How to up your cocktail garnish game with Lorenzo Antinori

Question: How do we round up our very first (mini) season? Answer: With some incredibly tasty treats to keep your palates primed for what's coming next, that's how!

We've got gin – not just any old gin but the gorgeous, bursting with herbaceous goodness Savoury Gin from those clever chaps at Portobello Road Distillery, and we sample the creamy but light and quite frankly, luscious Disaronno Velvet Liqueur.

For the last bar review of our first season, we had to go pretty spesh, so we headed back to Claridge's (any excuse) and settled in for a sumptuous cocktail hour at Davies & Brook. Did you know that award-winning Chef Daniel Humm's Michelin-starred London restaurant had a dedicated bar? Well, it does and we recommend getting yourself down there pronto!

And our chosen book for this episode is one very dear to our hearts: it's The Negroni: A gaz regan Notion by the late, very great gaz regan (lower case 'g' and 'r' intended). Filled with all kinds of nuggets and noodlings about his favourite drink, it includes variations on this most classic of cocktails from some of the best bartenders in the world. Speaking of which, we check in to the recently opened Argo at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong to talk to Lorenzo Antinori about the dos and don'ts of cocktail garnishes.

What we're mixing:

Breakfast Martini

Created by the legendary Salvatore Calabrese aka the Maestro, this drink truly makes for a breakfast (or brunch) of champions. Make it at home and ask for it at Donovan's Bar at Browns Hotel.

Ingredients:

50ml Gin

15ml Cointreau

15ml freshly-squeezed lemon juice

1 bar spoon fine cut or no peel marmalade

Method:

Pour all ingredients into a shaker and stir to dissolve the marmalade. Add ice, shake and fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with shredded orange peel.

The Cocktail Lovers theme music is by Travis 'T-Bone' Watson

For more from The Cocktail Lovers, including signing up for our digital and print magazine, visit our website, thecocktaillovers.com

To see the products featured in this episode, check out our Instagram page @thecocktaillovers and see their websites below:

Argo

Davies & Brook

Disaronno

Donovan Bar at Brown's Hotel

The Negroni: A gaz regan Notion (currently out of print but have a check on Google)

Portobello Road Savoury Gin

Season two of The Cocktail Lovers podcast is coming late September. Be warned: it's going to be super cool. Expect more fab insights from movers and shakers from around the globe, more bar reviews (hopefully, Covid will ease up so we can bring you our pick of locations from our travels), more fabulous products and, oh yes indeedy, plenty more episodes. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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