The festive period is already in full swing and as the drinks begin to flow during the ultimate party season, how can you be sure that your Christmas party shines brighter than the rest? Throwing the perfect party and making sure your guests have a good time is always stressful but worry not because help is at hand to make sure your Christmas do is that little bit different.

Joining us in this live webchat is mixologist and cocktail expert Ben Reed for top advice on preparing the perfect tipple. Wondering which liqueurs go well with a mince pie or what cocktails are best to serve during winter? Well this is your chance to have your questions answered live by the master.

Forget Grandma's old sherry, spice up your winter warmer with a cocktail list to make even Tom Cruise jealous. Log on and find out how to make your guests' taste bud tingle make your yuletide bash a night to remember!

Mixologist Ben Reed joins us live online for tips on making the perfect cocktails for the Christmas period.

For more information visit www.firstdrinks.co.uk

H: Host, Nicola Bonn
B: Ben Reed, Mixologist

H: Hello and welcome to the Food and Drink Show brought to you by First Drinks, I'm Nicola Bonn. Now the festive period is already in full swing and as the drinks begin to flow during the ultimate party season, how can you be sure that your Christmas party shines brighter than the rest? Throwing the perfect party and making sure your guests have a good time is always stressful but worry not because help is at hand to make sure your Christmas event has an extra special edge. And joining me today is mixologist and cocktail expert Mr Ben Reed. Hello Ben

B: Hello Nicola

H: So what we're going to do is get you to show all our viewers how they can spice up their Christmas parties this year

B: Absolutely what I find quite distressing Nicola is people round this time of year always spend hours and hours slaving over a hot stove, and yet they seem to almost dismiss the drinks side that they're offering. It's very easy to create some very simple cocktails at home, so I'm going to show you 5 very simple drinks, which are fantastically easy to make at home. The first one is called the Amaretto sour, and this is a very, very easy drink to create. Amaretto is a sweet liqueur, tastes of apricots and marzipan. What we're going to do with this drink is just very, very simply take a large measure of Amaretto, I'm using a 50 ml measure here, you can use an egg cup or a shot glass, they tend to be about 50ml. And I'm going to add to that an equal part of lemon juice. Now this fancy contraption here is called a Mexican press or a Mexican Elbow. What we're doing here – it's called that because you tend to make margaritas using these drinks. We're just putting a similar amount of lemon juice as we are of Amaretto into our mix. I'm then going to add some Angus Storr bitters. Now contrary to the name of this ingredient, it doesn't actually make the drink bitter, it just gives it more depth

H: Ok

B: I'm going to add a dash of this

H: A bit like when you add wine to cooking

B: Exactly that

H: It gives it more oomph

B: It gives a nice depth of taste

H: Ok

B: I'm going to add as much ice as I can fit into my shaker. And then again to the glass. Now adding lots of ice doesn't dilute your drink down, it keeps your drink colder for longer. And be very careful now, when you're making these drinks at home make sure there's no one, make sure granddad is not standing behind you at the time. Similarly I'm going to make sure I don't bash the bar over. Good hard shake to mix the ingredients

H: I love the way you shook that

B: Thank you very much. Have been in the business a few years

H: Yes I was going to say

B: And then I'm just going to very, very simply strain this into my cocktail glass, and I'm going to garnish this with a cherry. Now another nice, really nice variation on this drink is adding a dash of champagne, and it just lends that kind of Christmassy celebratory feel to it.

H: I can smell it, it's gorgeous

B: It's a beautiful marzipanny aroma that really people associate with Christmas time

H: Yes

B: So there we have it

H: It's like stollen cake in a drink isn't it?

B: There you go. It's a desert in a glass

H: Ok

B: So that's the first one. That's a Disaronno Amaretto Sour. Very, very simple to make at home – lemon juice, Amaretto, Angus Storr

H: That is gorgeous. I love it, I really love it! And do you know what I was going to say that actually tastes very expensive. I mean I can imagine in a hotel if you were buying a drink with those ingredients we're talking about £10 for a cocktail like that. Are these drinks as expensive to make at home?

