How to celebrate World Cocktail Day this Thursday
This Thursday is World Cocktail Day, and what better way to celebrate than splashing out on some new glass- and silverware with which to shake and sip your mix of sugary booze?
For collectors that means more than a cursory scroll through the Amazon listings: must-have items include Art Deco Parisian ‘Boston’ cocktail shakers and a set of late Victorian Collins glasses.
A cheaper way, however, is to try and get hold of a calabash. The first cocktail shaker, you see, was probably a South American gourd not dissimilar to a calabash. The ancient Egyptians, who always seemed to be on the lash, mixed up spices with fermented grain concoctions in hollowed out fruits, but gourds are easier to come by than pre-dynastic drinking vessels made out of Nile silt clay.
Decanter Best ready made cocktails to enjoy at home
The quality of ready-to-drink cocktails has never been better, says Richard Woodard, who chooses some of the best to try.
Given that Jerry Thomas wrote these words in 1862 (in his seminal book,
The Bar-Tender’s Guide), it’s unlikely that he was extolling the virtues of early-morning lockdown drinking – but the pandemic has given us all the opportunity to up our game when it comes to home mixology.
Not all of us, however, have the skills, equipment or ingredients necessary to replicate the style bar experience in our own living rooms, so it’s good to know that the quality of premixed, ready made cocktails has never been higher – from specialist producers, and from some of the top bars we’ve all missed visiting so much over the past year.