Cruise cocktail class

Never have I ever seen as many cocktail menus and signs as during the past two weeks on the Pacific Pearl. I'm not complaining; cocktails and their limitless flavour combinations fascinate me. Although I rarely drink alcohol, you'll almost always find me perusing cocktail menu ingredients.

We signed up for a cocktail making class while at sea one afternoon. We learned how to measure, muddle, squeeze, shake and pour four cocktails, then spent a blissful hour or so consuming our creations. Our workstations were beautifully set up like this. Of course, it wasn't so tidy once we'd finished, but that's ok when the result is yummy cocktails to enjoy.

Here are the cocktails we made and the recipes so you can try making them at home. 1 ounce (oz) is roughly 30 ml, or the bigger part of a cocktail jigger (measuring cup).

Fresh grapefruit cosmopolitan

Any Sex and the City fan will love this variation on the cosmopolitan.

• 1 oz (30 ml) grapefruit vodka
• 1 oz Cointreau
• 1 oz cranberry juice
• fresh grape fruit slice
• squeeze of lime
• 15 ml sugar syrup

Muddle grapefruit and all of the ingredients. Half-fill the shaker with ice. Shake until cold and strain into a chilled glass.

Grapefruit cosmopolitan

Pimm's cup

This one is usually made in tall pitchers and served on English summer afternoons. These Pimm's cups are individual servings and can be made with any fruit combination.

• 2 oz Pimm's
• fresh mint leaves
• grapes
• oranges
• strawberries
• lemonade

Add all the ingredients into a glass. Make sure you bruise the mint to bring out the full flavour. Top up with lemonade and stir.

Pimm's cup

Caprioska

This variation on a Portuguese/Brazilian cocktail features my favourite citrus flavour: lime.

• 3 lime wedges
• 2 oz citrus vodka
• ½ oz sugar syrup 

Muddle limes with vodka and sugar. Fill to top with crushed ice.

Caprioska

Coffee and cream

This dessert cocktail has plenty of potential to experiment with different flavoured sauces (such as caramel).

• 1 oz coffee and vanilla infused vodka
• 1 oz Patron XO Café (coffee liqueur)
• ½ oz Baileys
• 1 ½ oz cream 

Add all the ingredients into a shaker. Half fill with ice and shake until cold. Use chocolate syrup to make fancy patterns on the side of a chilled glass and strain cocktail mixture into it.

Coffee and cream cocktail

Infusing vodka
You can infuse your own vodka or buy it ready-flavoured. Here's how to make your own. Remember that the higher quality alcohol and ingredients you use for your infusions, the greater the final product will be.

Coffee and vanilla vodka

• 10 vanilla pods
• 100 coffee beans
• 1 litre of vodka

Cut vanilla pods length ways and add them with coffee beans to a bottle of vodka. Leave to infuse for three days or until vodka changes colour.

Citrus vodka

• 2 limes, peeled
• 6 lemons, peeled
• 2 oranges, peeled

Add all the peels to a bottle of vodka. Leave to infuse for three days or until vodka changes colour.