All recipes

An opera for the palate, and a decent way to warm up your voice before karaoke night.

A tequila boilermaker. The shot goes in glass and all, and the lager does the rest of the work.

Eight rows, three of them coconut, blended over vanilla ice cream. A milkshake that happens to contain overproof rum, and it hides it completely.

Gin, Lillet and lemon with white crème de cacao in it, which sounds like a mistake and is the reason the drink survived.

Cinnamon, herbal bitterness, peppermint and overproof rum in four equal half-ounces. The name is the most honest thing about it.

One Tennessee, one Scotch and one bourbon, in equal thirds. The line-up is the joke; the drink underneath is a shot of whiskey.

Sloe berries, the fruit of the blackthorn shrub, are macerated in gin to provide the crimson color and warm, fruity taste sloe gin is known for.

Equal parts vodka and white crème de cacao over ice. Chocolate with no cream behind it, which leaves it lighter and a good deal colder than it sounds.

Gin lengthened with lemon-lime soda and a real squeeze of lemon. The fresh juice is the whole difference; without it this is a gin and soda.

Whiskey and lemon-lime soda over ice. The name is the two sevens and nothing more.

Shochu and Japanese whisky under a passion fruit foam. Two citruses, both necessary.

A spicier, rye-forward version of a cocktail that originated in New Orleans in the nineteenth century.

Umeshu and Becherovka with egg white. Plum and cinnamon, softly.

Applejack and grapefruit, three parts to two. Two ingredients and no sweetener at all.

Gin, Lillet and orange juice — a Martini that spent the morning at brunch.

The strong one. Blue curaçao, tequila and absinthe, with a single drop of Irish cream that curdles on contact — which is the point.

A rum sour with triple sec and egg white, finished with mint.

Dark rum and lemon with a teaspoon of grenadine. A daiquiri that went darker.

Sherry and both vermouths, under 20% and built for before dinner rather than after.

Amaro and Aperol lengthened with orange juice. Bitter at the edges and easy in the middle.

A perfect Manhattan built on Scotch. Both vermouths, in equal measure.

Cilantro, chile, and a coconut cloud on top. A margarita that went to art school.

Southern Comfort, amaretto and sloe gin in near-equal measure, with just a dash of lemon to keep it upright.

Gin and yellow Chartreuse. Nothing sour in it at all, which surprises people.

A Gin Fizz with a teaspoon of raspberry syrup in it, which is the whole difference.

Gin, chocolate and cream in equal thirds. The brandy version came later and took the name.

Pineapple juice in a rye cocktail. Trust the round table on this one.

The Brain Tumor with blue curaçao in it, which turns the curdled cream a colour nothing in nature is.

Equal bourbon and dry vermouth, with blackberry and lemon measured in teaspoons.

A dry martini with half a spoon of kümmel, which tastes of caraway and changes everything.

Add a little bourbon and an egg white and the maligned version becomes serious.

Two ingredients and nowhere to hide. Without the bourbon the almond comes forward, and the lemon has to carry the whole balance on its own.

Tequila and orange juice over ice with a little sugar. A screwdriver that went south.

Cold brew, Chartreuse, and coconut milk under vanilla cream. Dessert and espresso at once.

Blackberry and elderflower over vodka. The drink that made St-Germain famous in New York.

Two ounces of a bitter orange aperitif, lengthened with lime and a teaspoon of grenadine.

Bourbon, Fernet Menta, and Grand Marnier over cold brew. Bitter, minty, and wide awake.

The Negroni's older, gentler parent, and a much better afternoon drink.

Tennessee whiskey and sambuca, shaken cold. Equal parts, and it drinks like neither one.

Pineapple, bourbon, and amaro. An unlikely spritz, and a good one.

Overproof rye layered with plum and cardamom bitters, Chinese five-spice syrup, spiced pear liqueur and a little dry vermouth, stirred and served small with a star anise pod at the side.

Gin, apricot and apple, and the gin is only half of it.

Four layers in a shot glass: cacao, sloe gin, brandy, cream. The hardest pour in this section.

Maraschino over crème de cacao with cream on top and a cherry on that.

Three-two-one: prosecco, Aperol, soda. Impossible to get wrong.

Twenty juniper berries muddled into vodka. Gin, made to order.

Apple, cinnamon and ginger. Best in the months you'd want a pie.

Calvados and cassis under orange juice, built and barely stirred so the cassis stays at the bottom.

A Sidecar built on applejack, in equal thirds. Sharper than the brandy original.

Vodka stirred with apple liqueur and Cointreau. The 1990s in a glass, and not as bad as its reputation.

Rum and apricot shaken with egg white until it is thick enough to hold an orange slice.

Hpnotiq stretched with pineapple and banana liqueur. Softer than the colour suggests, and the pineapple stops the banana taking over.

Melon, coffee liqueur, cream, and an egg yolk. Rich beyond reason.

Gin, Aperol, and three slices of cucumber. Bitter and cooling at the same time.

Gin lengthened with green ginger wine and a teaspoon of Bénédictine.

Half tea, half lemonade. Named for a man who ordered it enough times that it stuck.

Gin with half an ounce of Grand Marnier and just two teaspoons of lemon.

Gin and sweet vermouth with a dash of bitters. Three things, shaken, done.

A tiki drink wearing a gin suit. Eight ingredients, and every one earns its place.

The crème de violette is what makes it gray-blue and what makes it worth finding.

Half an avocado in a daiquiri. Creamy, savory, and the texture is the reason.

Equal thirds of coffee, cream and orange. Stirred here rather than layered, which is quicker and tastes the same.

A B-52 with absinthe where the orange liqueur goes. It will light, and it is the kind of drink people light.

Brandy and Bénédictine, half and half. The name is the recipe.

A daiquiri with grenadine. A court once ruled it had to be made with Bacardi.

Two rums, cherry liqueur and three juices. Long, fruity, and stronger than the colour admits.

Three spices give the classic cocktail a whole new savory dimension.

The Affinity with half the vermouth, which lets the Scotch through.

Equal brandy and anisette with an egg white, which turns the whole thing pale and soft.

Equal sherry and dry vermouth. About as low in strength as a stirred drink gets.

A whole banana blended into a daiquiri, with a tablespoon of triple sec behind it.

Banana, pineapple and coconut syrup blended smooth. A piña colada with the rum left out — or left in, if you want.

A banana, a peach and orange juice in a blender. Breakfast, in a hurricane glass.

Rye and tea with coconut cream and amaro. Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, star anise, or whatever says autumn to you goes into the infusion.

Banana, cacao and cream shaken cold. Equal thirds, and the cream is what keeps it civil.

Two parts Cointreau to one of sambuca, shaken. Orange and aniseed, and sweet from start to finish.

Gin, Scotch and rum in one glass, with cacao and cream to hold them together.

Gin and dry vermouth with the sweet vermouth measured in half-teaspoons.

Rum and pineapple with Galliano behind it, lengthened with prosecco.

The julep with basil where the mint goes. Softer and a little peppery, and it wants the same mountain of crushed ice.

The basil lends a pleasant touch of anise, while the lemon thyme allows the vermouth to articulate a sweet, citric note that complements the gin.

Cranberry and pineapple over vodka or rum.

White wine reduction, falernum, and a spritz of lavender. Delicate, then not.

Advocaat, overproof rum, orange juice and half a banana, blended. Creamy, fruity, and much stronger than it drinks.

A Daiquiri with maraschino in it. Half an ounce is enough to change the whole drink.

Gin, lemon, honey. Born to make Prohibition gin drinkable, kept for being good.

Beet and apple juice with chile vodka. Earthy, sweet, and quietly hot.

Peach puree and something sparkling. Venice in a flute, and it takes a minute.

This mashup of a Bellini and a French 95 is rich and nutty, and requires a serious amount of practice to get the texture and complexity just right.

Equal parts calvados and Dubonnet, stirred. Apple and quinine, and nothing else to get in the way.

Brandy, gin and dry vermouth in equal thirds, lengthened with soda.

Mostly gin, with a quarter ounce each of apricot and grenadine doing all the colouring.

Brandy and port, stirred, with a dash of triple sec. Three ingredients and no juice.

A Sidecar that added rum. Exactly as forward as the name suggests.

Gin, vermouth, Chartreuse in equal parts. French for jewel, and the colors are the point.

Ridiculous on purpose. The almond is what makes it taste like frosting.

Yomeishu is sold in Japan as a tonic for fatigue and poor circulation. Ignore the branding. It gets on well with whisky.

Firmly a dessert. Treat it as one and it's very good.

Equal whiskey and sloe gin. Two ingredients and nowhere for either to hide.

Campari swapped for Fernet-Branca. Bitter, minty and considerably less forgiving.

Vodka and coffee liqueur. Add cream and it becomes a White Russian.

Sunflower seeds add a rich, nutty note to the bourbon, which keeps the shrub from running away with the drink.

Ginger beer rather than ale, and no cream. The grown-up end of this list.

No cream on this one. Dairy flattens the lavender straight out.