B: Of course not. I mean obviously every bar in every hotel has a significant mark-up and you know, you're paying for the performance of the professional bartender as well. It's a myth that you need to have 40, 50 bottles in your cocktail cabinet to make a great cocktail. In reality, choose your favourite cocktail – we'll talk a bit later on about the DNA of cocktails, how to apply a formula to making a drink. Really with something like the Disaronno Amaretto sour, you're just looking at a bottle of this – everyone's got a bottle of this in their cupboard somewhere left over from a few hundred years ago

H: I have

B: And then the lemon juice. And then if you don't have any Angus Storr bitters, just the lemon juice with the – hope you're not driving – just the lemon juice with the Disaronno . Works beautifully

H: That honestly is absolutely beautiful and I think I shall be making that this Christmas. So, not always expensive, just get the main ingredients. Next, what are you going to make for us?

B: We've got the De Kuyper crème de cassis, now this is a very, very simple drink. We're going to build this, again put as much ice as you can into the glass. The more ice the colder the drink stays for longer. I'm going to add a large measure of brandy

H: Ok

B: Three Bells brandy.

H: When you say a large measure – ?

B: Again it's a large 50ml pub measure

H: Ok so maybe 2 egg cups?

B: Maybe 2 egg cups – well it depends how big your eggs are, obviously. What I'm doing here is I'm counting in my head, you'll see a lot of professional bartenders do that. Little tip for you, if you go into a bar and a man's doing it, you know how bad us males are at multi-tasking –

H: Yes

B: Don't talk to – do talk to the bartenders because maybe it'll put him off and you'll get an extra large measure in return because he won't be able to count in his head at the same time

H: oh brilliant

B: So a little tip, bartenders will hate me across the country now. Cassis, blackcurrant liqueur. Just a dash of that. Now again whenever you're using something sweet into a drink to balance it always use something sour. We're using a Mexican press again, we've got a little in-built with a lime

H: Where can you get those from?

B: You can get them from most of the high street stores that have a sort of kitchen division, sort of your John Lewis and your Habitats and those sorts of things. I'm going to pop another one in there. So I've really nicely soured off my – my cassis

H: And I have to say, De Kuyper crème de cassis is one of my favourites – I love it in champagne

B: Yes, the Kir Royale

H: Oh what's that?

B: This is cranberry juice. And this is – it's kind of, you know it's less Christmassy but again the colour's very Christmassy and the cassis in there also lends that sort of Christmassy flavour to it. We're going to make sure we give it a good stir, because obviously liqueurs are sweetened, so they're going to be heavier than the other ingredients in your glass. You want to make sure, otherwise when you put your straw in what's going to happen is the straw's going to go straight to the bottom and you're going to get this big slug of sweetness. So we want this drink to be nicely balanced

H: Ok

B: Little garnish. There we go. Drink number two

H: Right, I'll move this one up but I will come back to it later. Love it

B: There you go

H: Ok, here we go. De Kuyper crème de cassis – mmmmm that's just as good as that one! I love it, I love the whole sour and sweet thing together, that works really, really well. Do you think that certain cocktails suit certain times of the year?

B: I think certain cocktails suit certain times of the day. I think there are – which is maybe giving myself away a little bit

H: I was going to say, what do you have for breakfast?

B: Bloody Marys. Virgin Marys.

H: Yes

B: Or Bloody Shame as we call them. I think yes, I mean obviously when it's colder you want to drink more warming, heavier drinks, but for me I'm more in tune with drinking lighter sort of more pallet cleansing drinks before dinner, drinking heavier, sort of more dark spirits after dinner. But absolutely, I mean things like Egg Nog, we're making a variation on egg nog later on which can be served warm or cold. Obviously around Christmas time it's going to be cold, so you want to drink something a bit warmer or a bit heavier in flavour

H: So actually you could have that in the summer cold with ice in it even

B: Absolutely

H: We'll talk about that later, but let's look at this, what's this one?

B: Ok, the next one we're making is the marula White Nile, we're going to be using marula here which is a cream-based liqueur made not from cognac or from – sorry – from brandy or from neutral-grain spirit which is vodka, but actually made from the fruit that comes from the marula tree, so it's quite unique in that respect

H: Tell me about the marula tree?

