Hear that pounding? That’s the sound of footy fans stampeding to your house to watch the Grand Final and whinge about why their team didn’t make it. All that complaining is bound to leave them thirsty, but you needn’t be boring and just serve beer. This year, make a change from the usual cold ales. A little bit of planning and you will not only be wowing guests with your hidden mixology skills, but you’ll be serving the mob quickly and regularly with something that’s more interesting than a tinnie. Needless to say, all of these drinks can be thoroughly enjoyed from now until the end of summer, as well. They don’t need sport to be consumed.

I’m betting that this Grand Final is going to be a hot day so prepare jugs of long refreshing cocktails that aren’t high in alcohol and have extra lightness from being spritzed with something fizzy just before serving. And remember to garnish with something a little less predictable than a wheel of lemon or a wedge of lime. The spritz has very much come back into fashion in the last couple of years as a slightly more sophisticated take on a white wine spritzer or a carton of Lemon Ruskies. And they are super simple to make. Bitter spritz For a classic ’50s Aperol spritz, mix three parts prosecco (or any sparkling wine), two parts Aperol and one part soda. Then garnish with a strip of orange or lemon zest. If you want to be fancy, play with the garnish by adding dill or fennel tops. If your guests are Negroni lovers, ease them into the day by making long Americano cocktails, which is vermouth and Campari mixed with soda. I like this garnished with green olives and a twist of orange zest. Add prosecco instead of soda and you make a “mistake” – a cocktail named when the bartender at Milan’s Bar Basso reached for the wrong bottle when making a Negroni. Gin spritz Stray into less Italian flavours by using one part fragrant elderflower liqueur like St Germain to three parts fresh apple juice and then spritz with soda (1:3:1 ratio). Garnish with thyme or lavender for more fragrance. Add frozen grapes or ribbons of cold cucumber to cool it. A little gin or vodka works wonderfully as an addition here. Also try putting a little twist on your usual gin and tonic by adding a generous splash of apple juice to replace some of the tonic and garnishing with a sprig of rosemary as well as the usual lemon. Sweeter spritz It’s an old trick of hide cheap sparkling wine or prosecco by adding orange juice, but the con is more plausible if you add a squeeze of lime juice and then rub the lime zest through sugar to “rim” the glass. To take this mimosa all the way to Mexico by adding a tiny splash of tequila to the bottom of each glass, some salt to sugar for the rim and garish with a sliced cheek of chilli and a sprig of coriander.

Another long favourite is the cuba libre as the fancy folks call it; or “jackaroo juice” as it’s known around my adopted part of the bush. Now, I’m not a fan of messing with this big game third-quarter (or second half depending on where you live) classic other than to give it a bit of a garnish – a bit like dressing the bully from school in a suit and tie for the court appearance. Try a wedge of lime and a sprig of Vietnamese mint as surprisingly successful additions that cut against the sweetness. Of course, you can always collide the spritz and cola cocktail trends together by making a Basque kalimotxo which is just a long glass filled with lots on ice, a squeeze orange wedge and 2 parts red wine, 1 part coke. It’s a great way to making really cheap wine palatable but, please, treat this with the same respect you would treat vodka Red Bulls.

Long gone are the student days and self-destructive nights of jugs of cola-tinged Long Island Iced Tea. Now it is true tea that is all the rage in cocktails. The citrus notes of the bergamot in Earl Grey pairs really well with gin, as does the grassiness of green tea, but with both you’ll need to bring a little sweetness (agave, honey, a simple syrup or even a little caster sugar). Mix cold-infused Earl Grey to which you’ve stirred in lime juice for bite and caster sugar for sweetness. Pour into long glasses filled with lots of ice and garnish with mint and cucumber. For a gin-kissed green tea, mix one part gin to two parts green tea, add a splash of lemon and a spritz of tonic, ginger ale or sparkling apple juice to lengthen. Pour over cubes of rockmelon skewered with a partially stripped sprig of rosemary for prettiness. Freeze the cubes after skewering if you want to be fancy. Meanwhile, a bog-standard black tea goes rather well with bourbon, especially if you add slices of fresh peach. Sweeten a jug of the bourbon-spiked tea with agave or honey and leave it in the fridge with a generous handful of peach slices to infuse. Garnish with sprigs of spanked mint. You need to spank your mint to release some of the natural oils that intensify the aroma. Just make sure to always infuse tea in cold water for cocktails to leave most of the astringent tannins behind.

All the rage in the US for the last few summers, a michelada is somewhere between putting lime in your beer and mixing it with a Bloody Mary. This beer-based cocktail can be made with anything or all of the following – fresh lime, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, Tabasco, Maggi liquid seasoning, sriracha and often tomato, vegetable, orange or even fishy Clamato juice. This is all served over ice in a glass with a salted rim. If you want to make these for your mates have a play with the elements to find something that works for you. Start simple by mixing, for each michelada, the juice of a lime with 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp Tabasco and ½ tsp soy sauce or a few drops of Maggi. Place in tall glasses with ice and top with 250ml of lager-style beer. Then experiment from there. Don’t forget to rim the glasses.

