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The easy way into this is to say Christopher’s cordials are the Queen’s favourite and leave it there. That should be propagation enough, though it must help that she had samples for free. Her son Tom Parker Bowles, one of the two entrepreneurs behind them, is generous like that.
He and I are at The Devonshire so I can sample this newfangled squash. It doesn’t help that the landlord — more art collector these days — Oisín Rogers is reluctant to allow
us to open the blackcurrant and blueberry in case we lose our minds and make Guinness and black, a concoction banned on the premises.
We distract Rogers with a painting of a horse and give it a go. The idea is that it prompts a Ratatouille moment, sending the drinker dizzyingly back to childhood glasses of cold Ribena. Then there’s lemon and redcurrant, possibly fit for Wimbledon, and gooseberry and lime, the one I try to purloin while Parker Bowles — still enthralled by England’s 22-run win over India a day earlier — is seeing about tickets to the next Test.
This cricket fanatic tells me about how cordials were born in the Italian Renaissance, how they were conceived as medicines but hold a special place in British culture today. To that end it’s a canny move: people are drinking less and searching for interesting options sans alcohol. Kombucha can’t be the only answer. Cordials made with lemons from Aci Sant’Antonio, a bucolic commune in Sicily, might be an alternative.
They cost £11.50 a bottle, which is a lot for squash, but then what do you expect? These are fancy creations to sip while watching cricket, picnicking on Clapham Common, or running amok in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. And yes, they’d work perfectly mixed with a good crémant. These will be stacked beside the Perelló olives and Ortiz tins in no time. They’ve been crafted with efficacy. Maybe your mum might like some.
Bar snacks
Wiltons
Jermyn Street, SW1, wiltons.co.uk
A happy hour? At Wiltons? Even restaurants founded in 1742 embrace modernity every so often. Until August 30, the famed seafood joint is putting on a special menu of martinis and canapés between 5.30pm and 6.30pm from Monday to Saturday. It pairs, for £18 a go, variations on the classic cocktail with crostini with olive tapenade, devilled eggs with caviar, and smoked trout and soda bead. Wiltons’s own gin — highly botanical — is available, so too Padstow and Belvedere vodka. Unmissable, I’d say.
Oriole
Slingsby Place, WC2, oriolebar.com
Jazz manouche fans should heed the call of Oriole this summer. The Covent Garden cocktail bar is launching a new “Hot Club” series, with live performances every Thursday evening from 8pm. If you visit, have a slingsby sling (rum, cherry wine and grapefruit) and a sando — avoid the burger due to truffle oil — and punctuate your evening with a pre- or post-jazz carafe at Le Beaujolais, which is artfully nearby. Covent Garden, a good night out… who knew?
