Mojito
A traditional Cuban summer cocktail served over ice in a highball glass.
Ingredients: 1½ oz white rum, 8 mint leaves, 1 cup ice cubes, ½ lime, 2 teaspoons of caster sugar, 1½ oz soda water
How to mix: Muddle the mint, and put it in a shaker. Add the sugar, lime juice and rum, and fill with ice. Shake and pour into a highball glass. Top up with soda and decorate with a mint spring.
Margarita
A popular cocktail in North America, it combines the tang of lime and the sweetness of orange liqueur with tequila.
Ingredients: 2oz silver tequila, 1oz Cointreau, 1oz lime juice, coarse salt
How to mix: Get a chilled cocktail glass, rub its rim with lime juice and dip it in coarse salt. Next add the ice, lime juice, Cointreau and tequila into a shaker, give it a good mix, and pour into the glass over ice.
Manhattan
A cocktail made with American whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. According to popular legend, the drink takes its name from where it was invented: at a banquet in New York’s Manhattan Club in the 1880s.
Ingredients: 2oz rye whiskey, 1oz sweet vermouth, 2oz Angostura bitters, handful of ice
How to mix: Simply put all the ingredients into a mixing glass, fill with ice and give it a stir. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.
Cosmopolitan
A fruity cocktail created during the late 1970s or early 80s. The classic vodka-based tipple gained mass popularity in the 90s, courtesy of Sex and the City.
Ingredients: 2oz vodka, 1oz Cointreau, 1oz cranberry juice, 1oz lime juice.
How to mix: Add the ingredients and plenty of ice into a shaker and shake for 20 seconds. Pour the mix into a chilled cocktail glass. Decorate with orange or lemon peel.
Negroni
This classic Italian cocktail has many versions of its history. One story is that an Italian who was always travelling in America asked his bartender friend to strengthen his favourite cocktail Americano. The evolution saw gin replacing soda water.
Ingredients: 1oz Campari, 1oz gin, 1 oz sweet vermouth
How to mix: Put all ingredients into a shaker. Shake with cracked ice. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass and decorate with orange peel.