When summer feels like a distant memory, there’s plenty of enjoyment to be found in sampling the epicurean pleasures of this ‘season of mellow mists and fruitfulness’.

In many ways, the Cobbler is the epitome of an old-fashioned cocktail. It uses very few ingredients – wine, fruit, sugar and ice – and is incredibly flexible. You can use whatever wine you like or substitute the wine with your choice of spirit.

Despite our national obsession with tea, its more chilled sibling, iced tea, keeps a fairly low profile on most British drinks menus, being much more closely associated with the US, particularly in the humid southern states.

There’s nothing more perfect for a party than a big bowl of punch, although it’s sadly fallen out of favour in recent years, only occasionally being pressed into service as a welcome drink at a Christmas gathering.

In many ways, punch can be regarded as the original proto-cocktail, an essential precursor to the bittered sling which, in turn, launched a thousand spin-off cocktails.

Despite the UK’s wholly unreliable weather patterns, there’s a handful of rituals that fall squarely inside the end-of-May-till-beginning-of-September window – picnics in the park, barbecues and cocktails that are 75 percent fruit salad.

Whether you’re hosting a barbecue, sports-tournament party or summer birthday bash, you’ll want to make bartending duties as easy and time-efficient as possible.

Because they lean heavily on large quantities of ice and a mechanical means of blending it, frozen cocktails are very much a twentieth-century invention. Here are our top 5 super-cooled favourites.