Six seasonal cocktails from brothers and award-winning mixologists Joe and Daniel Schofield

"There are thousands of cocktails you can make and so many different recipes for them and techniques you can use, that it can seem intimidating when you're simply at home and want to mix a great drink," they admit in their new book, Schofield's Fine And Classic Cocktails.

"However, we have spent a lot of time throughout our careers constantly adjusting and improving, so this collection of recipes is, in our humble opinion, the way we personally think they taste best."

Like the sound of that? We've rounded up six seasonal serves, with the brothers' recommendation on which spirits to use...

1. Adonis

Created around the mid-1880s in honour of the Broadway musical of the same name - the first, in fact, to run for more than 500 performances - the Adonis is a true classic of the American cocktail bar.

We like to add a touch of sugar syrup as sugar is a great flavour carrier and works well here, enhancing the relatively subtle sherry and vermouth. You won't find this extra touch of sweetness in traditional versions of the drink, but we like how it underscores all the flavour notes.

Additionally, we prefer to use oloroso sherry instead of the more traditional fino, as it plays well with the other ingredients. The sweet complexity of the oloroso adds much more to the drink.

Ingredients: 30ml oloroso sherry (Gonzalez Byass), 30ml sweet vermouth (Asterley Bros Estate English Vermouth), 2 dashes orange bitters (Regans' Orange Bitters No 6), 4 dashes sugar syrup, orange coin for garnish.

Method: Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain into a coupette, garnish with an orange coin and serve.

2. Breakfast Martini

This was created in 1996 at The Lanesborough Hotel in London, when the legendary Italian bartender, Salvatore Calabrese, was persuaded by his wife to swap his usual breakfast of an espresso for one of toast and marmalade.

A few hours later, in the Library Bar, this cocktail was born and instantly became a modern classic. This recipe is kindly provided by Calabrese himself.

Ingredients: 50ml gin (Tanqueray), 15ml Triple Sec (Cointreau), 15ml lemon juice, 1 bar spoon (5ml) thin-cut orange marmalade, shredded orange peel for garnish.

Method: Add all the ingredients to a shaker and mix to incorporate marmalade into other ingredients. Add ice and shake. Strain into a chilled martini glass, garnish with orange peel and serve.

3. Espresso Martini

Originally called a 'Vodka Espresso', this drink was created in 1983 by Dick Bradsell at the Soho Brasserie in London for a guest.

During the 1990s, it became better known as the Espresso Martini and, in our humble opinion, it's one of the best drinks to have been created in the last 50 years. It's beautifully simple and is now one of the most popular drinks around the world. Works great with rum or tequila as a base too!

Ingredients: 35ml vodka (Grey Goose), 15ml coffee liqueur (Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur), 10ml sugar syrup, 25ml fresh espresso, three coffee beans for garnish.

Method: Add all the ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake. Strain into a chilled coupette, garnish with three coffee beans and serve.

4. Whiskey Sour

This classic belongs to the sour family of cocktails and is a simple and delicious drink. Created in the 1850s, it wasn't until almost 50 years later that egg white became an extra addition. Some recipes list it as optional, but we like to include it as we think it helps round out the flavours.

You can also switch out the bourbon for scotch, applejack, cognac or pretty much any spirit - any type that has spent time in a barrel tends to work best.

Ingredients: 50ml bourbon (Woodford Reserve), 25ml fresh lemon juice, 15ml sugar syrup, 25ml egg white, Angostura bitters to garnish with a stripe.

Method: Add all the ingredients to a shaker and dry shake, followed by a wet shake (with ice). Strain into a chilled coupette, garnish with an Angostura Bitters stripe and serve.

5. Boulevardier

This wonderful Negroni variation is yet another fabulous creation by Harry MacElhone at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, who made it for a fellow ex-pat, Erskine Gwynne, who at the time edited a monthly magazine called The Boulevardier; hence the name.

Our version calls for a little bit extra of the hero spirit, bourbon, so as the Campari and sweet vermouth don't overpower its flavour.

Ingredients: 40ml bourbon (Basil Hayden's Kentucky Straight Bourbon), 20ml sweet vermouth (Martini Rosso), 20ml Campari, long orange peel for garnish.

Method: Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain over ice into a rocks glass, garnish with orange peel and serve.

Tip: For a wonderful variation, try the Old Pal. Swap bourbon for rye, sweet vermouth for dry and serve straight up with a lemon coin.

6. Mai Tai

This was created in 1944 by Victor Jules Bergeron, aka Trader Vic. He made it for his friends, Ham and Carrie Guild, and after the first sip, Carrie purportedly said, "Mai tai-roa ae", which in Tahitian means, "Out of this world, the best".

We like to use two different rums as the blend creates a lovely complex flavour, similar in profile, apparently, to the original rum used all those years ago. Wray & Nephew 17 soared in popularity with this drink and quickly became unavailable. However, the drink also works well with any type of aged rum, if the blend isn't at hand.

Ingredients: 25ml Jamaican rum (Appleton Estate Reserve 8 Year Old), 25ml aged agricole rhum (Trois Rivieres VSOP), 30ml lime juice, 10ml orange curacao (Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao), 10ml orgeat (Small Hand Orgeat), 1 dash Angostura Bitters, lime wheel and mint sprig for garnish.

Method: Add all the ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass, garnish with a lime wheel and sprig of mint and serve.

Extracted from Schofield's Fine And Classic Cocktails: Celebrated Libations And Other Fancy Cocktails, by Joe & Daniel Schofield, published by Kyle Books, priced £15.99. Available now.