The Dolce Vita Diaries

In my youthful flat-sharing days, we used to play a game called ‘World of Booze’. We loved to spring a spontaneous game on an unwitting guest by way of introduction to our adolescent drinks cabinet. There might have been some limoncello, a half bottle of Mexican tequila, some vodka, probably a cheap Polish variety, various overly sweet Schnapps and always this weird seaweed extract alcohol from Japan.

The game we created involved the ‘volunteer’ doing a blind tasting of the drinks. If they correctly guessed the type of liquor and country of origin they were spared the following drink. The seaweed aperitivo was invariably everyone’s undoing, as no-one believed that a country of such refined taste as Japan could produce anything so utterly disgusting.

I still enjoy experimenting with different alcohols, and New Year’s Eve festivities offer the perfect annual opportunity. Here are a couple of my recent experiments. The martini is my favourite. You can swap the sapa for any good, aged-balsamic or saba if necessary (though if you use balsamic you may need to add more sugar or some simple syrup).

Sapa and strawberry martini

Put a couple of martini glasses in the freezer. Trim and cut the strawberries into quarters. Using a pestle, mash them up with the sapa and lime juice. Add the vodka and ice and shake together vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with half a strawberry, a slightly raised eyebrow and a half-smile.

Strawberry, sapa and basil mojito

Ingredients for 2

Brown sugar – 4 teaspoons

Lime – a fresh one cut into 8.

Strawberrys – 2 biggies cut into quarters

Sapa – 20ml/0.7fl.oz

Basil – 8 to 10 leaves

White rum – 4 shots/6fl.oz/180ml

Mash up the sugar, lime quarters, strawberries and sapa in a robust tall tumbler (a highball glass to anyone who saw Tom Cruise in Cocktail) – use a pestle or the end of a rolling pin so you can give it some proper welly to squeeze out the juice and start dissolving the sugar. Add the basil leaves and mash some more. Fill the glass with crushed ice and add the rum. Stir well in, and top up with some more ice to garnish.