The classic Champagne cocktail gets inspiration galloping for this year’s competition

Don your fascinators and fedoras, raise your cocktail coupes, and you’re off to the races for the ninth annual Deighton Cup.

Don your fascinators and fedoras, raise your cocktail coupes, and you’re off to the races for the ninth annual Deighton Cup.


—Charles Dickens, while travelling in America (1842)

Here’s the thing: It could all blow. Not just your meticulous business plan, your local-grain supply chain or your retro-cool logo.
I mean the actual still. It could blow. Distilling is a high-stakes poker game of chemistry and engineering. Add pressure, heat and wayward puffs of highly explosive ethanol vapour and — well, more than one local distiller can show you scars.

INGREDIENTS:
1 oz peach liqueur
1 oz prosecco
1 fresh pitted peach (leave skin on for added colour and texture)
OR 3 oz white peach puree
2 cups of cubed ice
METHOD:
Add all ingredients to a blender, leaving the cubed ice until last. Put the lid on and blend on the lowest setting. Slowly increase the speed until the desired texture is reached. Pour into coupe glasses. Garnish with fresh mint and peach slices. Serves 2.

INGREDIENTS:
4 oz London dry gin
1 oz simple syrup*
0.5 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
0.5 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
2 oz heavy cream
1 tsp orange flower water
2 oz club soda
1 oz liquid egg white (white of one large egg)
1 cup of cubed ice
METHOD:
Add all ingredients to a blender, leaving the cubed ice until last. Put the lid on and blend on the lowest setting. Slowly increase the speed until the ice has melted and cocktail has become light and frothy. Pour into Highball glasses. Garnish with grated nutmeg and perhaps an umbrella. Serves 2.

INGREDIENTS:
1 oz London dry gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth
3 oz freshly squeezed blood orange
2 cups of cubed ice
METHOD:
Add all ingredients to a blender, leaving the cubed ice until last. Put the lid on and blend on the lowest setting. Slowly increase the speed until the desired texture is reached. Pour into double Old Fashioned glasses. Garnish with a fresh rosemary and a straw, or maybe even a spoon. Serves 2.

INGREDIENTS:
4 oz light cuban rum
1 oz maraschino liqueur
1.5 oz freshly squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice
1.5 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup*
2 cups of cubed ice
METHOD:
Add all ingredients to a blender, leaving the cubed ice until last. Put the lid on and blend on the lowest setting. Slowly increase the speed until the desired texture is reached. Pour into Martini glasses. Garnish with fresh mint and a grapefruit wedge. Serves 2.
