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The Wild Strawberry Bellini

Taking a leaf from molecular gastronomists such as Herve This, Conigliaro created this cocktail organised around the taste of wild strawberries, usually only available in late August. Conigliaro recreates the ephemeral taste by combining regular strawberries, orange blossom water, lemon, and sugar. Neroli, an oil obtained from orange blossom water, finishes the drink and gives a citrus aroma as you drink, a fragrance for Conigliaro that evokes boyhood visits to his father’s native Italy, when the orange blossoms were in bloom. The Connaught is also featuring a wild strawberry cocktail on it summer menu.

White Chocolate and Matcha New Orleans Fizz

Cocktail poohbah Nick Strangeway has cooperated with Artisan du chocolat to create concoctions that wring inspiration from the cocoa pod, without resorting to the cloying taste of crème de cacao. His pale and interesting bellini combines prosecco with Theobroma cacao pulp juice – made from the pulp surrounding cocoa beans in the pod.

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“It’s really delicate and light and very summery,” says Strangeway. But the white chocolate and matcha New Orleans Fizz is the real eye candy. Inspired by a Ramos Fizz that Strangeway had in Louisiana, it uses chilled white chocolate and green tea matcha – usually served warm – with gin, lemon juice and a bit of egg white to give it froth. Then it’s shaken and shaken and shaken (“for a very long time” says Strangeway) to emulsify the ingredients. “You end up with a very smooth, almost milkshake-like, drink.” Taste his chocolate inspiration at Artisan du chocolat’s new location in Westbourne Grove.

The Rebujito

When Tobias Blazquez-Garcia describes his cocktails, he makes them sound not just delicious but artistic and sexy. There is the translucency of the gin, the colours of the limes packed into the glass, the spear of lemongrass next to the straw so you smell it each time you take a sip. At Pinchitotapas, he’s developed a slew of drinks that unite the senses for summer. His Rebujito brings the classic Spanish cocktail to East London. It’s a fino sherry spritzer, served long over ice, topped with lemonade. Blazquez-Garcia mixes his version simply, with fresh lemon, sugar, soda and fino, adding curls of lemon and lime peel on top. Inhale deeply before you sip.

Cherry Sling

Served at the Connaught, this cocktail combines ingredients you might expect - maschino liqueur, cherry liqueur, pineapple juice and soda water – with some you wouldn’t: cinnamon sugar and shochu, the distilled Japanese alcohol that’s stronger than sake but less potent than spirits. It’s served in a long glass and garnished with a cherry.

Rhubarb White Lady

In addition to G&Ts using gin infused with plum or apricot, Kenny Boyle, head barman at Canteen in London, has concocted a Rhubarb White Lady. It updates the clean-tasting gin-and-Cointreau original. “We make it by infusing gin in our kitchens with rhubarb to give it a refreshing British twist. We use indoor-grown delicate pink [rhubarb] earlier on in the year and then we switch to the green, red-storked variety grown outside. Both varieties taste great,” says Boyle.

The Thai White Lady Boy

Reimagined another way, the White Lady at Edinburgh’s Tigerlily bar crosses into new territory with kaffir lime leaves and homemade ginger syrup. It arrives in a martini glass, straight up, with one lime leaf floating on top.

The Mai Tai

The heady days of tiki torches and Trader Vic’s reassert themselves in Tigerlily’s version of this classic. “We’ve put an apricot twist on it,” says Jamie MacDonald, whose recipe mixes Mount Gay rum, fresh lime and lemon juice, apricot brandy, almond syrup and fresh apricots. Served with crushed ice and a big mint garnish. “It looks like something that would have been served by a bartender in a Hawaiian shirt,” he says.

The Teajuana Lady

“We’ve drawn inspiration from the Mojito, blended it with Mexico’s finest offering of Tequila, and added a health conscious twist” – in the form of green tea – “to create a refreshing drink for the summertime,” says Bar Metropolitan’s Danny Murphy. His recipe calls for Patron Reposado Tequila and the French liqueur Pomme Verte.

Passion Fruit Mojito

Judd Shaw-Gray at the Presidents Bar, Stoke Park, emphasises freshly-squeezed fruits for this updated drink, which uses slippery, slightly tart passion fruit along with mint, lime and Bacardi. For home mixologists, he advises, “Store the fruit in a dry store or in the fridge and make sure that it is sealed.”

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