The Spirits #55: Christmas Special

~ Or rather, unspecial ~

FRIENDS, I am sorry, but due to some challenging circumstances, I’m afraid I can’t provide the full service this week, nor bring myself to make topical jokes about the Prime Minister’s parties or whatever. Being realistic, I’m going to have to postpone the hoped-for live event too - which would have been Wednesday next week. My apologies. I wouldn’t do this without good reason.

Nevertheless, I hope a couple of pieces I’ve had published this week will tide you over as far as Christmas cheer is concerned.

For the Guardian Feast, I wrote up four punch recipes (one non-alcoholic!). Here you will find the recipe for Pnin’s Punch and also a Clarified Milk Punch which I hope to cover in more depth in a future newsletter. I’m sure you’ll agree that they did a nicer job on the pix than I usually do with my iPhone…

CLICK HERE FOR FOUR PUNCH RECIPES!

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And for Mr Porter, I came up with six(!) more Christmas-ish cocktails… including the Poinsettia - the Nigella Lawson-inspired cranberry-orange-prosecco mixture that I had hoped would be this week’s recipe - and the Mezcal y Blanco, which is just really nice. Love the illustration by Marianna Fierro too.

CLICK HERE FOR SIX MORE CHRISTMAS COCKTAILS!

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That’s 10 recipes in total. Some of them even include ingredients outside the purview of this newsletter.

And just so your Christmas drinking doesn’t take place in silence, here is my Christmas playlist from last year, which I happen to think is rather a good Christmas playlist.

🎄🔥🎄🔥🎄🔥🎄🔥🎄🔥🎄🔥🎄

I hope normal service will resume next week but I am mindful of over-promising… So let’s just say that I will be back in your inboxes just as soon as I can and I will do my utmost to ensure that’s before Christmas. As for the Spirits LIVE well, this will happen in due course, don’t you worry, but it’s likely to be 2022 now.

In the meantime congratulations to Ago Perrone and his team at the Connaught Bar on winning the coveted top spot in the WORLD’S 50 BEST BAR AWARDS announced earlier this week. (I had my book launch there you know!)

And look after each other.

Best,

Richard

📚 THE SPIRITS (i.e. the book that inspired this newsletter) is available once more! You can find it at: Bookshop.org, Foyles, Blackwells, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon and even WH Smith. Makes a great Christmas present, just saying 📚

You will find instructions for making sugar syrup, grenadine, orgeat ice, etc here and my 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS here. I have also assembled some bottle recommendations here. And here is an index of all cocktails featured thus far, searchable by ingredient. Scroll to the bottom of this page to find out what to get in for next week’s special.

Please consider hitting the SUBSCRIBE button to become a member of the ✨THE CABINET✨. This way you will learn about exciting things like Maraschino and Green Chartreuse and Apricot Brandy and you can also come to my party. Oh and if you opt for the priciest ‘Founding Member’ option, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book with your very own bespoke recipe in it.

Please share The Spirits with anyone you reckon might be into this sort of thing. And feel free to @ me with your creations!