Dark fruit against pineapple. Odd on paper, good in the glass.

Darker and less sweet than the cherry version.

Sloe gin and sweet vermouth, and darker than either sounds.

Scotch lengthened with a lot of grapefruit and a teaspoon of grenadine.

Equal parts, and one of the very few classics that puts orange juice to good use.

An earthy and juicy cocktail that leans heavily upon the bright and sweet flavor Irish whiskey is known for.

The Bloody Mary with tequila in place of the vodka. The agave gets through the tomato in a way the vodka never tried to.

The only cocktail that doubles as breakfast. Season it like you'd season soup.

Same trick, blue. Sambuca, blue curaçao and Irish cream, with grenadine dropped through the top.

Vodka and blue curaçao lengthened with lemonade. The colour is the entire point and it makes no apology for that.

A margarita with blue curaçao standing in for the triple sec. Same drink, louder about it.

Vodka, blue curaçao and grapefruit. Grapefruit is what keeps it from being a sweet blue drink.

Coconut milk in a margarita, strained or blended first so it pours smooth rather than grainy.

Blueberry needs the lemon. On its own it goes flat and jammy.

Amaretto and Grand Marnier under hot black tea. No blueberries, and it tastes like blueberries anyway.

Irish cream, coconut rum and whiskey in equal parts. Named for the initials and nothing else.

Scotch and sweet vermouth with a teaspoon of Bénédictine doing the work.

A shot of whiskey and a glass of beer. Four ways to drink them and no wrong answer.

Angostura as a base spirit again, this time with rum and orgeat behind it.

White rum shaken with lime and orange and a dash of bitters. A daiquiri that went looking for a second citrus.

Three to one gin and dry vermouth, with a dash each of bitters and maraschino.

A smooth stirred bourbon drink that makes for the perfect nightcap.

Brandy and Madeira stirred together, with just enough triple sec to lift them.

A sidecar that splits the base between rum and brandy, and is longer on lime than most.

The same four bottles as the Boston Sidecar poured in equal measure, and a good deal shorter on lime. Drier and tighter, and it disappears faster.

A Scotch sour with egg white, which rounds it off without sweetening it.

Floral and herbal all the way through. As pleasant as a greenhouse in the middle of winter.

A Negroni that swapped gin for bourbon, and got warmer for it.

Amaro, spiced pear and a chile shrub over bourbon. A winter drink that means it.

Half an ounce of lemon curd shaken into bourbon, which thickens the drink the way an egg white would and sweetens it at the same time.

The crusta shape on bourbon: spirit, curaçao, maraschino and just enough lemon.

A gin sidecar with egg white, which turns it soft without making it sweet.

Grenadine, vodka and five drops of Tabasco. Sweet for the first second and then not.

Peach schnapps, Irish cream dropped in rather than floated, and grenadine after it. It curdles on purpose and looks exactly as advertised.

An invention of legendary London bartender Dick Bradsell, in his attempt to create a truly British drink.

Dessert that happens to be a cocktail. The nutmeg is not optional.

Brandy, blackcurrant and lemon. The cassis does the sweetening on its own.

Works with brandy, whiskey or dark rum. Pick whichever is open.

The drink that invented the garnish. That lemon peel lining the glass is the whole idea.

Spirit, citrus, curacao, soda. The template that eventually produced the Margarita.

A whole egg shaken with brandy, sugar and milk. Richer than a flip and longer than one.

The flip template: a whole egg shaken into brandy until it turns thick and pale.

Brandy and coffee liqueur under a long pour of milk. A White Russian that went to France.

A julep that gave up and got short. Mint and sugar muddled in the glass you drink from.

The sour template on brandy: spirit, lemon, sugar, and nothing else to hide behind.

Tequila and coffee liqueur over ice. A Black Russian with agave underneath it.

A Martini with orange juice, which used to be scandalous. It works.

Manhattan's cousin from across the river, drier and pointed with maraschino.

Less a recipe than a shape: a spirit, some citrus, ginger ale or beer on top.

Four white spirits and curaçao, dropped into a glass of energy drink. A Long Island that will keep you up.

A cocktail that runs through every register gin has: citrus, floral, spicy, and sweet.

Rum, sugar and spice, stirred and served over ice. No citrus at all, which is what separates it from almost everything else built on rum.

Strawberry schnapps and pineapple juice. Sweet, pink, and entirely unapologetic.

A frozen coconut milkshake with three bottles in it. One blend fills two hurricanes, which is the honest way to serve something this size.

Blended, creamy, and closer to a milkshake than a cocktail.

Butterscotch and Irish cream with milk over the top. Soft enough to drink at the wrong end of the evening.

The Slippery Nipple with butterscotch underneath instead of sambuca. Sweeter, softer, and much easier to get down.

A spiced-rum Sidecar out of San Francisco. Cinnamon sugar on the rim, always.

Cachaça, lime and sugar, muddled in the glass. Brazil's national drink.

The caipirinha built on white rum instead of cachaça. Two limes, muddled in the glass with the sugar.

Celery juice and Champagne. Reads like a spa menu, drinks like a proper aperitif.

Whiskey with a whole lemon and a whole lime in it, sweetened, reddened with grenadine and lengthened with soda.

Coffee liqueur, Galliano, soda and a splash of cola, which between them taste convincingly of root beer. There is no root beer in it.

Advocaat and white wine shaken with lemon. Odd on paper, and the lemon is what makes it work.

Blackberry and smoke with a serrano kick. Sweet up front, hot on the way out.

Tequila with three citrus juices and grapefruit soda, served over ice in a salted clay pot. A Paloma with more going on.

Smoky single malt in place of the vodka. A Cosmo turns out to be far more open to reinterpretation than it looks.

Vodka and cranberry. The drink most people mean when they say vodka cran.

Vodka and cranberry. Nobody is fooled and nobody minds.

Cucumber and coconut with a chile burn underneath. The name is not overselling it.

Peach liqueur and amaretto lengthened with orange and lemon. Sweet, and then a dash of grenadine on top of that.

Overproof rum and coconut rum under a long pour of pineapple. It tastes like almost nothing and is almost entirely rum.

A rum Casino: triple sec, lime and maraschino, each measured in teaspoons and a half.

Citrus vodka and sour mix, lengthened with soda.

Almost neat gin. The maraschino and lemon are measured in quarter-teaspoons.

A sugar cube, bitters, and patience while the bubbles do the work.

A Paloma that put on a tuxedo. Two grapefruits and a bottle of Champagne.

A brandy sour with green Chartreuse in place of some of the sugar. The herbs sit under the lemon rather than on top of it.

Equal parts sloe gin, apricot brandy and lime. Three sweet-sounding things that come out tart.

A mojito with Chartreuse alongside the rum. Herbal on herbal, and it holds.

Lemonade, Chartreuse, and a freezer. San Francisco's contribution to civilization.

Green Chartreuse carrying an entire drink. Herbal and bracing.

A Sidecar built on gin instead of brandy, in equal parts spirit and orange liqueur.

The lemon is what makes it read as cheesecake rather than cherry cola.

The Salted Pistachio Syrup is the reason to make this, and you'll start putting it in everything else.

Cherry Heering and orange juice over ice. Two ingredients, and the cherry does all the work.

The other half of the classic rickey pair. Sour cherry syrup if you can find it.

The flavor every cola already hints at, made explicit.

Vodka and red wine in the same glass, sweetened with vermouth. Older logic, still sound.

Brandy with a quarter teaspoon of triple sec, served in a glass rimmed with sugar.

Rum and port in equal ounces, shaken with egg white and lengthened with soda.

Pisco, lime and ginger ale with a couple of dashes of bitters. Everything the Pisco Sour does, without the egg or the shaking.

An ounce of Angostura, cream of coconut, and mint. Loud, and it works.

Chinotto adds bitterness, lemon adds lift. A sharper Negroni than the one you know.

Real grated chocolate and truffle honey. Nothing like the version you're picturing.

Chocolate and sarsaparilla, which is an old pairing and a good one.

Exactly what it says. No notes.

Grandma's Coughdrop with gin under it instead of whiskey. The juniper turns the whole thing pine-and-berry, which is where the name came from.

No base spirit at all: dry vermouth and Bénédictine, with just enough absinthe to smell it.

A tequila shot with three drops of Tabasco in it. That is the entire drink.

Raspberry, lemon, and egg white in gin. Pink, and far more serious than it looks.

One syrup doing the work that grenadine and sugar do in the original. Less sweet, and the raspberry reads as fruit rather than as colour.

A Clover Club with mint on top. The egg white is what makes it worth the trouble.

Both classic Dr Pepper add-ins at once, which is less confused than it sounds.

The original dirty soda, near enough. Swig built a chain on this exact combination.

A White Russian with cola poured over it. It froths, which is either the appeal or the problem.

Campari and lemon in the glass, and the brandy poured in lit. Shaken cold instead, it is called an Edisonian.

Bourbon and white crème de cacao, sharpened with lemon. Served in a flute.