B: The marula tree is found in Africa, and it gives off, it gives off the fruit, the part of the fruit we use are the skin of the fruit, the nut and the flesh, and that's actually fermented into marula wine and then distilled into marula spirit, so it's complete – and then it's matured for three years in oak. So it's quite, it's quite – distinct

H: Yes

B: In terms of when battling against other cream spirits. It's one of my personal favourites. Now again, I'm going to add – about 50mls, if you have a fairly large size glass. I'm going to add single measures each of Candlich Cow, which is a chocolate-flavoured liqueur if you want. Two of that. And then triple set, which is a grain-based liqueur flavoured with oranges from Seville

H: This is going to be amazing. I can tell already

B: Now what I've done with this is I've taken my glass and I've edged it with some cocoa powder – very simple to do, just wipe a little bit of lemon or a little bit of orange round the rim of your glass and just drop it in some of your powder

H: Ok

B: And that just gives you a nice cocoay aroma right on the tip of your tongue. This is the one you've got to be careful if you are entertaining at a party and you're wearing an expensive shirt, just be careful you don't dribble all over yourself.

H: Yes

B: And again be careful with what's behind you.

H: I know what I'm asking for for Christmas – one of these cocktail kits. Most definitely

B: I thought you were going to say me for the evening

H: Oh actually – why not? Can you come with all this alcohol and I'll make you a bar in my house?

B: So there we have cocktail number 3

H: Ok

B: A Marula White Nile

H: A Marula White Nile

B: Again this is one of those ones that doesn't necessarily subscribe to the rules, because we haven't got anything souring off the sweetness, it's just the kind of real nice, after dinner, digestife type cocktail

H: Mmm

B: And I noticed with the half cocoa rim, if you don't really want too much chocolate flavour, turn it round and drink from the other side. Very simple

H: That is beautiful. And I love how the orange just comes through a little bit. Ah, you're very talented

B: Thank you very much

H: It's you and the lovely flavours. So we were talking a bit about this earlier that you know if you want to have a cocktail night, if you want to make your party that bit better, what do you need in the cupboard? Because with cooking I know that I need rice in the cupboard, I know that I need stock. What do you need for a kind of staple cocktail –

B: Yes I mean it's pertinent that you mentioned cooking in this respect. We tend to use our sweetening agents and our souring agents like a chef would use salt and pepper. So the most important thing for you to have is some citrus juice, whether it be lemon, lime, orange to an extent you can have apple or pear. That would be malic acid. And then you need some sweeteners. Now we're using a number of De Kuyper liqueurs here. All liqueurs have to be sweetened in accordance with EC regulations, so they're always going to be sweet. Or you could just use something basic like sugar syrup, or even just sugar itself

H: Ok

B: So really all you need is just your base spirit, a souring agent and a sweetening agent. It's as simple as that

H: And then you're made

B: And then you're made

H: Right what are we making next?

B: This is a very, very classic drink called the Singapore Sling

H: Ah this is quite Breakfast at Tiffany's is it not?

B: Well this is, it was made at the Raffles Hotel, the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel. Arguably some time in the mid 1920s

H: Ok

B: And it's a very classic drink which is made a number of different ways across the world. We're going to try to stick, where possible to the classic recipe. I'm using some cherry brandy. Half as much cherry brandy as Hendricks gin. I'm going to add a little dash, and maybe half again of Benedictine which is a liqueur that was invented some time in the early 1500s. Has a number of different secret ingredients. Obviously no one's going to tell you or me

H: Oh I want to know! Have any really famous people drunk Benedictine? Kings or queens?

B: The queen mother, I think brandy and Benedictine was possibly one of her drinks

H: So good company if you have this one

B: What am I doing now? Putting some lemon juice in, so again a Mexican Elbow – see how important a tool this is

H: I'm definitely going to ask for one of these

B: And it's actually a really good workout as well. And I'm going to add to that a little bit of Angus Storr bitter again just to add a bit of extra depth

H: Ok

B: Really important tool for the bartender, you'll always find a professional bartender will always have at least Angus Storr bitters if not more types of bitters. You can buy orange bitters, you can buy them all these days

H: I never knew about this sweet and sour rule, I think this is really useful actually

B: Sorry?

H: I never knew about the sweet and bitter rule

B: Yes, yes. Well if you think about the taste you get in your mouth, you can only experience – the tastes you experience in your mouth, the sour, sweet, bitter and salt, your aroma is capable of detecting 1000 more, so 4000 smells, so if you're thinking about making a great-tasting cocktail, always try to hit the taste sensations you're going to get inside your mouth. Obviously you don't want to be putting a load of salt in the drink, but certainly sour, sweet and bitter are the integral sort of tastes you want to be playing with. Ok, another shaken one. You can build this as well if you like but I like to shake it for a bit of razzmatazz.

H: And this must be served in a tall glass?