Frosé (frozen rosé wine) was very much the ‘It’ drink of last summer. But there is still more that can be done with it. I blitz drained canned lychees (keeping the juice) with a good splash of gin, then add the wine. Freeze it, chop it and blitz it with some of the reserved lychee juice and soda to help the blades. Pour the pale pink slush into martini glasses and serve. Alternatively you can blitz two large punnets of hulled strawberries with a little lemon juice, some caster sugar and a couple of cups of ice. The resulting slushie can be spiked and loosened with vodka and soda to make a refreshing tall drink, or made into a more elegant sipper by adding whisky and a generous twist of black pepper. Remember to use a measuring jigger so everyone can keep track of how much they are drinking. If that’s all too boozy, just scoop lemon sorbet into champagne flutes and top with prosecco and a strip of twisted zest. Or blitz frozen mango pieces with a cup of ice and rum or vodka to make a mango daiquiri. Step up the flavours by adding green peppercorns or a spring of basil. Other combos that go well with seasonal fruit include freshly squeezed pineapple juice with mint and vodka, or with tequila add triple sec, lime juice and lots of ice. Orangey liqueurs like Campari or Aperol love fresh blood orange juice or fresh grapefruit. Use lots of ice and try spritzing them with tonic rather than soda.

One of the big trends for 2017 is temperance cocktails, (basically a name for mocktails and juices that isn’t totally pants). To ensure non-drinkers don’t feel like an alien species, just leave the booze out. The peach iced tea is excellent without the bourbon but with slices of lemon and more mint. Or in the spritz, swap the St Germain for an elderflower cordial but keep the mixers and garnishes the same. Of course, making something special for the drivers and teetotallers is always welcome and I have two current favourites. I make a “billy tea” with equal measures of apple juice and ginger beer, packed with lots of lemon slices. It got the name because it comes out the colour of weak, milky tea. (Whisky lovers will find that a wee nip of Scotch goes rather well in this.) More elegant is a ginger lime spritz. Blitz a couple of peeled, thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger with 1 tbs brown sugar and the juice of six limes. Taste and add sugar if needed. Strain into four tall, ice-filled glasses and top with 80 per cent dry ginger ale and 20 per cent soda. Garnish with mint and a lime wedge.

OK, we are all adults here so what’s the solution if you want to serve drinks with a bit more oomph. While classic cocktails are all the rage, they can be a pain to make every time someone new arrives, so plan ahead.

Make like some of the top bars are doing these days and pre-make and pre-chill cocktail mixes to pour on arrival. The temptation is to decant the cocktail into a jug for pouring but, if you do, pre-freeze a couple of oranges, lemons or grapes overnight so you can chill your jug of Negronis, Old Fashioneds, Cosmos or French 75s without them getting diluted. Personally, I just make a batch of Negronis or Cosmpolitans and store them in one or all bottles that I’ve emptied (making them) in the fridge or freezer until needed.

Alternatively pick a cocktail where just the base can be premade but then finished easily on arrival. This might mean soaking the fruit for your sangria in the brandy and wine overnight and then spritzing with lemonade and soda as the guests arrive. You can take the same approach with pre-making the Pimms base before your guests arrive. Don’t ice it but do keep it in the fridge to chill. Or make the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup base for those French 75s in advance and fill champagne flutes with a measure of it before your guests arrive. Then you can just spritz with champagne as your guests turn up.

Remember that you can always reduce the punch of these stronger drinks by spritzing them with soda or serving over lots of crushed ice. It might be sacrilege to some, but your flowerbeds may thank you.

Also think of the impact a different garnish can have on those drinks, whether it is optional green olives in the Negroni, a long tendril of lemon zest in the French 75 or stepping up the classic Old Fashioned by smoking the maple syrup for your Maple Old Fashioneds, using more unusual bitters, or swapping in whisky or brandy instead of bourbon.

If you are feeling really adventurous you could even infuse another flavour into your store-bought alcohol. I’m a fan of making bacon bourbon. I used to just soak crispy cooked rashers of good smoky fatty bacon in the bourbon but now I “fat wash” it instead. It takes a little longer but it’s so simple to make. Just fry six rashers of smoked streaky in a non-stick pan. Pour the rendered fat into a ceramic or glass bowl containing the bourbon (don’t use anything too fancy or too cheap) and add one of the rashers of the bacon. Leave to infuse on the kitchen bench for five hours loosely covered with plastic wrap. Stir occasionally and then refrigerate overnight. The fat will separate out and set on the surface, so it can be easily removed, but leave the bacon flavour behind. Strain the bourbon back into the bottle until you need it for your bacon Manhattans or bacon Old Fashioneds.

One final word of advice. Set out to serve one great cocktail rather than a selection to your friends. This will make your life and planning way easier and give you time to watch the match on the day. Also remember to get loads of ice for the drinks and to chill those inevitable beers.