Mixed at your table at London's Connaught, where you choose the bitters and the pour comes from a great height. Any bitters you like will do.

Two kinds of basil and pickled jalapeno. Herbal, floral, and quietly hot.

A crisp American lager requiring years of disciplined practice.

A mule that got dressed up. Elderflower and hibiscus over fresh ginger juice.

Barbados in a rocks glass. The blackstrap is what makes it look like its name.

Three ounces of sherry with dry vermouth. Low enough in strength to drink before dinner.

Gin, dry vermouth and Dubonnet in equal thirds. Not the sherry Coronation.

All brandy, no citrus. The heavier and much rarer of the two.

Equal parts gin, Lillet Blanc, lemon and Cointreau over absinthe.

Mocked for a decade because of a TV show. It's a well-built sour and always was.

Apricot, Galliano, guava, apple, and overproof rum. Nobody said restrained.

Dry vermouth, soda and half a teaspoon of grenadine. Barely a cocktail, and deliberately so.

Cranberry juice does the work of a syrup here. Christmas, basically.

Equal parts citrus vodka, orange liqueur and cream. It tastes like the ice lolly it is named after and is a good deal stronger than it lets on.

Orange soda and cream. The whole dirty-soda idea in two ingredients.

Advocaat, cream and vodka. Thicker than a White Russian and considerably more yellow.

As refreshing as the soup it's named for, and a fair measure of how far the kitchen has crept into the bar.

A rum and coke becomes a cocktail the moment you use a real lime.

Fernet with the mint turned up. It shows on the nose more than the palate, which is what makes it useful.

Cucumber vodka, yuzu, and soda. About as refreshing as a glass gets.

Cool, clean, and faintly savory with a pinch of salt.

Soda water brings nothing sweet of its own, so the syrup is doing real work. Muddle the cucumber fresh.

Three ingredients, nowhere to hide. The test of whether you can balance a sour.

Gin and orange juice with a tablespoon each of sweet vermouth and triple sec.

Gyokuro tea and absinthe, served warm. Three ounces total, and plenty.

Bourbon and Dubonnet in equal parts with a little Cointreau. Sweeter than a Manhattan and lighter on its feet.

Blackstrap rum floated over ginger beer, so it arrives in layers.

Dark rum poured over ginger beer, in that order, which is what the name describes. Gosling's hold the trademark, and theirs is the dark rum meant.

A caipirinha made with demerara sugar, which takes it molasses-dark and rounds off the lime.

A Negroni's shape with rum in the gin's place: aged Jamaican rum, a pineapple amaro and a bitter red aperitivo, with a quarter ounce of banana liqueur underneath.

Built in the glass on a sugar cube rather than poured over syrup. Two bitters instead of one, and a small overproof float that shows up on the finish.

Rum, Port, coffee liqueur, and an egg yolk. As heavy as it reads.

Absinthe topped with cold champagne. It goes cloudy the moment the wine hits it, and that is the drink telling you it is working.

Brandy and applejack together in a Sidecar, in four equal quarters.

Gin and brandy together, with both vermouths. Named for the New York restaurant.

The Barbarella with lemon juice in it, which is all it takes to turn a sweet drink into a sour one.

Grassy agricole with cold brew and burnt sugar. Bitter, funky, and short.

Gin, two dashes of peach bitters, and mint dropped in whole.

Bourbon with curacao and lime. Short, sharp, and gone before the race ends.

A tequila drink built to be looked at. It survives being served in an ordinary glass.

Rum and vodka blended with apricot and grenadine, served up in a flute.

Figs and tonic. Autumn in a highball, and far less sweet than it sounds.

Rum, coffee liqueur, banana liqueur and a whole banana, blended with cream. A milkshake that knows what it is doing.

The one that started the whole Utah soda-shop thing. Coconut and lime cut the prune note.

Vodka, coffee liqueur, Irish cream and green crème de menthe. A White Russian with mint in it, poured short.

A Martini with olive brine stirred through it. Go carefully — too much and it is gone.

Cherry syrup and lime over vodka, topped with ginger ale. A mule with a sweet tooth.

Coffee, umeshu, PX sherry, and a dash of balsamic. Every ingredient pulls a different way.

Sambuca, melon, lemon and gin in four layers. The lemon juice is what makes it hard — it wants to fall straight through.

Tropical fruit dragged over a campfire. Big, smoky, dangerously easy.

Rye and dry vermouth instead of sweet. Sharper, paler, and it takes a lemon twist rather than a cherry.

A Rob Roy with dry vermouth instead of sweet, and only a teaspoon and a half of it.

Dubonnet and crème de cassis lengthened with soda. A low-strength aperitif that tastes like it should be stronger.

A multilayered drink with an emphasis on subtle citrus touches.

Coconut rum, cream, and lavender bitters. Soft edges everywhere.

Six cups of milk, three of rum, and a dozen egg halves. Make it for a party.

Four rums, two citruses, honey and ginger. A rum lover's showing-off drink.

Tequila, cassis and ginger beer. Also excellent with mezcal.

Cuban, elegant, and mostly vermouth. Grenadine for color more than sweetness.

An elevated Margarita that can be fashioned with the fruits of a backyard garden.

Bitter tea and grapefruit with something herbal underneath. Track down the electric daisy, because it genuinely buzzes your tongue.

Gin and sweet vermouth with maraschino and lemon in equal half ounces.

Coconut rim, brown-butter-washed spirit, sesame oil. Every ingredient is doing something technical.

Brandy, gin and sweet vermouth in equal thirds, lengthened with soda.

Gin with dry vermouth and a full ounce of apricot, sharpened with lemon.

Invented for someone who wanted to wake up and get knocked out simultaneously.

Banana, mint, and cream. A Grasshopper that went on holiday.

Herb-infused gin with muscat and tea liqueur. The infusion pushes the pine into the background and lets the rest come forward.

Irish whiskey with green crème de menthe and green Chartreuse. As green as it sounds.

Five bitter, fortified things and no base spirit. Low proof, high intensity.

Rum, lime, creme de cacao, demerara. A daiquiri with chocolate underneath.

A gin sour with half a teaspoon of white crème de menthe, which is all it needs.

Applejack and both vermouths with a dash of brandy over the top. An autumn drink.

A sweet and straightforward drink with a silken texture from the aloe vera.

Brandy with a quarter ounce of triple sec and a quarter teaspoon of sugar. Barely altered.

Aquavit, sherry, and sugar snap pea syrup. Tastes like a garden in early summer.

A Black Manhattan worked over: rye and Amaro Nonino stirred cold, then strained into a coupe sprayed with absinthe.

The fennel comes through far more than the olive oil, which is there for texture rather than flavor.

Fernet and cola over ice. The ratio is the whole argument, and everyone who drinks it has a firm view.

Figs muddled with honey and thyme, shaken with vodka and lengthened with tonic. Late-summer fruit in a long glass.

Two corn-forward whiskeys against red pepper syrup and hibiscus. The Cuban roll gets it cold and mixed without beating any air into it.

White rum, cinnamon schnapps and Tabasco, shaken. Nothing here is on fire — the name is about the aftertaste.

A refreshing, sweet, and sour drink that will hit the spot when you want dessert, but don’t have room for something heavy.

Amaretto with overproof rum floated on it, lit, and dropped into a pint of beer. There is no Dr Pepper in it and it tastes like Dr Pepper.

Coffee liqueur and sambuca layered, lit, and two more shots poured in while you drink it. As much performance as cocktail.

Three spirits blended with orange, lemon and almond syrup, poured into a bowl with a straw in it. One drink, and optionally set alight.

Sambuca, tequila and a dash of Tabasco. The heat arrives after you have swallowed, which is the joke.

An ounce of Peychaud's, Cognac, and verjus under sparkling wine. Bitter and celebratory.

Plum-powder rim, shiso, yuzu, agave. Sour, salty, and herbal in three sips.

Strawberry jam and habanero. Sweet, smoky, and it bites back.

Gin, lime and raspberry lengthened with soda and ginger ale. Long and not very strong.

A daiquiri with maraschino behind it. Hemingway's bar, though not Hemingway's order.

White rum and advocaat with a splash of cream over ice. The stronger of the two drinks under this name.

Advocaat and white crème de cacao lengthened with lemonade. The softer one, and long rather than short.

Gin with half an ounce of triple sec. Two ingredients, stirred, and that is the whole drink.

Three spirits and sherry floated on top. The name is a promise, not a description.

Three spirits in equal measure with just enough lemon to keep them honest.

Gin sour, lengthened with champagne. Named for a field gun, which tells you how it lands.

Cognac and amaretto over ice. Nothing to shake, nothing to get wrong.

Two liqueurs, two juices, no base spirit. Goes down like fruit punch.

Pineapple and cassis, which sounds like a mistake and isn't.

Bénédictine does the sweetening here, and both citrus go in rather than one.

From Peaks to Palms pairs tropical pineapple, lime, and grapefruit with the herbal character of Yellow Chartreuse and Appalachian Amaro Oscura.