B: Yes this sling glass, this is traditionally called a sling glass, because it is the Singapore Sling. And you will find around the world people make these in different ways

H: Yes. When you do your shaking, what does that actually do to the drink? Is it absolutely necessary to shake?

B: We shake cocktails that have heavy ingredients in them. If I'm making a gin and tonic I'm not going to shake it because I'll obviously lose the combination from the tonic

H: Yes

B: What you're doing is you're doing two things – you're marrying the flavours and you're changing the temperature of the ingredients. Much in the same way a chef when he's reducing a broth will stir it over a stove. So we use ice as our, as our stove if you like, so it's very important, and the shaking is just like the vessel in which we marry our flavours and chill the ingredients

H: So if you shake it for a little bit longer will that make a difference?

B: Yes, what you'll get with that, bartenders, professional bartenders will shake different drinks in a different – to a different length of time if you like. If I was making a Bloody Mary for example I'd roll it gently, because I don't want my Bloody Mary to be too diluted. If I'm making something which has to be ice cold like a margarita, I shake it for slightly longer.

H: So there's a real – this is like perfume making, it's a real skill

B: Thank you very much. I'll tell my mother that

H: Although you're making it seem very easy I must admit. I'm noting all this down in my head, I'm going to buy all these

B: Well there's no excuse for you not to be making cocktails all Christmas now

H: I'm going to love it. Get my whole family a little bit drunk I'm sure

B: And it is, you know, it's a real performance, and it's just great fun. Everyone has fun with it, even if the drinks taste horrible, you're still having fun in your home and you're stopping granny from arguing about not watching Eastenders

H: Yes that's true

B: And all the other disputes that happen around this time of year

H: I can see my granny having a bit of a go on the shaking, I think she'd like that

B: Just make sure she pops her teeth in tight and firm

H: Right ok

B: So –

H: This is the Benedictine Singapore Sling?

B: Absolutely yes, with Hendrick's gin, with some cherry brandy, with some Benedictine, with some lemon juice and some soda. What I'm going to do is I'm going to have a little taster myself

H: I like this one because it's, it's quite refreshing, I can see that I'd finish my Christmas dinner for example, and I need to refresh my pallet a bit. This is the one to go for

B: Yes I mean also you've got to bear in mind, around Christmas time you're going to have a mixture of different flavours in your mallet – in your mallet? In your mouth and on your pallet, so what we have done with some of these drinks, some of these are quite light and refreshing so it's nice to cleanse in between courses. Some of them would definitely be after dinner, because you've had that before dinner it would clog up all your tastes –

H: It's a pudding isn't it?

B: Exactly. This is nice and fresh again

H: With that one

B: This one is sweet so that would be after dinner. But with all of these I could add more cherry brandy in that and it would make it sweeter, less lemon juice, so I can really dictate myself how I want the drinks to taste relative to your pallet

H: Yes

B: So once I get to know you a bit better I can make a drink which I know you'd like exactly because the balance is right

H: Ok we'll get to know each other after this

B: I like that

H: Now finally this is the Christmas favourite

B: It is

H: Tell me about the Snowball

B: Well I mean you know, arguably it's had a little bit of bad press over the last few years, but it's really coming back into its own now, people are drawing these cocktails from relative obscurity, back into the sort of the public domain these days. This is absolutely one of my favourites, it's kind of a variation on a classic called the egg nog, but what you've got here is, one is advocaat, it's pretty much a one-stop egg nog shop

H: Ok

B: Try to say that after a few of these! And the Snowball recipe is, it's a very classic recipe, we're going to drink it cold, it's built so it's very simple to make. Advocaat is made from a mixture of egg yolks, cream and a brandy base, so it's a really – the images that are conjured up in your mind are very much of that sort of, you know a luxurious, sipping type cocktail

H: I must admit that I drunk Warnincks actually in the summer with ice, quite a few times, because I love the flavour of this and it works all year round doesn't it?

