Channel 4’s Pritesh Mody’s tips and tricks for making perfect summer cocktails

Pritesh Mody, of World of Zing and Sunday Brunch fame, shares his tips and tricks for crowd-pleasing summer cocktails with the power to beat the heat.

We caught up with Pritesh Mody, founder of World of Zing, the UK's leading bespoke cocktail brand, and regular cocktail presenter on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, to chat about his tips and tricks for shaking up fresh summer drinks that won't go warm on you when the mercury starts to rise. He's currently promoting The Ice Co's Summer on Ice Campaign.

According to Mody, experimentation is key when it comes to cocktails, especially when you’re creating your own fruity, fresh, summery drinks. And if your creation ends up a little different than you expected? “Just move on – it happens to me all the time”.

Mody’s love of playing around with cocktail ingredients was born out of a lifelong love of cooking. A self-confessed foodie who “loves eating”, Pritesh has always taken his inspiration from chefs and culinary culture rather than drinking culture. “There’s just a much wider array of ingredients – and if you understand what they do, you’ve got much more to work with,” he says.

It’s no wonder he’s got plenty of tricks and tips up his sleeve for creating the perfect summer cocktails, and apparently it all starts with getting the simplest of ingredients right – the ice. Turns out we’ve all been doing it wrong…

Pritesh's six dos and don’ts of making cocktails – and the important role ice plays within them:

Ice cubes in a summer cocktail (Image: Ben Harrison)

1. Ice cubes

“In the UK in particular, everyone is really tight with ice. I guess it goes back to that idea that the barman’s shorting you on your drink when there’s loads of ice in it but, actually, temperature is so critical to cocktails,” says Mody. “You need some decent cubes in there; the more you put in, the longer your drink stays chilled, and the slower the drink will dilute.”

But not all ice is made equal when it comes to cocktail-making; there are different cubes for different booze, as it were. “There's a bit of science around choosing the optimal ice cube. I always say a drink on the rocks should have the biggest cubes, whether it’s a Negroni or a whiskey,” he says.

“And I’m starting to use the biggest cubes in my highballs as well – because with a whiskey highball, a Paloma highball, or even a gin and tonic, keeping the drink cold, crisp and fresh is so important.

“My rule with ice for most drinks is that if the ice is floating in the drink, there's not enough ice in there.”

READ MORE: 30 genius ice cube tray hacks

Cocktail shaker (Image: Unsplash/Rinck Content Studio)
Cocktail shaker(Image: Unsplash/Rinck Content Studio)

2. Cocktail shaking

According to Pritesh, it’s very important to understand the science behind making a cocktail. “They call it ‘mixology’ for a reason,” he says. “As opposed to stirring, shaking a drink allows you to reach optimum cold temperature and dilutes the flavours more, which is great for creating a balance between fruit juice and alcohol.

“Shaking is an art and there’s definitely a skill to it – make sure you have a firm grip on your cocktail shaker, and then shake well. Ten seconds is a reasonable amount of time to shake but it all depends on the recipe. Having high-quality ice is a must for this motion as you want solid cubes that won’t turn into slush in a matter of seconds.”

Cocktail stirrers (Image: Unsplash/YesMore Content)

3. Cocktail stirring

“Stirring your cocktail allows for flavours to be combined in a less aggressive manner than shaking and eliminates the risk of dilution, as there’s less ice water that is susceptible to mixing in with the ingredients of your drink,” he explains.

“As stirring drinks balances the concentration of spirits more evenly than shaking, you want to focus this movement on spirit-based cocktails that are fully constructed using spirits, bitters and tonics.

“Stirring requires a gentle technique and often a tool – a long-handled bar spoon is ideal, but whatever stick-like object you have lying around the house will work too. You want to stir slowly in a circular motion.

“A 20-second stir should be sufficient for most drinks – you don’t want to over-stir because this will cause the ice to melt, which defeats the point of stirring.”

READ MORE: The best retro cocktails

4. Pre-made cocktails

Pritesh knows a thing or two about how to make delicious-tasting cocktails ahead of time, and his top tip? “If you're pre-batching a cocktail, get the liquid components all made up in a jug, keep it in the fridge and then ice it at the last minute so the cubes aren’t sitting there disintegrating,” he says.

However, how long you can store each drink depends on its ingredients. “You can pre-batch anything with a juice component the day before. But anything that’s pure alcohol, say a Negroni, Old Fashioned or Martini, you can pre-batch a week before, if not longer, because there's nothing in there to oxidise and go off,” he adds.

Whatever you do, don’t forget to keep your fresh-from-the-fridge drinks chilled. “For me, there’s nothing worse than warm liquid going into an ice-filled glass. It’s just an instant melt, right? Ultimately I think temperature is really critical to keep things quality, particularly with the weather as it is,” he says.

A pitcher cocktail (Image: Ben Harrison)

5. Pitcher cocktails

Everybody loves a summer punch – and Pritesh has a fail-safe recipe to ensure that you get your ingredients spot-on, every time.

“There's a brilliant rhyme to make a perfect punch, which goes ‘four of strong, three of weak, two of sour, one of sweet’. So: four parts booze, three parts juice, two parts something sour (typically lemon or lime), and then one part sugar syrup or a sweetening agent,” he explains.

“That’s your base for any punch. Of course, you can play around with the formula a little, but as long as you're vaguely sticking to those ratios then you’ll end up with something really delicious.”

6. Garnishes

The final all-important cocktail element that most people overlook is the garnish. “A garnish should always have an aromatic element to it. It needs to bring a new dimension to a drink – like when you twist the lemon peel or orange peel over the drink at the last second to give it a burst of freshness.

“When you think of garnish, it’s hard not to think of that pub classic – the dry slice of lemon, with no aroma and no flavour left in there. So, keep your garnishes fresh, and garnish at the last minute. It's all about getting those oils into your drink,” he adds.

Try your hand at these easy three-ingredient cocktails

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This interview was conducted in partnership with The Ice Co’s Summer on Ice campaign. Visit The Ice Co website for even more cocktail ideas from Pritesh and The Ice Co team.