Six mint leaves blended into a daiquiri. Somewhere between a daiquiri and a julep, and better than that sounds.

Four chunks of fresh pineapple blended into a daiquiri, with only half a teaspoon of sugar because the fruit brings its own.

Peach schnapps and orange juice. Fuzzy is the peach, navel is the orange, and that is the whole joke.

Galliano with hot espresso poured on it and cream on that. Hot and cold in the same glass, which is the whole idea.

Vodka, peach schnapps, and lemonade. Porch drinking, formalized.

A Martini with a pickled onion. The brine is the whole point.

Gin and lime, sweetened just enough to stop it biting.

It's gin. It's tonic. What more were you expecting?

Twelve basil leaves, muddled hard. Green, sharp, and impossible to drink slowly.

A gin sour with half a teaspoon of grenadine. The daisy is the grenadine.

A sour served long over ice, with a spoon of water to open it up.

A gin sour with soda on top, and no cherry to hide behind.

Gin, lime, soda, no sugar. One of the few classics that's genuinely dry.

Mint and sugar muddled in the glass you drink from, then gin over ice.

The sour template on gin. Three ingredients and nowhere to hide.

Gin, fresh pineapple and strawberries muddled with sugar and grenadine, then lengthened with soda.

Gin with a full ounce and a half of lime, lengthened with soda and swizzled cold.

Audrey Saunders built it to convert vodka drinkers to gin. It worked, and the variations never stopped.

Your own honey-ginger syrup does all the work here. Warm and sharp.

The Greyhound with gin under it. The botanicals meet the grapefruit halfway, which vodka never tries to do.

Amaretto and peach schnapps, dropped into lemonade and orange juice. A bomb shot without the caffeine.

Named for a Bernie Leadon instrumental, and it drinks like the record sounds: warm, and a long way off.

Mulled apple and orange juice with gin stirred in off the heat. Mulled wine's job, done without the wine.

Aperol frozen into cubes, then Prosecco poured over. A Spritz that improves as it melts.

The third of the family. Vodka and amaretto like the Godmother, with an equal ounce of cream shaken through it.

Scotch and amaretto. The almond takes the edge off the smoke.

Vodka and amaretto over ice, which leaves the almond nowhere to hide.

A whiskey sour with honey standing in for sugar. Three ingredients, no technique to speak of.

Galliano, white crème de cacao and cream in equal parts. Vanilla and chocolate, served cold and after dinner.

Galliano, orange and cream. Dessert that arrives in a cocktail glass.

Umeshu and orange marmalade with aged rum. Jammy, tart, and warmed by chile.

Pommeau, cream, and fennel-walnut syrup. A nightcap that means it.

Nikka's grain whisky is corn-sweet like bourbon, but goes tropical and citrus where you'd expect vanilla.

Whiskey with a quarter ounce of coffee liqueur under it and four drops of grenadine on top.

Gin and triple sec with an ounce of pineapple juice and half a teaspoon of grenadine. Tiki proportions on a gin base.

Mint chocolate chip in liquid form, and it knows exactly what it is.

Sharp and very green. Skip the cream on this one.

Basil muddled with sugar, then Chartreuse and Maurin Quina. Green all the way down.

Tequila, melon and lime shaken and poured short. A margarita's argument, made in one swallow.

A Manhattan that moved to Brooklyn. Punt e Mes and a teaspoon of Chartreuse.

Two parts dry vermouth to one of brandy, with half a teaspoon of curaçao.

A rum swizzle turned green with a tablespoon of crème de menthe.

Vodka and grapefruit. Salt the rim and it becomes a Salty Dog.

A Paloma with too many friends along, and somehow they all get on.

Yes, blue curacao. Smoke and cinnamon keep it from being a novelty.

Pumpkin-oil-washed tequila and four fortified wines. Exactly as far over the line as promised.

Two dashes of Fernet in a sweet Martini. Ada Coleman's, and still perfect.

Applejack, sugar and soda. A cooler in the old sense: long, cold and barely sweet.

A screwdriver with Galliano floated on top, which is the whole difference.

Equal rum and pineapple with a teaspoon of lemon. Three ingredients and nothing sweetened.

Three ounces of freezer-cold rum with a whisper of sherry. Rum's answer to the Martini.

Punsch was in everything before Prohibition and in almost nothing after. This is the argument for bringing it back.

Gin with triple sec and a tablespoon of pineapple juice. Drier than the name suggests.

Three ingredients, one of which does all the work. Make the cordial and the drink makes itself.

Vodka, Frangelico and crème de cacao, stirred and served cold. Dessert with the sugar dialled back.

Islay whisky stirred with Frangelico and chile honey. Smoke, hazelnut and a slow burn, and it works better than it reads.

A Daiquiri with grapefruit and maraschino, and no sugar at all.

A daiquiri with grapefruit and no sugar at all. He is said to have ordered them doubled.

Spirit and ginger ale, and very little else to it.

A Rob Roy that takes orange bitters instead of Angostura. The swap is small and the drink is not the same.

Pineapple and passion fruit with five dashes of chile. A love story with an argument in it.

A cocktail where each sip provides something new to consider, thanks in large part to the presence of the capricious flavor of tamarind.

A daiquiri that swaps the sugar for honey. Warm the honey first or it will sit at the bottom.

Go very light on the lavender. A quarter ounce is already plenty.

Applejack and Bénédictine in equal parts, with as much lemon as either.

Rum and apricot in equal measure, with more lime than either. Short and sharp.

Cinnamon, cream and vanilla soda lands remarkably close to horchata.

Equal parts tequila and white rum, with vodka if you are feeling it. No mixer and nothing to hide behind.

Named for the peel, cut in one piece and hung over the rim.

Served hot, with butter and honey in it. Strange, warming, worth trying once.

Butter, sugar and spice stirred into dark rum and hot water. It sounds wrong until it is cold outside.

Whiskey, dark rum or brandy all work. Whatever's nearest the kettle.

Cinnamon, star anise, and amaranth steeped in warm water, then cachaca. Served hot.

Vodka and rum together, sweetened with powdered sugar to taste.

Four ounces of rum and a lot of fruit. New Orleans made it for a reason.

Guava, pineapple, and ginger with a bar spoon of Herbsaint. Tropical with an anise streak.

Green Chartreuse in a Bloody Mary, with a chipotle salt rim. It absolutely works.

Rum, elderflower, and Peychaud's under Champagne. Small, pink, and dangerous.

Vodka and iced tea over ice, with lemon to your own taste. A porch drink that asks nothing of you.

Mezcal and overproof rum with falernum, maraschino and lime. Smoke, funk and spice arguing in a small glass.

Whiskey and a half ounce of rum, soured and lengthened with soda.

The same tropical build with white rum added and a quarter ounce of citric-malic solution standing in for the acidity POG juice does not have.

Equal parts Hpnotiq and cognac, and the colour is most of the point. Sweet, strong, and over in about four sips.

Sambuca, Irish cream and triple sec layered in a shot glass. The B-52 shape with aniseed at the bottom.

Irish Coffee served cold. An Ethiopian espresso brings the floral edge that makes it work.

Hot coffee, whiskey, and cream floated on top. Never stirred after the cream.

Green, white and orange in that order. Get the pour right and it is a flag; get it wrong and it is a brown shot.

Melon liqueur with Irish cream on top. Two ingredients, one pour, and about as green as a drink gets.

A smoky, cherry-forward rye: molasses and cherry bitters, a bar spoon of Islay Scotch, Amaro di Angostura and Cherry Heering.

Puerto Rican rum and Hawaiian agricole over ginger beer. Hibiscus keeps it bright.

Orgeat, passion fruit, and a pinch of salt. Tiki logic applied to vodka.

Tennessee whiskey and cola. No technique, no garnish, and no apology needed.

Apple brandy and grenadine. Worth making your own grenadine for.

A shot of Jägermeister dropped into half a can of energy drink. There is nothing else to it.

Hot black tea with overproof rum in it and sugar to taste. A cold-weather drink, and the rum is not a rounding error.

Brandy and orgeat with two dashes of bitters. One of the oldest recipes still made.

A whiskey fizz with a tablespoon of port and an egg white. The port is what makes it.

A shitake mushroom infusion and bitters containing kelp, bonito, and shiitake help turn the Old Fashioned into an umami bomb.

Melon liqueur, Cointreau and lemon in equal parts. Bright green and much sharper than it looks.

A gin sour with Campari in it, which turns it pink and makes it bitter.

Rum and sweet vermouth in equal ounces. The Little Princess with the vermouth doubled.

Grenadine, sambuca and Southern Comfort in equal layers. Aniseed and cherry, and it does taste like the sweet.

Three layers and then grenadine dropped through the middle, which bleeds down into the amaretto and gives the thing its name.

Kennedy drank Tanqueray, and this is built around it. Grand Marnier, fino sherry, and a flamed orange peel.

The Tom Collins on bourbon. Longer and rounder than a whiskey sour.

Sloe gin and curaçao with a teaspoon of anisette. Sweet, and darker than it looks.

