There is plenty to toast to when it comes to welcoming in leap year, and international year of the pulse, 2016 (MMXVI), which looks likely to promise the launch of the Orbiter mission to Mars, include the summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and see the withdrawal of the final British, American and Australian troops from Afghanistan.
So how best to ensure the evening itself unravels smoothly?
According to founder and CEO of the Sydney School of Protocol Julie Lamberg-Burnet, be sure to wrap yourself in glamour. Think ‘smart evening attire with a dash of elegance,’ she says.
Keep the midnight kiss polite rather than lascivious, or worse, lascivious and on the lips of the ‘wrong’ partner.
And be aware of what you post on social media.
If hosting a party, offering guests a ‘morning-after basket’ pastries, truffles from La Maison du Chocolat, and perhaps a painkiller or two, is a thoughtful gift.
On that note, we recommend drinking very well rather than very much, avoiding tipsy toasts, and tempering alcohol intake with plentiful water.
How about a welcome aperitif mingling Cointreau with passion fruit and chillies?
COINTREAU FIZZ PASSION AND PEPPER
50ml Cointreau
15ml fresh lime juice
2 fresh, ripe passion fruits
1 thin slice, Thai Chilli Pepper
50ml soda water
Method
In a Boston shaker glass, pour in passion fruit juice and slice of Thai chilli pepper
Add Cointreau and lime juice. Fill with ice
Shake until shaker is frosted
Fine strain into glass over ice, and top off with soda.
Garnish with Thai chilli pepper.
Follow on with delightful Paparuda Sauvignon Blanc from Recas, in Romania, which offers uplifting flavours of clementine and gooseberry along with a refreshing, ‘zingy’ acidity (ideal with smoked salmon pate bilinis).
At midnight, celebrate with vintage Champagne – we recommend Nicolas Feuillatte 2008 – ideally poured into flutes that you have kept in the freezer.
And, as things calm down, treat your guests to AEN METAXA. AEN, the ancient Greek word for “forever”, is an exceptional liquid made of more than 200 different blends, which has spent over eighty years evolving and maturing. Super a sip to savour with your true friends.
If organising your own New Year’s party seems stressful, spare a thought for Adrian Moore, Paris-based, British author of ‘Inside Chef’s Fridges’. As concierge at the Georges Cinq hotel, Moore recalls the challenge ‘of hiring a private yacht on the Seine on New Year’s Day for a Lebanese waitress turned millionairess…’
And when it comes to forging resolutions, it may be better to dispense with specifics in favour of an overall mantra, such as quality versus quantity when it comes to spending time and money. A range of web surveys cited the most common reason for participants failing their New Years’ Resolutions was ‘unrealistic goals’ closely followed by having set ‘too many resolutions.’
Happy 2016 from all the team!