B: Absolutely I mean all these drinks for me, as I said, you know it's – I don't really say oh you can't drink this now because it's Christmas

H: No

B: Or you can't drink it because it's winter or because it's summer, you know it's a time of the year, it gets cold in the summertime in this country, so you know –

H: Ok

B: Ok as you can see it's a beautiful –

H: It's like custard

B: Well I mean it's not a million miles away from it. I like to – I like to allow people to taste the alcohol in my drinks, so I'm not going to be too shy with this, I'm going to make sure there's a nice healthy glug of advocaat in there. I'm going to use fresh lime

H: Ok

B: People do – you can use lime cordial in this but I like the sharpness of the fresh lime

H: Yes

B: I'm just going to pop it in over the top there. Obviously I am going to stir it a bit. Now when you taste this if you say oh I'm not quite getting the lime coming through, I'll just simply add a bit more

H: Ok

B: Similarly you'll notice with all these drinks you'll notice the glassware is different. You know the – you taste with your eyes as well as with your nose and your mouth, and the feeling inside your mouth, so you know try to use glasses that are a little bit fancy and – it's very simple to do

H: They're like works of art then, I'm loving what you're doing

B: Another really nice thing to do at Christmas time or any party time is to, is to put your glasses into the freezer, certainly if you're making a very basic champagne cocktail, say the crème de cassis and champagne

H: Yes

B: Pop your glasses in the freezer about 5, 6 hours beforehand and you get these beautifully chilled glasses which again makes your drink stay colder for longer

H: Yes

B: So it's quite a key thing

H: It's all about keeping them cold isn't it?

B: It is really yes, unless of course they're hot

H: So you're not shaking – that's true –so you're not shaking this because the fizz will go

B: I don't want to lose the carbonation, exactly that. And what I'm going to do with this, I might just have a slightly different angle on this and I might just take this lemon here- I'm taking out a common garden potato peeler, just take a little zest off that, what this is going to do it's just going to lighten the drink a little bit. The essential oils from the lemon, will sort of sit on top of the drink itself, so as you're approaching the drink you'll get the – I can smell it on my fingers already, you'll get that nice, really fresh smell on the surface

H: You are the Gordon Ramsey of the drinks world

B: I don't swear half as much as Gordon Ramsey

H: No that's good, you're not going to swear today. I'm getting really excited

B: So I'm going to pop two straws – I don't want the straws to be too big because I want you to have the lemon right up there by your nose

H: Ok

B: But if I make the straws too big then of course you'd miss out on that part of the fun entirely. Let me just pop that in there

H: Ok

B: There we go

H: So this is Warnincks Snowball

B: It is indeed

H: Here we go. Ooh I got it all, lemon

B: There you go

H: Custardy stuff

B: That's a technical term

H: The fizz

B: That's beautiful isn't it? There's no reason why should be all having a Snowball this Christmas. Let's forget that element of it being a drink of yesteryear, let's bring it back, granny will love it

H: This is the one, this is the one for me! Now can I just quickly ask you where you get your inspiration from, and also just say you know I'm watching at home right now, if I want to invent my own cocktail, how do you go about it?

B: It's very easy actually you know we've talked a little bit about various different chefs, if you look at how chefs mix, especially deserts, there's a really, there's a really easy way of almost kind of copying their ideas. Sort of like an apple and blackberry crumble for example. Apple and blackberry works beautifully together, some caramelised sugar works nicely with it as well, you know chefs really provide us with insights as to how flavour works and the balance of flavour and texture, so an easy way is to just look through the desert page of your cookery book. Failing that, choose your favourite liqueur – sorry choose your favourite spirit, play with your sour and your sweet elements. I tend not to put more than one spirit into a drink but your liqueur can add your sweet element. And then sour it off. And that's a really simple staple drink of just using 3 ingredients.

H: Yes

B: And actually also it's very easy to pick up, you can see all this sort of equipment and apparatus I've got here, it looks quite technical. All of these things are very easy to pick up. This is a professional cocktail shaker which gives us a little bit more of versatility with our drinks making, but shakers like this are very, very simple to get, I mean even your high street supermarkets these days create what I call a 3 piece shaker where you just literally pop your ice and your liquid in there, pop your sieve on top. Do make sure, as I found out 19 years ago when I made my first cocktail in a bar in downtown Hong Kong that you've got the top on, otherwise you will end up wearing your drink. Give it a good shake, pop your top off, pour it into the glass. It is very simple and very cheap to get hold of

H: So be creative, have your stock items. I think actually having these you could just about mix anything couldn't you?

B: Yes absolutely

H: That's fantastic. Ben thank you so much, I'm holding a drinks party as soon as possible

B: I hope I'm invited

H: Maybe – yes course you are. Thank you so much for joining us. Now for more information what you need to do is visit firstdrinks.co.uk and if you want more cocktail ideas click onto in-the-spirit.co.uk. Thank you very much, have a very cocktail Christmas!

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