Mostly gin, with four things measured in teaspoons doing the rest of the work.

Campari's bitterness against pineapple. It converts people who think they hate tiki.

A milk fizz built on plain Gordon’s, which is the house gin for plenty of the world’s best bartenders.

Equal parts, served up. Sharper than its reputation as a shot suggests.

Two rums, two bitter liqueurs, and pink peppercorn. Complicated in a rewarding way.

Two ingredients, both of them made in-house. The Gimlet reduced to its essentials.

Three ounces of bourbon and half an ounce of Bénédictine. Nothing else at all.

Crème de cassis with white wine poured over. Use sparkling wine instead and it becomes a Kir Royale.

Blackcurrant in the bottom of the flute and champagne on top. One part to five.

The green notes of the kiwi suit absinthe surprisingly well.

A dry Martini with half a teaspoon of sweet vermouth. That half teaspoon is the drink.

The Pineapple Marmalade does the heavy lifting, and you'll want it in other drinks afterwards.

Tequila and grapefruit, long and salty. Mexico's actual favorite, not the Margarita.

A cocktail inspired by the Negroni Sbagliato, with a floral and fruity finish.

A gin fizz softened with two teaspoons of cream and an egg white.

Smoky tea brewed in a coffee siphon. It wants precision and real equipment, and it repays both.

Four equal parts, one of them Chartreuse. It should not work as well as it does.

Amazake, a low-alcohol fermented rice drink from Japan, amplifies the apple and lactic notes in the Johnnie Walker Gold Label.

A strawberry-banana blend poured into the glass first, then a piña colada down the middle of it. The red comes up the sides.

Elderflower and strawberry under lavender bubbles. Mostly a texture exercise, and a good one.

Made for a single night in 1928 and still around, which says something.

Coconut-fat-washed Campari and pandan. A Negroni that moved to the tropics.

A sour dressed up with a sugar rim. Sweet, tart, and not sorry about it.

Tequila, lemon, honey. Three ingredients and nowhere to hide.

A Manhattan with a quarter ounce of Amer Picon in place of some of the sweetness.

Lime, soda, a little sugar. The non-alcoholic descendant of the gin rickey, and a Prohibition survivor.

Overproof rum, cinnamon schnapps and Jägermeister in equal measure. One is plenty.

Four spirits, pineapple and lemon, shaken and poured long. Bright green for no reason other than the blue curaçao.

The long version's ingredients at shot strength. The colour survives the shaking, which is most of the point.

Blackberries muddled into gin with liquorice syrup and a lemon cordial, lengthened with soda.

Two parts rum to one of sweet vermouth. A Manhattan with the whiskey swapped out.

A tropical tea cocktail that you’ll want to drink all summer.

Scotch with Drambuie and dry vermouth in equal half ounces. A Rusty Nail turned dry.

A gin sour that has held its place on the Milk & Honey menu since 2002. Nothing to it, which is the point.

Pineapple rum and passion fruit with vanilla. Soft, tropical, and easy to over-order.

Gin and maraschino with orange bitters. A Casino without the lemon, and drier for it.

Two parts gin to one of sweet vermouth. A sweet Martini by another name.

Five spirits and a splash of cola. Tastes like iced tea, drinks like a warning.

Vodka and tonic with four dashes of Angostura and a squeezed lime. The bitters are the whole difference.

Rothman & Winter is the apricot liqueur worth buying, made from Austrian fruit and it tastes like it.

Cachaca and shochu in one glass, with matcha. Two countries, one sour.

A Daiquiri riff on homemade kiwi syrup with half an ounce of Green Chartreuse — green enough for St. Patrick's Day, and good well past it.

Floral and light. Lychee is worth seeking out for this one alone.

Tennessee whiskey, triple sec and lemon, lengthened with lemonade. A whiskey sour built for a long afternoon.

Aquavit, Aperol, beet, and coconut syrup. Earthy and bitter, and it holds together.

Vodka or rum, cranberry and orange. Hard to get wrong.

Nothing like the sugary version most bars pour. It's a rum sour with almond behind it.

Two rums instead of one, and a little sugar on top of the orgeat. Longer and sweeter than the 1944 build, and it forgives a rougher bottle.

Scotch and ginger ale with a lemon wedge. The Highball's more interesting cousin.

A bright tiki rum punch: white rum and Smith & Cross Jamaican rum with lime, pineapple and simple syrup, seasoned with Primitiva and Angostura bitters.

Coconut cream rather than dairy, because mango and milk can turn chalky.

The template every stirred, spirit-forward drink is measured against.

Three ingredients: bourbon, lemon and a teaspoon of maple syrup instead of sugar.

Use real maple, and go light. It'll bully the root beer if you let it.

Tequila, orange liqueur, lime. Skip the mix and it's one of the great sours.

Two parts gin to one of dry vermouth, with a quarter teaspoon of curaçao. An ancestor of the Martini.

Rye with Cynar and coffee liqueur. Bitter, dark, and North Beach through and through.

Rum and brandy in small measures. Light enough to have two.

The Martini's ancestor: sweeter, older, and worth meeting in its own right.

Stirred is proper, but cold is the only thing that actually matters.

No vermouth unless it's asked for. Cold, clean, and over in four sips.

Two bottles, equal parts. None of the grated Valrhona or the truffle honey of the house build, and it takes about a minute.

Prohibition-era Havana, and barely pink — the grenadine is half a teaspoon.

The sweet sake battles the bitter sharpness of the wasabi tincture to a standstill, and creates a thoroughly enjoyable balance.

Matcha shaken into grapefruit and yuzu. Bitter, green, and wide awake.

Pastis softened with almond syrup and lengthened with water. It turns cloudy the instant the water hits, which is most of the pleasure of it.

Mead lengthened with gin and soda.

Three schnapps and pineapple juice. Green, sweet, and honest about it.

Equal brandy and dry vermouth, with both kinds of bitters. A Metropolitan turned dry.

A Manhattan with brandy where the whiskey goes. Sweeter and rounder.

The Moscow Mule on tequila. Agave and ginger get on better than vodka and ginger ever did.

A lemon ice with vodka stirred through it, forked into crystals straight from the freezer.

Beer over ice with lime, hot sauce and Worcestershire, in a salted glass. Savoury, cold, and the best thing to do with a mediocre lager.

A fusion of an Old Fashioned and a Gimlet provides a zingy and irresistible combination. Despite the name, the bourbon doesn’t have to be Michter’s.

A dark, spirit-forward Old Fashioned: overproof rye sweetened with demerara and seasoned with chocolate and black walnut bitters, finished with a cherry and a dried orange wheel.

Melon, triple sec and vodka lengthened with pineapple and lemonade. Green, cold, and gone quickly.

Melon liqueur, lemon and a little sugar. The sour template with the spirit left out entirely.

Spirit, sugar, and cold milk. Old as the hills and better than it sounds.

Gin and pineapple shaken with egg white until it froths. Served long rather than up.

Two parts champagne to one part orange juice, and no reason to complicate it.

From Lyaness in London. Built to pull the pear and chocolate out of a blended Scotch.

Bourbon, sugar and a hedge of mint over crushed ice. Built for heat.

Brandy, rum and bourbon in one glass, soured and lengthened with soda. Less chaotic in the drinking than on paper.

Bourbon and gin don't share a glass willingly. Elderflower, jasmine and bay leaf talk them both down.

Mint, lime and rum. Makes a hot afternoon bearable.

A mojito with pineapple and basil instead of mint alone. Sweeter, and better.

A hint of mole’s smoke and spice and a chocolate stout set the stage for a wondrously complex drink.

Gin and orange with a teaspoon of Bénédictine. The name is worse than the drink.

The vivid green color may be a throwback to an era when cocktails featured sugary, processed ingredients, but in truth the taste is timeless.

Brandy and port over ice, kept dry by a half ounce of vermouth.

A Manhattan with Bénédictine standing in for the vermouth. Sweeter, and herbal underneath.

Gin with sweet vermouth and triple sec in equal half ounces.

A Japanese-inspired sour: green-tea-infused gin and junmai sake with lychee, ginger liqueur, honey and lemon, shaken with egg white and finished with a crescent moon of matcha dusted over the foam.

Picon Amer is an orange-and-gentian aperitif with a pleasant bitterness that swings from citrus to dark chocolate and coffee.

Equal brandy and dry vermouth with four different things measured in dashes.

Brandy, curaçao and lemon with a dash of absinthe. Named for when it was drunk.

The copper mug isn't a gimmick: it frosts instantly and keeps the drink brutally cold.

The Bramble with real blackberries muddled in and soda on top, which makes it a long drink.

A margarita made properly and named improperly. Welcome back.

A milk punch in a Hawaiian shirt. Clarified, smoky, and unnervingly smooth.

A bottle of red gone warm with cloves and cinnamon, with a quarter cup of brandy stirred in at the end.

Cardamom vodka with pear and apple over ginger beer. Spiced and long.

Wheat beer in a cocktail, with Aperol and toasted spice honey. Refreshing and odd.

