Fancy a cocktail?

Summer has finally arrived! Hurrah! So what's on our minds? COCKTAILS of course.

Well, to be quite frank, I'd happily consume a cocktail at most times of the year. Bar Christmas where it's Champagne for breakfast, wine for dinner and any of Tia Maria on ice, Baileys on Ice, a wee dram or a little drop of Port to end the day. I do eat as well, by the way.

But back to cocktails. I live not too far from Birmingham's fabulous Mailbox complex, brimming with restaurants and bars, many with a lovely sun terrace at the front overlooking the canal. As it happens, most of these restaurants and bars serve an array of cocktails. Fancy that! So residing nearby it would obviously be rude not to take advantage on occasion.

When I was asked to try out a few cocktails alongside fellow cocktail sipping bloggers and journalists alike (pictured), I chuckled to myself "try cocktails at the Mailbox? I'm practically part of the furniture - I know what's there already", but naturally I went along with it.

Beginning with an Argentinian wine tasting session held in the Project Emerge installation currently on the lower floor of the Mailbox, I was running a little late from work and had to play catch up. How often do you arrive somewhere and someone hands you a glass of bubbly and a wine at the same time and tells you to hurry up and taste them because they're on the third already? This evening was starting well (I am a self confessed wino, for those who don't already know).

I have to 'fess up now, I have no idea what the wines were, but they were all delightful. One was a Malbec - the creme de la creme of reds in my opinion. Not for a hot sunny day though unless you want to end up slumped in a corner with a woozy head.

Following this we headed to Epernay for my favourite type of cocktail - champagne! I tried an orange based cocktail which wasn't actually to my taste as I'm not a big fan of anything orange (aside from the colour), however, that flavour aside, I believe they were all rather delicious. This was quickly chased up by a creamy lemon meringue cocktail. Yummy, but rather rich and I daresay, too many and you probably wouldn't be feeling so clever!

Next we headed to steak restaurant Miller and Carter. I actually had no idea that this had a bar area you could just head up to for drinks, so this was a nice surprise. Ordered to "choose any cocktail on the menu" I naturally went for another champagne cocktail (again, cannot remember what it was, but it was a delight), before we were moved onto Malmaison for a cocktail demonstration and making workshop; a lot of fun. And no, I definitely cannot remember what my cocktail was at this point - we were shown a variety, all of which I've forgotten, but I'm terrible with names anyway (at least that's my excuse).

In honesty, we only sampled a fraction of the cocktail and culinary offerings available at the Mailbox. Any more and I'd have most definitely ended up on the floor. As I was going to see Aswad at the Jam House after this that would not have been a good move! (Aswad were AMAZING by the way).

The Mailbox have incidentally launched a cocktail app for Facebook that should help you find where to go for your favourite type of cocktails, and in this weather, there's most definitely a need for it! They're also currently running a competition whereby if you upload a photo of your favourite cocktail to the page and it receives the highest number of votes, you could win a very nice little prize.

Need anymore excuse to sample a few cocktails? No, didn't think so. Head over here to check out what other people have been drinking, then go check it all out yourself!