Pedro Piscal pisco is latest Chilean brand to resemble a Hollywood name – and others have fought off the lawsuits

The actor Pedro Pascal is waging a legal battle against a Chilean pisco merchant who has chosen a cheeky name for his brand of the country’s national spirit: Pedro Piscal.

David Herrera registered the brand name with a Chilean commercial regulator in 2023 and began selling his pisco in off-licences and restaurants.

Tonic is much more than a bit player in a G&T. A lot of it’s good enough to drink solo

If a tonic is something that “makes you feel stronger and happier”, my tonics come in the form of good wine, bad chocolate and an ageing whippet called Ernie. Recently, though, I’ve found myself craving the OG tonic – tonic water – which started life as a malaria treatment in the age of the British empire.

In the 17th century, Jesuit missionaries brought quinine, a bitter compound found in the bark of American cinchona trees, to Europe. They knew that indigenous people had been using it to treat fevers, and by the 1700s it was routinely being used as an antimalarial in tropical colonies. But there was a snag: quinine is unpalatable. To offset its impossible bitterness, it was combined with water and sugar to make a drink that enabled those stationed in the tropics to self-medicate every day. By the Victorian times, that self-medication had taken on a different aspect; not only had tonic water become fizzy, but it was routinely combined with gin for a drink now emblematic of the British Raj.

This Lombardian ‘village cake’ is simple, delicious and endlessly adaptable

Old sourdough is my secret ingredient. To stop it going mouldy, I take it out of any plastic packaging and keep it in the bread bin with plenty of airflow around it – that way, it will dry out slowly, rather than turning mouldy. Any odds and ends, meanwhile, I store in a cloth bag to use in various dishes, from pangrattato (or poor man’s parmesan) to strata, a savoury bread-and-butter pudding.

My new favourite recipe discovery for using up stale bread is today’s torta paesana, or village cake, from Lombardy. The best way I can come up with to describe it is that it’s a bit like a firm baked custard.

An upmarket, smoky ‘tegroni’ that is simplicity itself to make

All you need to make this is a glass and a spoon. We’ve switched out the tequila from the original noughties twist on the negroni and instead brought forward our favourite spirit, mezcal, to bring a lightly smoky profile to proceedings. The perfect pairing for this drink is a campfire, so it’s an especially good one to premix in a flask and chuck in your backpack for a spring camping trip.

Daniel Craig Martin, co-founder, Bar Shrimp, Manchester

Created in Italy and made with elderflower liqueur, the cocktail is sweeter than Aperol spritz and lower in alcohol

Pub gardens and bar terraces have been awash with a sea of orange in recent years as Italy’s love of Aperol spritz spread to the UK. But this year the cocktail’s cousin, a Hugo spritz, will be the drink of the summer, according to supermarkets and bars.

It is already being served across the country, including at Sea Containers on the banks of the Thames and Mayfair’s swanky Claridge’s hotel in London, 20 Stories bar in Manchester and the Bridge Tavern in Newcastle. Wetherspoons has the cocktail on its menu nationwide.

40ml St‑Germain elderflower liqueur.

60ml prosecco.

60ml sparkling water.

8-10 mint leaves.

Lime wedge for garnish.

Mint sprig for garnish.

Fill your glass with ice cubes.

Add in the mint leaves.

Pour sparkling wine and sparkling water over ice.

Add St‑Germain elderflower liqueur.

Gently stir.

Garnish with a mint sprig and lime wedge.

Gently scented with orange and vanilla, lightened by ricotta, and studded with rum-soaked raisins

This is a cake for the long, ambling tail-end of an Easter lunch. It’s gently scented with orange and vanilla, lightened by ricotta, and studded with rum-soaked raisins that bring bursts of sweetness to each slice. Ideally, they’d be soaked overnight to plump them into something luscious, but if time gets away from you, take a shortcut: put the raisins and rum in a microwave-safe bowl, zap for 20–30 seconds, then leave to cool and absorb. The chocolate glaze is optional; on days when you want something simpler (or lighter), a generous sifting of icing sugar is all this cake needs. Serve with a small glass of grappa or something similarly warming for a quietly perfect way to bring a feast to a close.

Keep a batch of this premix in the fridge, and you’ve got tropical on tap

Make a batch of the premix, and it’ll be there in the fridge whenever you fancy something tropical. If you prefer, use Bristol Spirit Co’s Nogave, which is a remarkable, agave-free syrup that has all the taste of agave but none of the air miles. And if you want to go to town with the garnish, sprinkle sugar on a slice of tinned pineapple and grill until caramelised.

Zac Spooner, general manager, Albers, London N1

Herb is the word in this pungent seasonal infusion with a taste of honey

It’s wild garlic season, which is as much cause for celebration on the drinks trolley as it is in the kitchen. Forage your own, ideally before the plants flower, or ask a decent greengrocer to get some in for you.

Matthew Wakeford, sommelier, Bear by Carlo Scotto, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

From mezcal to sotól, the agave plant delivers a bounty of styles and flavours to explore

“We were amazed,” wrote the Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo as he beheld the extent of the Aztec empire in 1521. “Some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream.” I remember feeling a similar vertigo when I first saw the wall of agave spirits at the long-since-closed Los Angeles mezcaleria Petty Cash more than a decade ago. Agave spirits are distilled from the fermented heart (or piña) of the agave plant – not a cactus, but a succulent, like aloe vera or that thing dying on your windowsill.