Equal parts mezcal, Chartreuse, Aperol, and lime. A modern classic, deservedly.

White rum and bianco vermouth in equal parts, with apricot, grenadine and lemon in small enough doses to stay out of the way.

Bourbon and sweet vermouth with a dash of anisette, which is the whole idea.

Equal parts, no measuring skill required, and bitter in the way that makes you want another.

A Negroni taken apart, sweetened with sorbet, and put back together with bubbles.

A bartender grabbed the wrong bottle in 1970s Milan and improved the drink.

A gin sour with green Chartreuse and an absinthe rinse, shaken with egg white. Green, herbal and a long way from a fizz.

Rum with grapefruit and lime in near-equal parts, sweetened enough to hold them together.

Bourbon with apricot and grapefruit, which is a stranger pairing than it drinks.

A whiskey sour with half a teaspoon of grenadine standing in for some of the sugar.

A whiskey sour with red wine floated on top. The float is the drink — pour it slowly and do not stir.

Three to one gin and sweet vermouth, with half an ounce of triple sec.

Six ingredients, all of them apple in some form. An orchard taken apart and rebuilt.

Plum sake and Highland malt, finished over an Ardbeg rinse. Fruit first, smoke last.

A brief rest in American white oak gives Spirit Works barrel gin spicy, floral and dark fruit notes.

Vodka, chocolate and lemon in a two-to-one-to-one that keeps it from being a dessert.

Everything a mojito does except the rum, and it holds up better than you'd expect.

Frangelico, Irish cream and cream in equal parts. Hazelnut all the way down.

Cinnamon schnapps, butterscotch and Irish cream. It does taste like the biscuit, which is unsettling at this strength.

The drink that made mezcal a bar staple. Agave for sugar, smoke for oak.

A dry Martini with as much absinthe as vermouth. A New Orleans drink and it tastes it.

A Mojito that grew up and put on champagne. Audrey Saunders, 2001.

Spirit, sugar, water, bitters. The definition of a cocktail, and still the best argument for one.

A Christmas Carol drink: Earl Grey tea, fig preserves and pecan orgeat with dry sherry, rye and aged Demerara rum, sharpened with lime and finished with fresh cinnamon.

The Boulevardier's drier cousin: rye and dry vermouth in place of bourbon and sweet.

Rye, cachaça, amaro, and PX sherry, stirred. It carries you a long way from where you started.

Gin with Dubonnet and a quarter ounce of maraschino. Stirred, not shaken.

Six ounces of orange juice hiding two kinds of trouble.

A creamsicle you drink through a straw.

Gin and four ounces of orange juice with half an ounce of cherry brandy underneath, topped with ginger ale.

Irish cream, triple sec and Grand Marnier. Two orange liqueurs rather than one, which is what separates it from a B-52.

POG juice and RumChata with Grand Marnier and cinnamon — a soft, creamy tropical drink. The acid-adjusted version is the one its maker prefers.

Rum, pineapple, orange and coconut cream, with nutmeg over the top.

The same two-to-one-to-one-to-four the original pours, built on coconut milk rather than cream. Thinner, and the pineapple carries further.

Gin and both vermouths with half an ounce of white crème de cacao. Built in the glass.

An easy-to-drink yet complex cocktail that taps into the otherworldly powers palo santo holds. It literally means “holy wood”.

Tequila and grapefruit, done properly. Mexico drinks more of these than Margaritas.

The bottled-soda build rather than the fresh-juice one. Quicker, sweeter, and the pinch of salt is what keeps it from being a soft drink.

Grapefruit and black pepper over smoke. Sharp in three directions at once.

Herbal, sour, and just faintly salty from the Parmesan. A good lead-in to a long dinner.

Cachaca and sake with banana and shiso. Fizzy, foamy, and hard to place.

Four equal parts, all of them assertive. A modern classic that arrived fully formed.

Gin, apricot and orange in descending order. The apricot does more than it looks.

Equal gin and dry vermouth with half an ounce of cassis. Drier than it sounds.

A shaken piña colada with strawberry syrup poured in afterwards, which sinks and sits red under the white. Stir it before you drink it.

Half a ripe peach muddled with lemon and brown sugar syrup, then bourbon and two dashes of Angostura over the top.

A margarita built on blended fresh peach and then topped with Prosecco, which is the Bellini half of the name. The rim is sugar rather than salt.

The cinnamon on top is the whole difference between this and a peach soda.

Ginger keeps the peach from going cloying.

Two stone fruits and a citrus soda, which is more balanced than it reads.

Tastes like the sweets. That is entirely the point.

White tea, peach, and clary sage. Barely there and completely deliberate.

Pear is quiet, so let the vanilla and ginger carry it.

Gin, orange, lime, two bitters. Named for a colonial club in Rangoon.

Sam Ross, Milk & Honey, early 2000s. Honey, ginger, and a peated float that carried it round the world.

Fresh ginger muddled in rather than cooked into a syrup, and the smoky float pinned to a measure instead of left to judgement.

Yes, goat's milk. Clarify it and you get a punch with more spice and less sugar than you'd expect.

Though named after the queen of the underworld in Greek mythology, this cocktail promises to lift you up, rather than pull you down.

Pickle brine in a cocktail. Strawberry and chile make it obvious why.

More salad than cocktail, and better for it. Ginger beer over ginger ale, every time.

Three rums, cherry and pine liqueurs, falernum. The Zombie, restyled.

Unfashionable and completely delicious. Use real coconut cream and it earns its reputation.

Smoke, honey, and falernum, lengthened with soda. A tall drink that stays interesting.

Bourbon, pineapple and honey syrup shaken with egg white until it is thick enough to hold bitters on the surface.

A piña colada with the rum taken out and the fizz put in.

The theme-park frozen drink, in a glass, in about a minute.

Gin and three dashes of bitters. Naval, and not really pink.

Gin, grenadine and egg white. The colour is the grenadine and the texture is the egg.

Coconut rum and amaretto with two juices. No pretense whatsoever.

Built on a seven-part ratio, with a few drops of gum arabic for body.

South America's grape brandy under a cap of foam, finished with bitters on top.

One sour, two sweet, three strong, four weak. The old rhyme still works.

Sumomo plums are usually sold as Japanese plums, Chinese plums, or Asian plums in English-speaking countries.

Gin, dry vermouth and Bénédictine in equal thirds. Herbal and dry at once.

Two parts sweet vermouth to one of rum. Barely a cocktail and all the better for it.

Gin and grapefruit in equal ounces, kept dry by half an ounce of vermouth.

Gin and white crème de cacao, two to one. The whole drink is two ingredients.

Vanilla vodka, passion fruit and lime, with a shot of cold champagne alongside. You alternate between the two.

Grenadine and green crème de menthe, layered and not mixed. Two ingredients, and the whole drink is the pour.

Two and a half ounces of port with half a teaspoon of brandy. About as low as a cocktail goes.

The flip on port: a whole egg shaken until it is thick, with nutmeg over the top.

Port, brandy and a whole yolk. A flip is a dessert that predates the word.

Sweet potato shochu with cacao and amazake. Creamy without any cream.

A Manhattan with Bénédictine instead of vermouth and a teaspoon of brandy on top.

Jasmine, lime, sage, and sparkling wine, misted with star anise. Built to be looked at.

Gin with apple and apricot in equal ounces, and just a teaspoon of lemon.

Pimm's taken seriously, with gin, two bitters, and apple syrup. Summer with a backbone.

Irish whiskey with blackberry, allspice, lemon and lime and two kinds of bitters, poured into a glass full of rosemary smoke.

Citrus vodka and black raspberry, straight down.

Equal rum and brandy with lemon and two teaspoons of raspberry syrup.

Rum with a third of an ounce of cream sherry and a good squeeze of lime.

Canadian whisky with dry vermouth, and Amer Picon and maraschino by the teaspoon.

Two parts sweet vermouth to one of Bénédictine. No base spirit at all.

Vermouth two ways with cashew syrup. Brazil's after-work drink, rebuilt.

Overproof rum hidden in melon and orange juice. Count carefully.

Twelve minutes of shaking for one drink. The texture is why people still do it.

Raspberry and coconut is the combination the soda shops sell most after the original.

Raspberry and Dr Pepper is the pairing the soda shops reach for most after coconut.

The julep with raspberry syrup in place of the sugar. Eight mint leaves and a lot of crushed ice, as ever.

Sharper than most dirty sodas, and the one to make if cream isn't your thing.

A soda-fountain drink from the 1880s, and still the best argument for syrup and soda water.

A whiskey sour with absinthe in it. The book's version leaves out the egg white.

Apple juice, lemon, and a grenadine blush. Small and tart.

Three equal shots of Canadian whisky, amaretto and cranberry, shaken and thrown back in one. Sweet enough that the whisky never gets to argue.

Sambuca and vodka with hot sauce through it. A Flatliner built on vodka instead of tequila.

Strawberry and Campari over shochu, with five dashes of peat. The Scotch is the surprise.

Jägermeister, peach schnapps and cranberry. Sweet enough that the Jäger takes a second to show up.

