Mango Habanero x Cockta

Cockta has been made in Slovenia since 1953, built on rosehip and a blend of eleven herbs, and it tastes like nothing else on the shelf — dark, faintly medicinal, more bitter than sweet. It is a strange thing to mix with mango. It also happens to work.

The herbs give the Mango Habanero liqueur somewhere to go. Where cola would flatten the fruit under caramel, Cockta runs alongside it: rosehip and citrus meeting ripe mango, the herbal bitterness picking up the habanero and making it read as spice rather than heat. The drink ends up genuinely layered, and noticeably less sweet than its colour suggests.

Build it over plenty of ice in a highball, top with well-chilled Cockta, and stir once — gently, the bubbles are part of the structure. A fresh orange slice is not decoration here; the oils from the peel bridge the citrus in the soda and the fruit in the liqueur. Serve it as an aperitif to someone who claims they do not like sweet drinks.