Tequila, from Jalisco, is the most famous kind, but it’s far from the only one, much as burgundy is just one way the French make wine. And here was an entire continent to (respectfully) explore: not only refined tequilas, but hundreds of mezcals from wild, untamable agaves: madrecuixe, arroqueño, tobalá and pulquero, some of which take 25 years to reach maturity. Beyond these foothills were spirits that had barely penetrated European bartending consciousness: sotól and raicilla, bacanora and pox (“posh”) made from maize, as well as pechuga, whose ingredients include, yum, poultry breasts. And all this at a time when a lot of tequila sold in Britain came topped with red plastic sombreros.

Exclusive: actor’s Papa Salt gin to get oyster-free version after venues says it is ‘not worth the risk’

Margot Robbie said she “couldn’t wait” to see the artisan gin brand she had created stocked in her London local. But the willingness of the capital’s venues to fulfil her dream has been seriously compromised by three words on the side of the bottle – “warning: contains molluscs”.

The Wuthering Heights star has had to change the recipe of her spirit after top London bars and restaurants rejected it due to allergen concerns, the Guardian can reveal.

A margarita, but made with smoky mezcal and the nutty backnotes of manzanilla

The impulse behind this was people’s enduring love of a margarita. We generally look to sherries or vermouths as key ingredients in our cocktails, but for this we wanted something that our guests would feel at ease with, while also being a little intrigued. Mezcal’s smoky notes work really well with the citrus notes in a classic margarita, so we opted for that as the base spirit, rather than tequila, while the addition of manzanilla lends the drink a lovely, complementary nuttiness.

Elinor Blair, bar manager, Bar Flor at Wildflowers, London SW1

Let’s ratchet up the spice in your Saturday brunch …

I love a bloody mary as much as the next person, but sometimes Saturday brunch needs spicing up just that little bit more.

Ash Anand, bar manager, Chet’s at the Hoxton, London W12

Honey and cinnamon bring a warming, Istanbul-inspired spin to a classic

The scent of honey and warm pastry that spills out of the late-night baklava shops on Taksim Square in Istanbul is the inspiration for this twist on the classic old fashioned. The honey, cinnamon and walnut slip in perfectly without overpowering proceedings.

Andrea Ena, bar manager, Nora, London E22

Taking inspiration from Chile’s traditional borgoña, this red-wine cocktail makes for a great aperitif

A Chilean twist on a wine cocktail: elegant, vibrant and built on the balance between the depth of pinot noir and the bright sweetness of cherries. It takes inspiration from Chile’s traditional borgoña, a drink where red wine meets fruit (usually strawberries), but layers in cherry liqueur and soda for a modern, effervescent edge. I sometimes add a few drops of fresh lime juice to sharpen the sweetness and make the fruit flavours really pop. It’s refreshing yet sophisticated, and a great aperitif.

Nico Einersen, head chef, Mareida, London W1

With 2026 being the year of the fire horse, this spicy number has a suitable kick to mark the occasion

Here’s a spicy little number that will help you see in the lunar new year in style on 17 February.

Rron Rakoci, mixologist, Huŏ, London

Wake up to smoked trout crepes, giant pancakes with caramelised pears and dark chocolate, and a lady marmalade cocktail

Give me breakfast in bed over a bunch of limp supermarket roses any day. Nothing says “I love you” more genuinely than a decadent tray of delicious things to savour between the sheets. Because V-Day falls on a weekend this year, you can do better than just buttered toast and an unbidden cup of tea. Whether it’s sweet or savoury (or even a cheeky cocktail), I’ve got you!

A totally tropical livener with familiar cachaça and lime and an intriguing kiwi jam twang

This tropical, vibrant drink is our most popular cocktail, perhaps because it’s a twist on something familiar. Rather than building it in the glass with crushed ice, as for a traditional caipirinha, this is shaken so that the kiwi jam is mixed into the drink more thoroughly.

Jake Garstang, restaurant manager and sommelier, Maré, Hove, East Sussex

A sherry old-fashioned with added southern Spanish sizzle

This reimagining of the old fashioned, in which American whiskey meets Andalusian flair, is a well-earned indulgence for the depths of winter. Deep, dark and full of Spanish warmth, it’s a cocktail that wraps you up like a velvet jacket with bourbon spice, sherry sweetness and a glint of orange zest.

Neki Xhilaga, head bartender, El Pirata, London W1

Single malt prices soar, but scotch should be fun and affordable

We have Robert Burns to thank for perhaps the greatest poem about any dish ever – a poem so good that it inspires an entire nation to dedicate an evening of each year to eating haggis, even though most people find it kind of gross.

No? If the “Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race” were that delicious, we’d all be eating it all the time, surely? And yet Burns’ Address to a Haggis is enticing enough to dispel any such doubts just once a year. I especially like the bit about slitting it open so the bright entrails spill out: “And then, O what a glorious sight / Warm-reekin, rich!”

Based on a cocktail called the bees’ knees, this winter warmer will put a bit of sunshine into your evening

This drink is full of ginger spice and aromatics from both the honey and the London dry gin. The fresher it is, the better, so don’t keep the syrup for longer than two days. I’m pretty particular about citrus shelf life, too, so always squeeze it fresh and never keep it overnight or, heaven forbid, even longer.

Ross Finnegan, bar manager, The Palomar, London W1