Happy hour

The history of cocktail creation is a litany of fact, fiction and alchemy, peppered with fanciful tales of colourful gentlemen with time to kill. Grab an outside table at Café Casoni in Florence about a hundred years ago, when returning rogue Count Camillo Negroni decided to swap the usual soda water in his Americano for gin; you just witnessed the creation of the original Negroni.

Now ditch the linen suit, duck into a dive bar in New York City and order a whisky-laden Rusty Nail. While urban legend has it that the name originated from the fact that the drink was originally stirred with a rusty nail, it’s more likely a reflection of its golden amber hue.

Alternatively, sweat it out in Rio with a Caipirinha or Caipiroska. The former, Brazil’s national cocktail, is a combination of lime, sugar, and cachaça – a sugar cane spirit originally used medicinally in folk remedies, while the latter substitutes vodka for cachaça.

If tequila is more your thing, then look no further than a Tommy’s Margarita, created by tequila legend Julio Bermejo in San Francisco in the 1980s using smooth agave nectar.

Meanwhile, the dry and deliciously zingy Pisco Sour comes courtesy of Victor Morris who adapted it from the Whisky Sour more than 80 years ago at the Morris Bar on Jirón de la Unión in Lima, Peru. Whatever your preference, forget the little paper umbrellas, pull up a stool and prepare to be refreshed.

Think Spirits sells a range of international spirits including Jura Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Santiago Queirolo Quebranta Pisco, Matusalem Platino white rum, PAMA pomegranate liqueur and Partida Tequila Blanco, available from Dan Murphy’s, Liquorland, Vintage Cellars and selected independent bottle shops.

Alcohol measures

1 shot = 30 ml

30 ml = 1½ tbsp

½ shot = 3 tsp

Photography by Janyon.