AN AUTUMN COCKTAIL PARTY

Acocktail party is a lowmaintenance way to bring friends together on a dark autumn evening, says Kylee Newton, below, founder of modern preserves company Newton & Pott.

Kick off when the evening is still young – she suggests around 6.30pm – and make sure you have your ingredients and glasses ready. “You’ll need a shaker, a soda canister and some highball glasses – and I like to have paper straws, too,” she says. Compostable straws are available at enviropack.org.uk.

Sour, preserve-based cocktails are on the menu in all of London’s most fashionable bars but Newton has been pioneering them since 2015. “Jams and syrups are so refreshing in cocktails, and their deep colours suit this time of year,” she says.

Newton enjoys mixing cocktails with shrubs, drinking vinegars popular in Victorian times made from fruit, vinegar and sugar. “My current favourite is black forest shrub made with blackberries foraged from Hackney and spices. I shake it over ice with Gordon’s sloe gin and top up with soda,” she says. “Add a stick of cinnamon and a frozen blackberry and it looks as good as it tastes.”

With the cocktails she’ll serve canapés: crostini with mackerel pâté and pickled blueberries, or pea, feta and pickled onions on crispbread.

Once everyone is well lubricated, she will wave them off to dinner at a local restaurant. “I might even go with them,” she says.