Hamilton pimento dram is built on a blend of pot-still Jamaican rums, and it is what makes this so spicy. Worth seeking out.

Salt rim, sloe gin, Chartreuse in the middle. Stranger on paper than in the glass.

Hojicha-infused rum in place of whiskey. Toasty, and still a Manhattan.

A Manhattan made with Scotch. Same rules, smokier answer.

Southern Comfort and amaretto, sharpened with lime.

A Perfect Martini with a teaspoon of Bénédictine, which is the whole difference.

Kirsch and dry vermouth with a little strawberry syrup. Pink, and nowhere near as sweet as that makes it sound.

Bergamot and elderflower with three dashes of Peychaud's, topped with sparkling wine.

Martin Miller's gin is shipped to Iceland to be cut with glacial water. Sounds like marketing until you taste it.

A bourbon sour with rosemary syrup in the sugar's place. The herb reads as savoury against the lemon rather than sweet.

A tequila Negroni with both vermouths. Built over ice and drunk slowly.

Blended strawberries under cold sparkling wine. The Bellini with the peach swapped out, and it behaves the same way.

Cola with grenadine in it and a cherry on top. The Shirley Temple's cola half, and the one children actually ask for.

A Gin Fizz with the whole egg rather than the white. Richer, and yellow.

Passion fruit, cream, and orgeat, named for the soaked cake. Just as rich.

Sugar and soda stirred in the glass, then dark rum poured over ice. A cobbler is that simple.

The milk punch on light rum, shaken rather than stirred, with nutmeg grated over the top.

Aged rum's caramel and vanilla make it a natural in the old-fashioned template.

Lime, rum, soda. Nothing sweet in it at all, which is the point.

The sour template on light rum, with only half a teaspoon of sugar.

Vodka, lemon and cassis, lengthened with sparkling wine. Long and dry and pink, and it drinks faster than four measures should.

Two ingredients, no technique. The Drambuie does all the work.

Tamarind vodka, elderflower, Prosecco. Three ingredients, all of them working.

Absinthe, agricole, falernum, and Chartreuse. Sharp on every side.

The salt is doing real work here. Without it the caramel just reads as sweet.

Root beer already tastes faintly of caramel. This leans into it.

Grapefruit and salt. Seasoning belongs in drinks too.

The gin Salty Dog. Salt on the rim pulls the bitterness out of the grapefruit, and the juniper gives it something to pull against.

Fresh grapefruit flesh blended in, with a grapefruit salt rim. A Salty Dog, taken further.

Anise, vodka and cream. Sweeter than it sounds.

A bottle of red with orange and lemon juice and a cinnamon stick. Make it hours before anyone arrives.

Tomato, orange, lime and hot sauce, mixed by the jug. Not a cocktail — it is what you drink after the tequila.

A Martini with amaretto and Chartreuse in bar-spoon doses. Odd on paper, tidy in the glass.

Ichijiku are Japanese figs, and kuromitsu is a black sugar syrup. Both turn up online or at a good Asian grocer.

New Orleans in a glass. The absinthe never goes in the drink: it coats the glass and sits in the nose.

Southern Comfort with cranberry and lime. Three ingredients and no way to get it wrong.

Named for Prohibition's law-breakers by the Paris bar that served them.

Scotch with four dashes each of brandy and curaçao, over crushed ice with mint.

The sour on Scotch, and made with lime here rather than lemon.

A Stinger built on Scotch, in equal parts. Sweeter and smokier than the brandy one.

Bourbon with both citruses and a teaspoon of grenadine, shaken short.

Vodka and orange juice. Honest about what it is.

Vodka, grapefruit, cranberry. Refreshing and unbothered by ambition.

A gin distilled with nori and lemongrass. Briny and coastal, and the Collins format keeps it long.

Mango, oolong, orgeat, and falernum with saline. Tropical, and precisely measured.

Peach, orange and cranberry over vodka. Built in the glass, so there is nothing to wash up.

Melon and pineapple shaken, then amaretto sunk under it and Jägermeister floated on top. It separates into three bands and stays that way.

There’s no better way to celebrate the miracle of homemade sorbet.

Tamarind and Campari with cinnamon underneath. Sour, bitter, sticky in the best way.

Irish whiskey and dry vermouth turned green twice over, then garnished with an olive.

Rum with a teaspoon of anisette and half a teaspoon of grenadine. Small and aromatic.

A serve that shows off maraschino’s talent for binding disparate flavors together.

The drink that popularized the drinking straw. Low proof, endlessly refreshing.

A single-serve eggnog on cream sherry. One whole egg, shaken, and milk to fill.

The flip template on cream sherry. A whole egg shaken until it turns thick.

Whiskey for people who say they don't like whiskey. Fruity and sour enough to hide the point until it's too late.

Stirred, diluted, and salted to taste. Minimal in the way that takes real work.

The first cocktail most people ever drink. Real grenadine makes it worth revisiting.

Butter, miso and shiso worked into Japanese whisky. The spirit on its own is already most of a cocktail.

Small, delicate, and Japanese to the bone. Matcha and Muscat over a gentle gin.

Vinegar-based shrubs give a non-alcoholic drink the backbone booze usually provides.

Cognac's answer to the daiquiri, and the template most modern sours copy.

Gin with Scotch stirred into it and nothing else.

A Gin Fizz with the egg white in it. The silver is the foam on top.

Equal vodka and Campari with an ounce of orange juice, built over ice.

Thoughtful, playful, and straightforward at the same time, which is everything a modern cocktail should be.

Fussy, fruity, and historic. Raffles Hotel has a lot to answer for.

Orgeat, pronounced ore-zha. The bottled stuff is sweeter and flatter than anything you'd make yourself.

Sambuca with Irish cream floated on it. Two ingredients and one skill, and the skill is pouring slowly.

Two ounces of sloe gin with a quarter teaspoon of dry vermouth and a dash of bitters.

Hibiscus rum, sloe gin, and pomegranate. Red the whole way down.

Rye, maple, and two bitters over a sphere. Want more smoke? Oak chips in a smoking gun, fifteen seconds.

Half Islay, half blended, with maple syrup instead of sugar. The smoke sits under the foam rather than on top of it.

Rye, coffee liqueur and milk in equal parts. The White Russian's build with whiskey in the vodka's place.

Gin with anisette and a spoon of cream. Small, white and stronger than it looks.

Equal brandy and anisette. Sun and shade, and nothing else in the glass.

Lemongrass syrup, mint, and crushed ice, swizzled until the tin frosts over.

A gin sour with mint through it. The Fizz version is the same drink, lengthened with soda.

Autumn in a glass. Best from about September to November.

Vanilla vodka and elderflower with honey and chile muddled through it. Floral first and hot afterwards.

Two slices of jalapeño shaken with the drink rather than infused ahead, so the heat arrives late and stays mild. Pineapple carries it.

Lemongrass shochu and umeshu with yuzu. Light, floral, and low proof.

Wine and soda. It's here because knowing when to make one is a skill.

Grenadine, melon liqueur and advocaat, layered. Milder than the name and the colours suggest.

Apple and cranberry under ginger beer. Sharp enough that nobody asks what is in it.

Brandy and mint, stirred. A nightcap that predates the idea of nightcaps.

Two and a half parts to one where the original pours three, so the mint comes a step forward. Stirred, which keeps it clear.

The sling the Singapore one came from: gin, cherry brandy and Bénédictine, lengthened with soda.

Strawberry tea vodka and passion fruit under Prosecco. Upside down in a good way.

Strawberries and coconut, which works far better over soda than it has any right to.

The creamsicle with a berry underneath it.

Fresh strawberries and a half ounce of strawberry schnapps, so the fruit reads even when the berries are ordinary.

Add cream and it becomes strawberries and cream. Both versions are right.

Everything from the cabbage juice to the gin is there to make the strawberry pop.

A tequila sour with strawberry purée and egg white, finished with red wine floated on top. The wine sits on the foam and bleeds down into it.

Bourbon, dark rum and port, stirred with two bitters. A Manhattan-shaped drink with the vermouth swapped for fortified wine.

Brandy and gin together, with lime, bitters and ginger beer over the top.

Rum, lime, ginger ale. The Mamie Taylor's Caribbean sister.

Aged rum, rye, and ginger. Built for the first cold night of the year.

A piña colada with vodka in it and blue curaçao poured over the top, which floats and then sinks in ribbons.

A week of maceration lets the berries ferment slightly, which adds a pleasant funk without reaching for another spirit.

Both rums with pineapple, two citruses by the teaspoon and a little maraschino.

Sake, green tea liqueur, and matcha. Green, grassy, and gently sweet.

Gin, sweet vermouth and green Chartreuse in thirds, with one dash of Campari.

No alcohol, all technique. Shiso and butterfly pea, and the color does the rest.

Five things in equal half ounces, and no one of them in charge.

Scotch, sweet vermouth and Bénédictine. The shape of a Bobby Burns.

A swizzle on Scotch, stirred until the glass frosts before the soda goes in.

