Elegantly wasted: has lockdown made booze dangerously aspirational?

Drinking at home was once a guilty pleasure. Now everyone from bored homeworkers to professional influencers is swapping cocktail recipes and photos of colourful aperitifs. Is gin o'clock turning into unhappy hour?

The shadow of a palm frond falls on a young woman in a bikini, holding an emerald-coloured cocktail in one manicured hand. A negroni glows from the depths of a darkened bar; a tray of fruit-laden glasses sits beside a swimming pool. The #cocktail hashtag on Instagram is a passport to a magical land of aspirational drinking, where everything comes garnished with rose petals and nobody ever seems to get hangovers.

Its inhabitants are a mix of amateur enthusiasts reviewing their latest discoveries, and professional ginfluencers" making a living from creating lusciously photographed cocktail recipes or sponsored posts promoting this rhubarb gin or that new tequila. Colourful drinks are popular, says Inka Kukkamaki, a full-time drinks influencer whose @onthesauceagain account has 21,000 Instagram followers. Something a bit interesting and unusual, or just something simple like a negroni - any kind of negroni twist becomes popular. The Italian aperitivo culture has really spread into the UK in the last year."