It is said that the British pretty much invented mixology with spirits when they came up with punch.

James Ashley ran a famous punch house in London from 1731 to 1776 and was ‘the world’s first celebrity mixologist’. Ashley refined the idea of mixed drinks with spirits, even serving his concoctions in smaller, individually mixed cups rather than big bowls.

Cocktails may have been invented in Britain but they were roundly reimagined and reinvented in the United States.

Americans brought to the bar a wider array of liquours and mixers and incorporated ice when it became commonly available. The Martini and the Manhattan came about when Americans had the mad idea of mixing wine and spirits.

Molecular mixology with mojito spheres arrived three centuries later only to be taken over by ‘non-alcoholic’ alcohol.

This refreshing cocktail is grown-up Irn-Bru; old school Chambord, a raspberry liqueur from the Loire Valley, fizz invented in Winchcombe, England in 1662 by Christopher Merrett (long before Dom Pierre Perignon arrived on the scene) and crème de pêche made from peaches cultivated in the Coteaux du Lyonnais orchards near Lyon. #ChristmasGift