Lockdown cocktails

SIR: I enjoyed Philip Delves Broughton’s Letter from America about cocktails (June issue).

I was introduced to cocktails by American friends and now my husband and I start our weekend at 6pm on a Friday with one. Part of the pleasure is the anticipation and discussion through the day of what we think we might want that evening: a Manhattan (which bourbon?), a Martini (with lemon or olive?) or a Cosmopolitan? During lockdown, we started shopping at small shops we could walk to; however, this all changed when we realised we were down to our last two cocktail cherries!

We were not worried about running out of flour or pasta, but this dire situation meant our first supermarket trip was to our local Waitrose where, happily, we were able to buy two jars.

Yours faithfully, Jane Smith, Poole, Dorset