The Aperitif Guy

The Beloved and I sat up watching the BAFTAs last evening, and next weekend we can look forward to the glamour and excitement of the Oscar award ceremony. It got me thinking about drinks to celebrate films and film actors. One of my oldest and dearest friends, Kath, is an avid film fan. Avid, as in obsessed and indiscriminate. She seems to know everything there is to know about every obscure film and has an encyclopedic knowledge of Oscar statistics. She’s also a cocktail fan. Over the years, we’ve tried old cocktails together, invented new ones, compared variations and generally done untold damage to a pair of no-longer-young livers. A conversation with Kath gave rise to the following ideas. It's too easy to name the vodka martini as the film cocktail. However, Bond ordered a variation on the martini in Fleming’s original James Bond novel, Casino Royale, something he would never do on film until Daniel Craig took the role. In his variant, Bond calls for a mixture of vodka wit...

With St Valentine’s day coming up, I’ve been getting all romantic this week. Actually, I haven’t. the Beloved’s away trying to be a latter-day Billie-Jean King, and I’m at home with bins to empty and laundry to do. My nieces have always insisted St Valentine’s day is a celebration for everyone you love, not just for romantic feelings, so I took the opportunity for a night out with a friend on Friday and we frolicked gleefully in the local cocktail bar. Wanting to write about cocktails based on flower liqueurs, that’s what we drank. Flower flavours are not to everyone’s taste, I get that. I’ve only to mention violets to hear people screaming “Zoflora!” and “old ladies’ knickers!” I’ve never drunk either of those things, but, if your experience is broader than mine, feel free to denounce me. Personally, I love Turkish delight, elderflower G&T and orange-flower water in sweet coffee. Here are some ideas for flower-flavoured cocktails you might want to serve as a prel...