How To Shake Up The World’s Best Hotel Cocktails At Home

Le Bar du Bristol, in a corner of the legendary Le Bristol hotel, serves as an intimate haunt for a glamorous Parisian night. According to Le Bar du Bristol’s head barman, Thierry Hernandez, the cocktail that most represents the style of the bar is the Bristol Old Fashioned. Visitors will frequently discover a new twist to this classic cocktail – but here is the bar’s signature recipe.

Ingredients and method

· 3cl cardamom tequila

· 3cl mezcal

· 1cl agave syrup

· 3 drops of bitters

· A piece of orange peel, to garnish

Stir all the ingredients in a mixing glass, then pour into a good Old Fashioned glass and add an ice cube to serve. Twist the orange peel to release the flavor and add to the glass as a garnish.

Inviting you to bring a taste of Sweni Lodge safari sundowners home, this is a refreshing, three-ingredient ice-tea tonic that will transport you straight to the banks of the Sweni River. Paying homage to its South African heritage, it is infused with local rooibos tea, which has cherry and honey notes to add a subtle sweetness to the bitters and brandy base.

Ingredients and method

· 25ml gin bitters

· 25ml brandy

· 80ml chilled rooibos tea

· Fresh apple and ginger, to garnish

Pour all liquid ingredients into a mixing glass with ice cubes and stir well. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a thin slice of green apple and a thin slice of ginger on the rim of the glass, then serve straight or with extra ice.

This picture-perfect and vibrant spin on a gin cocktail is a favorite year-round at The Peninsula Beverly Hills’ Club Bar.

Ingredients and method

• 60ml Empress 1908 gin (this infused gin offers a vivid indigo blue color)

• 3 slices fresh cucumber

• 20ml lime juice

• 2 dashes of rhubarb bitters

• 15ml sugar syrup

• Tonic water, to fill

• Mint and edible flowers, to garnish

Muddle two slices of cucumber with the gin in a shaker. Add the lime juice, rhubarb bitters and sugar syrup and shake vigorously. Strain over ice in a snifter glass with a long slice of cucumber (as pictured). Top off with tonic and garnish with mint and edible flowers.

The Nihonbashi is a nod to the original center of Tokyo during the Edo period. “The cocktail uses ingredients to represent the Nihonbashi Bridge – the symbol of the Edo and the river that enabled trade to take place,” says Tokyo’s Mandarin Oriental about its most popular cocktail, which is a heady concoction and evokes the moving river and willow trees.

Ingredients and method

• 15ml Potocki vodka

• 15ml Dover Yuzu liqueur

• 30ml grapefruit juice

• 5ml Blue Curacao

• 7ml Midori melon liqueur

• Lime peel, to garnish

• Half cup of crushed ice

Mix the vodka, Yuzu liqueur and grapefruit juice in a glass with crushed ice. Then slowly drip the Blue Curacao and Midori liqueurs down either side of the inside of the glass in order to create a blue and green ‘tie-dye’ effect. Garnish with a spiral of lime peel.

At the glamorous American Bar at Gleneagles, five signature martinis are served, each one drawing on the scenery of Scotland and using local gins.

Ingredients and method

· 60ml South Loch Black Raspberry Old Tom Gin

· 15ml raspberry leaf-infused vermouth

· 5ml elderflower cordial

· Glassful of ice cubes

· Lemon peel, to garnish

Add the gin, vermouth, elderflower and ice together in a mixing glass and stir to combine. Strain into a chilled martini glass, then garnish with lemon peel.