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The Iberian

1 part Bittall

1 part very dry sherry

1 orange slice

Ice cubes

You can surely see how to make this. Bittall is a Portuguese wine apéritif consisting in effect of light (i.e. non-heavy) port flavoured with orange-peel. I myself find it delicious on its own—serve well chilled—but some will find it a little on the sweet side for a pre-meal drink: mixing it with the sherry offsets this. (See also under Hot Drinks, below.) It is not on general sale, but your wine merchant can get it for you.

I can hardly stop you if you decide to make your guests seem more interesting to you and to one another by mixing in a shot of vodka.

The Normandy

1 slug calvados (2 fl. oz.)

1 dose champagne cider (about 3 fl. oz.)

1 dash Angostura bitters

1 level teaspoon castor sugar

As little hot water as will dissolve the sugar completely

1 apple slice

Ice cubes

Put the dissolved sugar, the bitters and the calvados into a glass and stir furiously. Add ice and stir furiously. Remove ice, add chilled cider, drop in apple slice, and serve.

Note. Connoisseurs will already have sussed that this longish short drink is a translation of the orthodox champagne cocktail, based on brandy and champagne, out of grape into apple. They should also have sussed that it is substantially cheaper: calvados is a few shillings dearer than a three-star cognac, but champagne cider is a quarter the price of even the very cheapest champagne. This cocktail tends to go down rather faster than its strength warrants; I have had heads in the soup when offering it as an apéritif.

The Tigne Rose

1 tot gin

1 tot whisky

1 tot rum

1 tot vodka

1 tot brandy

Even if you keep the tots small, which is strongly advisable, this short drink is not very short. It owes its name to Tigne Barracks, Malta, where it was offered as a Saturday lunchtime apéritif in the Sergeants’ Mess of the 36th Heavy A.A. Regt., R.A., to all newly joined subalterns. The sometime 2nd Lieut. T. G. Rosenthal, R.A., from whom I had the recipe, says he put down three of them before walking unaided back to his room and falling into a reverie that lasted until Monday-morning parade. A drink to dream of, not to drink.

LONG DRINKS

There is no need to wax sociological over these. You must, however, try to observe

G.P. 6: With drinks containing fruit (other than the decorative or olfactory slice of lemon, orange, etc.) it is really worth while to soak the fruit in some of the liquor for at least three hours beforehand.

Everything else is ad libitum, as can be seen from this recipe for

Generic Cold Punch

A lot of cheap medium-dry wine, white, red or rosé

— your wine merchant will help you choose

Some vodka—the quantity depending on your pocket

and how drunk you intend your guests to become, but not

more than one-quarter of the quantity of wine

A glass or two of some relatively non-sticky liqueur—

optional

A load of any fresh fruit that happens to be about—peaches

and strawberries are best

Ice cubes

Cut up the fruit and put it in some sort of bowl—anything from a tureen to a baby’s bath will do. Pour some of the wine over it and leave to stand as under G.P. 6. When the party approaches, add the rest of the drink and stir thoroughly. The best method of serving is via your jug—with luck you will be able to fill this by submerging it bodily in the bowl, though it is worth taking out and throwing back any chunks of fruit that have got into the jug. Soaked fruit looks nasty. (If you want to do the thing in style, you will have a fresh supply of fruit to go in the individual glasses.) Now, no sooner, is the time to introduce ice. Stir the punch and the ice in the jug and start pouring, keeping ice out of the glasses.

Stern application of G.P. 4 makes any such potion inexpensive, but the best value for money of the lot, and a very pleasant medium-strength long drink, is provided by

The Careful Man’s Peachy Punch

5 bottles medium-dry white wine

4 bottles champagne cider (dry if possible)

2 bottles British peach wine

1 bottle vodka

2 lb. fresh peaches (more