Vermontucky Lemonade

Never realized that freshly made lemonade and bourbon is a match made in heaven, but it is.

It took a complete stranger, who has previously dazzled me and my taste buds to open my eyes to this perfect marriage.

• 5 cl bourbon
• 25 cl homemade lemonade*

Pour bourbon over ice in a tall glass and top off with the lemonade.

* Homemade lemonade: Juice enough lemons to equal 2,5 dl lemon juice (it's between 6 and 8 lemons worth of juice). Add between 70 ml and 90 ml maple sirup - start slow and keep tasting until you find your preferred balance between sweet and sour. Then add 6 dl of water and put the lemonade in the fridge. Will keep for up to 2 days.

Clover Club Cocktail

I first tasted this cocktail a humid summer night in the wonderful cocktail bar Ruby in Copenhagen.

It was love at first sight/taste and I remember feeling happy that it contains raspberry syrup, because I love making that.

Our very knowledgeable bartender Nick Kobbernagel Hovind told us the story of how this gorgeous pink cocktail was once the favorite of the patrons of a gentleman's club in Philadelphia back when pink was not a girly color.

It's a cocktail containing egg white, something that seems to freak out a lot of people.

I'm so old that in my childhood my brother and I was regularly given a cup with an egg and sugar and then we stirred until it was fluffy and almost white and no "sound" could be heard from sugar crystals caught between spoon and cup.

We lived to tell the tale and I have complete faith in the nice people who sell me eggs.

Others fear they can't shake it hard enough and will encounter the egg white as a blop of slime at the bottom of the cocktail glass.

Fear not, just follow the instructions.

• 5 cl gin
• 1 cl fresh lemon juice
• 1 cl raspberry syrup*
• 1 egg white

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker and do a one minute dry shake. Then add ice and shake for a further two minutes.

Strain into glass taking care to layer the gorgeous white foam on top.

* Raspberry syrup: In a small sauce pan add a good handful of fresh raspberries, half a handful of white sugar and 1 dl water. Also add a sprig of rosemary, a twig of lavender and a piece of star anis. Bring to a boil and let boil for about 2 minutes. Strain and press all liquid of the pulp of fruit with the back of a spoon. Pour into small bottle and let cool.

Pegu Club

Oh, how I love the history of this cocktail. It speaks to me of Kipling and gentlemen

I've never been anywhere near Burma, and have no doubt that Burma under British rule was a pretty dismal place for a majority of the Burmese.

But every Dane of my generation, have this very romantic vision of Burma, because of and a very corny old Danish hit song Mandalay (Yes, it's Kipling's poem translated into Danish).

Every Sunday I heard this song on the radio all through my childhood.

What makes this song so perfect for this cocktail is that the four gentlemen singing it all had a true fondness for drink, and most of them died from it.

They would have loved a Pegu Club Cocktail.

• 6 cl gin
• 2 cl orange curacao (or Cointreau or Triple sec or even Grand Marnier)
• 1,5 cl fresh lime juice
• Dash of Angostura bittes
• Dansh of orange bitters

Add everything to mixing glass, add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into your most beautiful glass.

Camparijito

This is a perfect pre-sundowner, and takes advantage of the perfect strawberrys sold in Denmark between late May and late June.

I wouldn't make it with imported or - heaven forbid - frozen berries.

• 5 cl Campari
• 5 cl dry champagne or sparkling wine
• 3 big strawberries
• Fresh mint
• 1/2 lime in chunks

Muddle strawberries, mint and lime in the bottom of a high ball glass.

Add Campari, champagne and crushed ice. Stir until the outside of the glass feels very cold.

Garnish with lime and fresh mint.

Snap Fever

This signals late spring early summer to me, when pea pods are everywhere: Discarded ones on the street, fresh ones in the shops and some in my cocktail kitchen.

• 5 cl gin
• 5 cl fresh lemon juice
• 15 fresh peas
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 bay leafs

Lightly blanch the peas in unsalted boiling water immediately transferring them to cold water. Muddle 13 peas with the honey and 2 bay leaves in a shaker. Add ice, the gin and the lemon juice and shake well.

Strain into a low ball glass and garnish with the last 2 peas and the remaining bay leaf.

Cocktail developed by Hardeep Rehal winner of Danish Cocktail Championship 2011

Old Fashioned

• 1 3/4 oz bourbon
• 1 sugar cube
• 4 drops of Angostura bitters

In the bottom of a low glass place the sugar cube and add the drops of Angostura bitters, mix and muddle with a muddler or the handle of a wooden spoon. Add bourbon and ice, using a bar spoon stir until cocktail is cold.

Garnish with a sprig of blossoming chives place on cocktail napkin.