My Round: Richard Ehrlich makes a spirited case for high-quality mixers

I've noticed recently that bartenders are starting, like me, to get very enthusiastic about a really good soft drink. Where once they would have paid careful attention to the spirits they use while buying any old mixer (or, worse still, spraying it from a gun), now they've become aware that you can't make a good cocktail unless every single ingredient is high quality. Jussi Kalmi, of London's Ruby Bars, is one such bartender. He talks as passionately about Fentimans Ginger Beer as he does about Gosling's Black Label rum, both of which ingredients go into one of his best cocktails.

And when he can't get the flavours he wants from a bottle, he makes them himself. This too is a rising trend: hand-made purées and syrups to give precisely the flavour profile that's needed in the bar's special drinks. Rhubarb is popular at the moment. Mark Pratt of the Maze bar (London W1) makes his own rhubarb purée and uses a lot of it. Jussi Kalmi does a rhubarb syrup (3kg rhubarb, 2.5kg white sugar, 3 litres lime juice, cooked gently for 40 minutes then strained) which he deploys to excellent effect. You can make a domestic version with 120g rhubarb, 100g sugar, and 80ml lemon juice.

Ginger is another popular ingredient at the moment, and you can make your own base for ginger ale by following Kalmi's recipe for ginger-lime infusion, a really splendid thing. Use 120g ginger, 100g white sugar and 120ml lime juice. Chop the ginger as fine as possible to minimise cooking time, which shouldn't be more than 20 minutes or so. Strain, refrigerate. Wonderful with fizzy water, or water plus rum, or Bourbon.

An alternative approach comes from the Manhattan bartender extraordinaire Audrey Saunders, whose home-made ginger beer was mentioned in these pages a couple of weeks ago. Her recipe for a small-scale production calls for 225ml water, 30ml finely grated fresh ginger, 2.5ml fresh lime juice and 5ml light brown sugar. Boil the water, remove it from the heat, and add the ginger and lime juice. Cover, let stand for 60 minutes, then stir in the sugar until it's dissolved, and strain through a fine-mesh sieve, "pushing down on ginger solids to express ginger extract." Bottle and refrigerate.

Audrey describes this as being more like "strong ginger tea" than ginger beer. Call it what you will - it's delicious.

Soft drinks like these are an important part of the home bar because they allow you to make beverages that fall somewhere between cocktails and mixed drinks. Rum and ginger ale, for instance, is a mixed drink. The same rum with ginger ale, a generous squeeze of fresh lime and an orange peel garnish, is something like a cocktail - but takes far less time than a proper Planters Punch or daiquiri. The labour-saving angle becomes increasingly important as the weather heats up. We want the drinks, but we don't want the work.

This is where the three distinguished soft drinks featured here come into their own; I urge you to pay them all very serious attention. They are products of high quality, suitable for serving on their own or with the judicious addition of something more bracing: vodka in the case of the tomato and grape concoctions, rum in the case of the ginger ale.

Speaking of cold drinks, here is a new product worth looking for: Lock and Lock, maker of the Rolls-Royce of food-storage vessels, has introduced a "fridge door jug" to its range. It includes clamps, which keep the lid in place as securely as if it were held there by an acetylene weld and has a good pouring spout as well. Made from surgical-grade silicone, it's top stuff. The best price I've seen for a 2-litre jug is £5.95 from www.alacook.co.uk. It's the smart storage idea of the moment - whatever you pour. s

Three soft options

Bon Grape Low Sugar Sparkling Grape Juice (£1.29/75cl, Tesco) Both red and white. The low sugar means artificial additives must be used, but the lively flavours make them worthwhile.

Grove Fresh Original Tomato & Vegetable Juice (£2.39-£2.79, selected Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Booth's and independents) All organic, improbably good for you, and entirely delicious. This company makes consistently excellent products.

Fever-Tree Ginger Ale (£2.99/4 x 200ml, Oddbins, Waitrose, and independents) From the makers of the best tonic water around comes the best ginger ale. Great with proper rum.