You’ve poured over cookbooks (and, er, magazines), searching for the right recipes to create just the right menu. Dealing with fussy eaters, your vegetarian sister and your brother in law’s aversion to gluten is far from the spectacular affair you’d romanticised.

You have spent money on the ingredients and, on reflection, maybe you didn’t need that $35 bottle of small batch olive oil. Alright, you definitely didn’t need the $35 bottle of small batch olive oil. But Nigella told you to buy the best available, so you did, like any good Nigella disciple would.

You set the table. You bought fresh flowers. You Googled “which side do I put the fork on?” because you wanted to do it properly. You made a Spotify playlist especially for the occasion. And yet… when it comes to the drinks, you’re happy to twist the top off a bottle of wine and call it a day? Nope. We’re not buying it.

Entertaining used to be about setting the entire scene – from the tablecloth to the glassware to the carefully chosen glass of whisky at the end of a three-course meal. And while entertaining itself has made an amazing resurgence lately (don’t we all want to be as effortlessly elegant as Nigella, even just a little bit?), we haven’t quite caught up when it comes to what we drink. Even after slaving over stoves and shopping for ingredients we’re not quite sure how to pronounce, when it comes to what we drink, it basically boils down to: a bottle of Champagne to start, a couple of bottles each of white and red, and maybe (maybe) a dark spirit to finish with.

But when we’re going to so much trouble to plan our parties so carefully, why aren’t we at least offering our guests a cocktail to start the night? Champagne certainly has its place, of course (we’ve never been known to turn down a glass of bubbly), but there’s so much to be said for welcoming your guests with a cocktail you’ve made especially for them. It doesn’t have to be fancy, or popular, or use expensive ingredients. It could be quite simple, like a Classic PIMM’s (180ml PIMM’S and equal parts dry ginger ale and lemonade, garnished with fresh fruit and mint). You can even incorporate herbs from your own garden (a smash of basil in a gin and tonic can elevate the drink from “pretty good” to “Wow, what’s in this?!”). And speaking of that gin and tonic, it’s actually the perfect drink to serve in between courses. A Tanqueray and tonic makes for an excellent palate cleanser – much more so than wine or beer.

Bring back the welcome drink in your kinda style. You can make it in advance, you can get creative, you can experiment. Have fun with it. That’s what entertaining is all about, right?

Drink responsibly

This article is sponsored by Diageo.