly into each other do the same job), add the white rum – Matusalem Platino White Rum, 70cl (£19.95, Harrods; £15.99, Waitrose, from May 23) is cleaner and fresher than most, with a sweet, velvety, vanillary quality of its own, without the rough, soapy scents of its competitors – plus a dash of egg white. Shake hard and serve at once. Sweet-tooths will want their daiquiri rounded off with sugar syrup, made by dissolving white sugar with a little water; the rest of us will take it without.

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