Cotswolds Summer Cup, England (£20, majestic.co.uk) In the manner of John Major’s sentimental Orwell-referencing hymn to an English summer, with its warm beer, bicycling old maids and long shadows on county grounds, we can all reel off a list of sights, sounds and smells that together mean that the summer holidays have truly begun. My own might include, the synthetic-floral whiff of Nivea sun cream, the sound of bass-heavy music emerging from open-top cars, and the early-evening sighting of a tall cool glass filled with that most summery, and most broadly defined of beverages: the long drink. In England, the paradigmatic long drink (warm beer aside) is probably Pimm’s, complete with its salad-bar garnishes. But other, and in my opinion, better examples of the gin-based “summer cup” mix are available, not least the maximally bittersweetly refreshing concoction made by the Cotswolds Distillery, which adds herbs and spices and oloroso and pedro ximenez sherry to its own excellent gin to create a 25% abv drink that I liked best with the suggested extra tang of ginger ale.
Cocchi Americano Rosa, Italy (£16, 50cl, Waitrose) Although the Cotswolds Summer Cup is very much designed for long-drinking, it’s also rather good as an alternative, served neat over ice with a slice of orange, to one of the more medicinal darker vermouths you’d have in a Spanish vermutería. There is a similar versatility to Italian aperitivos, such as Cocchi Americano Rosa, a recent rosé take on the classic Piedmontese aromatised wine brand Cocchi Americano, which adds gentian, cinchona, citrus, saffron, vanilla and rose petals to a red wine base for a drink that delivers that moreish Italian lipsmacking tart-bitter-sweet interplay in both long and short forms. If your preference for long-drinking vermouth on properly hot summer’s evening is for the lighter white style, then Tesco Extra Dry Vermouth from Italy (£8) does the subtly citrussy, earthy thing very well for the money; while, for a more complex English-summer feel, I loved the mix of tingling mintiness and sage-and-rosemary woodsiness of Knightor Winery White Vermouth from Cornwall (£16, shop.knightor.com).
Spirit of Hven Summer Spirit, Sweden (from £32.75, 50cl, thewhiskyexchange.com; amathusdrinks.com) I can’t say that Swedish drinks have ever been part of my idea of summer. This, after all, is a country whose traditional and more recently developed specialities are more readily associated, at least in my imagination, with winter sipping: the combination of carraway, aniseed and fennel you find in a warming aquavit such as OP Andersen Akvavit (£31, spiritly.com) or the wonderfully refined whiskies made by the excellent Mackmyra distillery. But a new (to me) distillate from another Swedish whisky producer, the Spirit of Hven distillery on the tiny eponymous island in the Öresund Strait between Sweden and Denmark, could not be more seasonally appropriate. It’s made, each summer, in small batches from a mix of elderflower, apple, rhubarb, orange bitters and herbs, and aged in American oak barrels. At 40% abv, sipped neat or over ice, it comes across as a particularly aromatic, orchard-fruity, gently honeyed lighter summery alternative to whisky; mixed with soda, it’s an ideal long drink for late, long summer’s nights.
Follow David Williams on X @Daveydaibach
