There has been a huge jump in alcohol sales in the last few months, so we know most of you are drinking at home a little more, so maybe it’s time to step up your drinks game as well.

The way to make it through the lockdown without gaining extra kilos is to drink quality, not quantity.

The martini is often seen as a very formal drink but it pairs perfectly well with something like an udon noodle soup.

The crisp buzz from the cocktail cuts through the thick, umami feeling left in the mouth from the soup.

But most people know how to make a martini so maybe you should put a little Japanese twist on it and make a sakura martini.

The house martini for Bar Goto in New York, the sakura martini swaps out the vermouth for sake and adds a pinch of salt in place of an olive.

There’s also a dash of Luxardo maraschino liqueur in there to justify the sakura name, which is Japanese for cherry blossom

Sake brings its own suite of flavours with it and a lighter gin may quickly become overpowered so I go for something like Never Never’s Juniper Freak Gin or The Farmer’s Wife Gin.

But if you want the two flavours to balance out Poor Tom’s Gin or one of the many new Aussie start up distilleries would do the job.

In Australia, particularly Queensland it is hard to enjoy a martini slowly because it warms up so quickly and a good martini should be blisteringly cold.

The solution to that is a sidecar, a small glass vial where you can put half the cocktail and rest it on ice, allowing you to enjoy your drink at your own pace.

Pairs well with udon noodle soup.

How to make:

2½ shots of sake

1 shot of gin

¼ shot of Luxardo maraschino liqueur

1 pinch of salt

1 salted cherry blossom (if you can get your hands on one.

Pour the sake, gin, salt and liqueur into a mixing glass with ice and stir until as cold as possible.

Pour half into your glass and half into your sidecar. Sit sidebar on the leftover ice in the mixing glass. enjoy