Palm Beach Special

The name of this cocktail alone was enough to grab my attention: I have a very soft spot for Florida and this cocktail did not disappoint.

It's not a contender for my all time top five, but it's a decent and enjoyable pre-dinner drink:

• 7,5 cl gin
• 1,5 cl sweet vermouth
• 2 cl freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

In a glass with ice stir the three ingredients until very cold - double strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a wedge of grapefruit.

Boulevardier

I count the Negroni as one of my all times favorite cocktails - especially as a pre-dinner or pre-Sunday lunch libation.

I also subscribe to if it ain't broke don't fix it.

But then I stumbled across the Boulevardier - a spin on Negroni by Harry MacElhone of Harry's Bar in Paris-fame - and reconsidered. (Update: Or maybe a cocktail in it's own right see comments for debate)

Not least because Negroni Sbagliato is a wonderful summer interpretation of the original.

The verdict: Boulevardier is a wonderful first-Sunday-in-Spring-pre-lunch cocktail.

• 4 cl bourbon
• 2 cl Campari
• 2 cl sweet vermouth - I used Dolin Rouge

Stir the three ingredients with ice and strain into particularly pretty cocktail glass as it sparkles like a jewel. Garnish with lemon.

And just a word of warning: This is a powerful apertif, so you better have the next meal on the horizon before mixing a Boulevardier.

Paddington

Ever since I got The PDT Cocktail Book I have been perhaps a little starstruck.

I love the look and the feel of the book, but can also see that it is cleverly disguised to take over from that other modern cocktail bible: The Savoy Cocktail Book.

So actually I wish the book had a more innovative look but the contents are undeniably good.

And the layout with explanations of everything and a solid section of recipes is very good. It will be a go to book, I'm sure.

I settled on Paddington as my first PDT-cocktail.

I'm a huge fan of the bear and my brother and I loved the sentence: My grandmother has fallen out of the stagecoach.

Once I started chuckling at that the rest was easy:

• 6 cl rum
• 2 cl Lillet Blanc
• 2 cl grapefruite juice
• 2 cl lemmon juice
• barspoon of orange marmalade.

Put everything in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously, strain into chilled cocktail coupe and garnish with a sliver of grapefruit peel.

Blue Smoke

Smoke seems to follow me everywhere this week. Not unwanted cigarette smoke or anything unpleasant like that - nice smoke, evocative smoke.

On Monday a friend and I had a blast at Copenhagen Spirits and Cocktails (Does not seem to be updated - they had a blast too!) We took a class on tequila and tasted nice stuff from Patròn.

Ronan Rogerson explained about the differences between tequila and mezcal and how it is made from agave, that has been smoked in the ground.

How amazing that tasted we found out during a class on drinking rituals where the tradition of pouring mezcal in a cross before serious drinking commenced was explained.

And I had a bit of an epiphany when I inhaled the smell of the mezcal and was transported back to my childhood and the smell of the Players medium navy cut tobacco my Dad smoked in his pipe.

Mezcal smells like his tobacco smelled in the square light blue tin - a bit like prunes, a bit like rubber tires and a bit like honey. A smell I had not given a second thought in the intermediate 40 years but that I suddenly missed.

As I started reading Camper English's article for LA Times about liquid smoke this morning, I suddenly knew I had to lay my hands on some mezcal for my Friday cocktail. I also knew I wanted to mix the cocktail myself and I'm quite pleased with it actually:

• 4 cl mezcal
• 1 cl Yellow Chartreuse
• 1 cl Golden Falernum (wonderful product from Bitter Truth)
• 1 cl dark agave syrp
• 3 cl freshly squeezed red grapefruit juice
• 6 blueberries.

Add liquids and syrup to shaker along with 5 blueberries, muddle gently, then add ice and shake. Strain into cocktail glass with last blueberry placed in the bottom. Cheers Dad!