To celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, the head barman at a London hotel created cocktail 46664 – after the great man’s inmate number while he was imprisoned between 1964 and 1990. After a concert in London’s Hyde Park last month, Robert Gaggl at the Cavendish Hotel in nearby Jermyn Street decided to create the cocktail, with 50 per cent of the proceeds going to Mandela’s 46664 charity.

West Eleven has launched a range of prepared cocktails – Classic Mojito, Passionfruit Mai Tai, Pomegranate Cosmo, Elderflower Collins and Blueberry Bramble. The authentic tasting mixes are made from “the finest ingredients and natural fruit” including Jamaican and Cuban rums blended by the company themselves. (UK on-trade £5.99 for a 25cl bottle)…

== The Summit == 4 cl VSOP Cognac 6 cl traditional lemonade 4 thin slices of fresh ginger 1 lime zest 1 long piece of cucumber peel 2.5cl sugar syrup (optional) Glass: Old fashioned/rocks Method: Prepare this cocktail directly in the glass. Place the lime zest and ginger slices in the glass. Pour in half the Cognac and lightly press the lime and ginger…

Twenty mixologists representing some of the world’s top bars in Germany, France, Slovakia, the UK and US converged in the town of Cognac earlier this year to collectively create a signature cocktail for Cognac. This first International Cognac Summit organised by the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac involved four days of visits to Cognac houses large and small to discover the complexities of the brandy,…