Trends: Shake, rattle and roll out the barrel

Mixologists have been shaking up the cocktail-bar scene for a while, but now lovers of alcoholic experimentation can turn the domestic kitchen into a communal drinks lab too.

A mini kit from three-Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant El Bulli allows you to duplicate its "spherification" technique and create jellified spheres of liquids, meaning you can wow guests with a pre-dinner jelly vodka (from www.deli.cat).

Meanwhile, Fusebox's wine-blending kit (www. fuseboxwine.com) lets you blend wines in the comfort of your own living-room. And the Mad Science Bartending Kit is giving any home the lab touch with test-tubes, beakers, cocktail shaker and stirrer contained in a metal carrying rack (from www.amazon.com). All you need to add is the lab coat...