Pink Negroni
Good Food
The negroni has become the cognoscenti’s chic cocktail of choice in recent years. If you’ve been navigating lockdowns by necking the – often pretty good – pre-made versions, you’ll know all about sating cravings for the beautifully bitter creation at home. But for Valentine’s Day, may we suggest making your own from scratch? This pink variant is a delight to look at as well as tasting pretty special, too. Made with pink gin, rose vermouth and Aperol, it goes down like a dream. Garnish it with a hunk of pink grapefruit for a tart twist.
Blushing Kiss Martini
Bakers Royale
We love the pale beauty of this delicious martini and would gladly drink it on any day of the year. But is there a more perfect looking or perfectly named tipple for toasting your Valentine? We think not. You’ll need gin, St. Germain, grapefruit juice and a sprig of thyme.
Rose Lemon Spritzer
Half Baked Harvest
This refreshing and highly quaffable drink is as pretty as picture. Made with vodka, blood orange, honey, fresh lemon juice and sparkling water, the addition of rosewater gives it a subtle and delicate flavour. If you can, do try and get hold of some fresh roses to garnish – and voila: a cocktail that is too lovely to drink (well, almost).
Kir Royale
The Spruce Eats
Sometimes the simple ones are the best. You cannot go wrong with a Kir Royale which, as cocktails go, contains the fewest number of ingredients possible: dry white wine and crème de cassis. It also takes a mere three minutes to make and looks divine when topped with a raspberry or two.
Hanky Panky Cocktail
The Spruce Eats
This non-pink beauty was first created in the legendary American Bar at The Savoy Hotel in London. A sweet gin martini, it is lent a wonderfully herbal quality, thanks to the addition of an Italian digestivo called Fernet-Branca which, The Spruce Eats tells us, is often otherwise known as ‘the bartender’s handshake’. We love the tale of how this marvellous concoction came into existence: ‘The hanky panky was created by Ada ‘Coley’ Coleman at the American Bar in London's Savoy Hotel somewhere between 1903 and 1923. One of Coley's regulars was Sir Charles Henry Hawtrey (1858 to 1923), an actor and writer who, according to Coley, was ‘one of the best judges of cocktails I knew.’ She worked up this drink for him and after drinking it down, he said, ‘By Jove! That is the real hanky-panky!’ Coley retired in 1925 but her legacy lived on through this drink, thanks in part to its inclusion in Harry Craddock's famous The Savoy Cocktail Book, printed in 1930.’ Not only, then, will you be imbibing a delicious and superbly named drink with your beloved; you’ll also be drinking in a slice of history. And who could say no to that?
By Nancy Alsop
Updated February 2023
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