Recommended
The house favourites.
Dark 'n' Stormy
Bermuda's national drink and a registered trademark of Gosling's, whose Black Seal rum is the original. Dark rum floated over ginger beer: spicy, sweet and molasses-rich.
Needs:
Espresso Martini
Dick Bradsell, London, 1983, for a customer who asked for something to 'wake me up and then mess me up'. Vodka, coffee liqueur and a fresh espresso shaken hard for the crema: bitter, sweet and lively.
Needs:
Gin Basil Smash
Jörg Meyer created it at Le Lion in Hamburg in 2008 and it became a modern classic within a few years. A gin sour with a whole handful of basil muddled in: green, peppery, intensely fresh.
Needs:
Mai Tai
Trader Vic's 1944 original ('mai tai — out of this world!' said the Tahitian guests). Aged rum, orange curaçao, orgeat and lime over crushed ice: nutty, citrusy and much drier than the tourist version.
Needs:
Mojito
Havana's rum-and-mint highball, descended from the 16th-century El Draque. Rum, lime, sugar, mint and soda over crushed ice: sweet-sour, herbal and endlessly refreshing.
Needs:
Swimming Pool
Charles Schumann, Munich, 1979 — a Piña Colada that went for a swim. Vodka and rum with pineapple, cream and coconut, and a slick of blue curaçao poured over the top for the pool colour. Creamy, tropical, deliberately kitsch.
Needs:
Tequila Sunrise
The 1970s Sausalito version popularised by the Rolling Stones' tour. Tequila and orange juice with grenadine sinking to the bottom for the sunrise — sweet, fruity, simple.
Needs:
Flying Kangaroo
A Schumann's Bar classic from 1980s Munich, riffing on the Piña Colada with vodka and a dash of Galliano. Pineapple and orange over coconut and cream, with vanilla-anise from the Galliano in the background — smooth, sweet and a little retro.
Needs: Galliano
Singapore Sling
Raffles Hotel, Singapore, around 1915, by Ngiam Tong Boon — the sling that let ladies drink gin in public because it looked like fruit punch. Gin, cherry liqueur and Bénédictine with pineapple and lime, topped with soda. Fruity, herbal, long.
Needs: Cherry Heering, Bénédictine