For an extra burst of citrus, try our garnish trick cocktail to release the orange oils in the zest. There are plenty of tantalising twists, but it takes just two ingredients to make a traditional martini. Garnish with an orange slice or use blood orange when in season. For an alcohol-free option that’s no less full of flavour, try our spiced virgin piña colada.

Other origins have been suggested, as corruptions of other words or phrases. Mr. Pitt,two petit vers of “L’huile de Venus”Ditto, one of “perfeit amour”Ditto, “cock-tail” (vulgarly called ginger) The most prominent theories are that it refers to a stimulant, hence a stimulating drink, or to a non-purebred horse, hence a mixed drink. Additional ingredients may be sugar, honey, milk, cream, and various herbs. When a mixed drink contains only a distilled spirit and a liqueur, it is a duo, and when it adds cream or a cream-based liqueur, it is a trio. Special flavouring agents, including not only non-alcoholic syrups but also various liqueurs and cordials, as well as other ingredients which could also be used as modifiers.

Simple Cocktail Recipes That Everyone Should Know How To Make

It’s a great beverage to sip on with light appetizers, including everything from shrimp cocktails to salads. Combine Cointreau, tequila, agave syrup, lime juice, and ice in a blender, pulsing into smooth, before pouring the mixture into a salt and lime juice-rimmed glass. Cream of coconut, pineapple juice, white rum, and whole pineapple pieces are mixed with white rum for a refreshing combination that any tropical drink lover will adore. The ginger beer-based beverage (not to be confused with its sugary sweet cousin, ginger ale) is best served with dishes that utilize ginger, like a spicy pad Thai or ginger soup.

While you can enjoy a white Russian at any time of the year, it’s an especially great pairing for food or casual sipping during the colder months of the year. The “Russian” implies that vodka is in the mix here, though this is far from the only flavor (and boozy addition). This gives it a slight anise-like flavor, which complements the bitters and the rye. The absinthe is only used to rinse the serving glass and should be discarded before the rye mixture is added. It would be an excellent beverage to sip on alongside dips or chicken dishes. You can add Luxardo cherry to sweeten things up, or serve it with strongly-flavored foods like chocolate and cheese to distract from its robust character.

Mint Julep

• Our easy long island ice tea is a heady combination of vanilla vodka, dry gin, reposado tequila, triple sec, rum and a dash of lime juice.
• The lemon drop martini is best served well-shaken and in a sugar-rimmed glass.
• This three-ingredient cocktail would be an excellent one to serve at an outside gathering or at a simple dinner party.
• Brandy, a tragically underrepresented spirit on this list, earns a well-deserved moment in the spotlight in one of the world’s most ordered cocktails.

In light of that, modern specs typically include a few varieties of rum, orange juice, triple sec, and several sweeteners to achieve a similar tropical profile. The Mai Tai, perhaps the tiki-est of tiki cocktails, is clearly hard to resist among the world’s drinkers. Though tropical cocktails have been hot the past couple of years, the Piña Colada dropped a significant 15 spots on the list in 2025.

For more marvellous malt creations and drinks celebrating this spiced spirit, peruse our whisky cocktail recipe collection. Our easy long island ice tea is a heady combination of vanilla vodka, dry gin, reposado tequila, triple sec, rum and a dash of lime juice. Learn to mix up more fabulous cocktails and add a fiery Mexican kick to your next drinks night. Whether you like it with gin or vodka, a dirty version or a fruity variation, the martini is the king of many a cocktail menu.

The 5 Most Exciting Limited-Edition Rums to Try Now

Produce an elegant martini, a frothy espresso martini or a vibrant Aperol spritz with our step-by-step tutorials. Thankfully, that shouldn’t happen much longer, as the Negroni has claimed the No. 1 spot on this list for the fourth year in a row. For those reasons, it’s retained its spot as the world’s top tequila-based classic. Also known as a Vodka Espresso or a Pharmaceutical Stimulant (a name coined by the late Dick Bradsell) the buzzy drink is ideal for keeping a buzz going. Like a refined Red Bull Vodka, the Espresso Martini promises a pick-me-up and calm-me-down effect in one dark glass.

Whiskey sour

By 2023, the so-called “cocktail in a can” had proliferated (at least in the United States) to become a common item in liquor stores. In 1917, the term cocktail party was coined by Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri. Cocktails continued to evolve and gain popularity throughout the 1900s, with the term eventually expanding to cover all mixed drinks. Let your chosen whisky shine with just a handful of simple ingredients, all in one easy step. Try a spicy dark and stormy with dark espresso or a sweet and creamy Turkish coffee sour. Use our handy video tutorial to create your perfect martini and a non-alcoholic mocktail version using a basic vinegar shrub.

Classic Amaretto Sour Cocktail

Mix up a sensational showstopping cocktail that’s perfect for sipping on a sunny day. This 70’s beauty uses grenadine syrup to create the fruity, colourful effect of a sunrise bleeding through the drink. If the lemon is too sharp, add a splash of Angostura bitters.

The bright pink drink contains gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and an egg white. It’s a delightfully simple mixture of gin, lemon juice, sugar, and a few dashes of Angostura bitters. This gin-based cocktail, elevated with lime and club soda, is a fizzy and flavorful treat that’s easy to make as it is simple to drink. It’s like a luxury lemonade that’s made with bitters, lemon juice, gin, and simple syrup. As expected, it gets a boozy boost from vodka, though our recipe also adds Cointreau, along with the standard additions of lemon juice and simple syrup. They’re combined with white rum, lime juice, and bubbly club soda to create a timeless cocktail.

Classic Sazerac Cocktail

Get to grips with our top 10 rum cocktail recipes for easy drinks to liven up your cocktail menu. These simple, classic cocktails should be on everyone’s at-home drinks menu. The cocktail boasts a straightforward build of gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and blackberry liqueur, all mingling within a mountain of crushed ice.

While the name suggests that this beverage will be heavy, the flavors of this cocktail are anything but. This three-ingredient cocktail would be an excellent one to serve at an outside gathering or at a simple dinner party. You’ll want to muddle the granulated sugar and bitters in a mixing glass before adding the rye. The bitters help balance out some of the citrusy sweetness, while the gin adds a floral flavor and aroma. You can make a tequila sunrise in the glass you plan on serving it, as no cocktail shakers are required.

This cocktail is a simple combination of gin, sweet vermouth, and a few dashes of Fernet-Branca. While vodka is a staple ingredient (it is a martini, after all), there is also a splash of Kahúla, a shot of espresso, and a little bit of simple syrup for sweetness. The combination of ginger beer, dark rum, and Angostura bitters offer something a little more complex than your classic tiki drink, but just as delicious. The vodka and the gin in this cocktail have a great interplay with one another, while the Lillet, a fortified French wine, adds a floral and citrusy element to the drink.

The Clover Club is a pre-Prohibition cocktail named after a men’s club in Philadelphia. And just like the Ti’ Punch, the Caipirinha can be a choose-your-own-adventure cocktail, so feel free to tweak the spec to your personal taste. As Brazil’s national cocktail, the Caipirinha had a moment in the spotlight during the 2016 Olympics in Rio. It was designed to be a quintessentially British cocktail, evoking memories of the fresh blackberries Bradsell used to enjoy on the Isle of Wight off England’s southern coast. It can be made with rye or brandy along with Demerara syrup, Peychaud’s Bitters, a lemon twist, and absinthe as needed.

Clover Club

Now, you’ll see crafted spins on this drink, which was created by Toby Cecchini in 1988. For another Simó equal-parts original, we highly recommend checking out the Kingston Negroni. Mezcal has been enjoying quite a bit of fame recently, and given the myriad agave varieties the spirit is made with, it provides the drink with some added range. A smoky spin on the original Margarita, this riff employs the popular Oaxacan spirit in place of traditional tequila. Perhaps it’s time this modern classic — and the Penicillin — ascend to simply “classic” status. Garnish with a few raspberries or a lemon twist, and you’re in for a treat.

This is the perfect beverage to take to a summer picnic in the park or the beach. Mojitos are best served in a highball glass, though you can also make them ahead of time in Mason jars and add ice when you’re ready to sip. Our version includes both muddled mint leaves and mint syrup, which helps make it extra herbal and fresh.

• No one could resist a creamy, coffee-laced white Russian cocktail, made with a drizzle of fresh cream, vodka and coffee liqueur.
• Once you’ve poured the cocktail, make sure to add a cherry garnish.
• Mezcal and lime juice harmonize with equal-parts yellow Chartreuse and Aperol in this refreshing, multinational masterpiece.
• Make the most of classic whisky flavours with a hint of citrus and a touch of mint in this satisfying whisky highball recipe.
• It was customary to dock the tails of horses that were not thoroughbred … They were called cocktailed horses, later simply cocktails.

Simply combine gin, lemon, simple syrup, and sparkling wine together in a glass for an effervescent and boozy sip. Once you master the basic simple syrup recipe, you can start exploring different flavor infusions to make this cocktail your own. We’ve curated a list of some of the most iconic cocktail recipes that everyone should know. Cocktails became less popular in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, until resurging in the 1980s with vodka often substituting for the original gin in drinks such as the martini.

Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, shrubs, and bitters. The undisputed king of coffee cocktails, no one could resist this picture-perfect two-tone espresso martini. Celebrate the sun with even more colourful summer cocktails, from a simple spritz to a fruity G&T. Chances are you’ve enjoyed one of these vibrant orange cocktails before. A classic gimlet combines dry gin with a zingy homemade lime syrup and plenty of ice. Mix the spirit with orange liqueur and a squeeze of lemon for a rich, sharp and sweet drink.