A Blackbeard-inspired tiki drink: aged dark Jamaican and overproof Demerara rums with molasses bitters, a few drops of absinthe and a little mild mezcal, sharpened with lime and pineapple and sweetened with orgeat and falernum.

Tequila with three quarters of an ounce of grenadine and an egg white, finished with ginger ale rather than soda.

Tequila and lemonade, slammed on the bar to make it foam and drunk straight down. A party trick with a recipe attached.

The sour template on tequila, and nothing else. Two ounces, a squeeze of lemon, a spoon of sugar.

The orange-and-grenadine one everybody means. Pour the grenadine last, then leave it alone.

The original, with cassis and soda. Nothing like the orange-and-grenadine version.

Aperol, Cynar, and rye in equal parts. Bitter, and it doesn't apologize.

A Bee’s Knees with ginger and sarsaparilla worked into the honey. Sharper than the original, and oddly nostalgic.

Most cocktails with a sour profile stop there, but this one has a surprising amount of depth thanks to the presence of Earl Grey in the cordial.

Refreshing, tropical, and floral, this cocktail is a can’t miss in the summertime.

Gin, lemon and a heaped bar spoon of raspberry jam.

Four Roses spent years mismanaged before its revival, and its quiet sweetness is what makes this digestif work.

A Martini that took a holiday in Greece. Ouzo rinse, mastiha, no apologies.

Rum and bourbon with three syrups and coffee liqueur. Long, spiced, and built to last.

Strawberry, mint, and ginger with vodka. Bright enough to drink year-round.

Near-equal parts of six things that shouldn't agree. They do.

A birthday cake in a glass, and just as filling.

A fresh, punch-like drink that flirts with becoming a fizz, packed with herbal undertones and a spicy kick.

Gin chilled to four below and half a teaspoon of vermouth. Temperature is the recipe.

Pineapple three ways with Peychaud's floated on top. Subtle it is not.

Rum, coconut milk, lime, demerara. Four ingredients, nothing wasted.

A touch of cranberry makes it a fall drink, for when summer is slipping away and winter is close behind.

Named for the liqueur it doesn't contain. Chartreuse and sage do the talking.

A batched punch with yogurt powder in it. Made for a crowd, and for showing off.

Two rums, orgeat, and curacao. A Mai Tai with the volume up.

Nine ingredients, three base spirits. Somebody had something to prove, and proved it.

Rum, brandy and applejack in equal thirds, with a quarter teaspoon of anise.

A Daiquiri riff drawn from three places: Brazilian cachaça, Italian bergamot liqueur and an American strawberry syrup, brought together with lime.

The Thyme Syrup ties everything together, highlighting the botanicals in the gin and the floral nature of the St-Germain.

A Mai Tai with mezcal in half the rum's place. The smoke changes everything.

Melon and cranberry in a sugar-rimmed glass.

The candy garnish takes some work. It earns it, on looks and on taste.

Pomegranate juice under sparkling wine. Same idea as the Bellini, deeper in colour and drier on the finish.

Irish whiskey and green Chartreuse, which sounds unlikely until you taste it.

Coffee, almond and cream, with high-proof rum underneath.

Coconut twice over, once fresh and once toasted.

Campfire adjacent, and very hard to stop drinking.

A gin sour lengthened with soda and served tall. The template for every Collins since.

The rare cocktail that is best warm, with the blend of cilantro, chili oil, and the botanicals in the gin fusing for an exotic experience.

Clear tomato water and pink peppercorn. Savory, and nothing like a Bloody Mary.

Agave instead of triple sec. Cleaner, and it tastes more like the tequila you paid for.

Cucumber, pear, and a sugar-dusted lime. Gentle, as advertised.

Tropical but balanced: an eight-year aged rum and a half ounce of overproof Jamaican rum with passion fruit, pineapple, lime and lemon, demerara gum syrup and Polynesian Kiss bitters, served up.

A French 75 rebuilt in Japan, with sparkling sake in place of Champagne.

Sherry, Cynar and aquavit in equal ounces. A Negroni's shape with none of its parts.

An ounce and a half of Angostura as the base spirit. It shouldn't work. It does.

Gin and both vermouths in equal thirds. Nothing to measure by eye.

Banana, strawberry, pineapple and coconut, blended and topped with cream. Thick enough to need a spoon at the end.

Mostly juice, lightly rummed. A long afternoon in a tall glass.

Pour the grenadine last and don't stir it. That's where the sunrise comes from.

Tiki bitters, spiced rum, banana syrup, and a mist of pear calvados. A Tuesday, elevated.

Equal gin and dry vermouth with a quarter teaspoon of anise. A Tuxedo without the maraschino.

Half gin, half dry vermouth, and a quarter-teaspoon each of two things you taste anyway.

Three ingredients, two of them smoky. Bitter, peaty, and over quickly.

Mostly apricot, with just enough orange to stop it being a liqueur.

Tequila with tomato and orange, and a pinch of salt that pulls it together.

Three ounces of rum with maple syrup and lemon. Sweeter and bigger than a daiquiri.

Chai syrup carries the spice without brewing anything.

A root beer float without the washing up.

Grappa with lemon, honey and chamomile. An Italian sour that leans herbal instead of sweet — and the full stops are part of the name, not a slip.

Whiskey and peach schnapps dropped into energy drink. The Jägerbomb's sweeter cousin.

Dry vermouth and cassis over ice with soda. Low, purple and very French.

Sherry alongside rum, with sage and mint agave. Dry, herbal, and long.

The bespoke ice is the key to this truly unique twist on the Negroni.

Gin, vodka and Lillet. Bond ordered it shaken, which is why everyone else does.

Gin with sweet vermouth and brandy in equal half ounces.

Rye and Cognac sharing the base, which almost nothing else does.

Violette, orgeat, and passion fruit under a cap of foam. Tropical, and built to be looked at.

Butterfly pea flower turns it the color of dusk. Floral, and it earns the name.

Ginger beer has enough bite to carry a drink alone. Lean into it.

Bergamot and lavender, bright as a coastline. Tastes healthier than it is.

Cold is the entire point. Chill everything longer than you think you need to.

A Stinger with vodka in place of the brandy, in equal parts.

Vodka and tonic over plenty of ice, with a strip of lemon peel. There is nowhere for a warm one to hide.

Passion fruit boba in the bottom of the glass. Zero proof and not remotely boring.

A Boston whiskey sour with orange. Named for a ward that swung an election.

Two parts dry vermouth to one of brandy, sweetened by a single teaspoon.

Rye, apple liqueur and cranberry in near-equal parts. Sweet-tart, and the rye keeps it from being a sweet.

Whiskey, peach and triple sec shaken with lemon. A sour built to be drunk in one go.

Good without cream, better with a splash of coconut cream if it's very hot.

Gin and Dubonnet with kirsch and orange juice in equal half ounces.

The same idea on sweet cherry rather than dry kirsch, stirred and served smaller.

Six spirits in equal measure, topped with orange and pineapple. A Long Island that kept going.

Guyana rum stirred with vermouth, maraschino, and three kinds of bitters. Dark and deliberate.

Brandy and amaretto in a shot glass, two to one. The French Connection with the ice and the sipping taken out of it.

Tequila and coffee liqueur in a shot glass, two to one. The Brave Bull with the ice left out and a little more agave in it.

An ounce of rum with half an ounce of espresso on it, drunk in one. Somewhere between a nightcap and the thing that undoes a nightcap.

Just a pinch of fresh ginger is all that’s needed to push this riff on a Kentucky Mule someplace memorable.

Mint, lemon, whiskey, muddled together. A julep that stopped being precious.

The sour that teaches the ratio. Egg white is optional, but ask first. Not everyone wants it.

Scotch and green ginger wine, poured and stirred. A British winter in a glass.

Smoked rasam in a highball. Savory, spiced, and unlike anything else here.

A sidecar built on gin. Three ingredients and no room to hide.

Ginger liqueur and Grand Marnier bring delicious clarity to the twist on the Negroni.

Equal parts, but pale: gin, peach vodka and Lillet Blanc where a Negroni would have Campari and sweet vermouth.

Coffee liqueur and cream over vodka. Unserious and unbothered about it.

Tequila, lime and two ounces of cream of coconut, blended white. Nothing dairy in it despite the name.

The pea flower dashed over the top keeps changing the color after the first few sips. The taste is not far behind the spectacle.

Peach and cranberry. The shooter everyone's had at least once.

Smoked pineapple syrup turns the mule into something else entirely.

Tequila and white rum under pineapple and grapefruit. A long tiki build with two bases, and the grapefruit is what stops it being a fruit cup.

White rum and Galliano, cut with lime. Tropical without the fruit salad.

Fat-washing is a great way of adding another dimension to spirits, giving them an irresistible depth.

Beer with vodka in it. The Russian answer to the Boilermaker, and it hits harder than either half suggests.

Four spirits and two juices in equal fifty-millilitre pours, with an overproof float on top.

Mostly Dubonnet with a splash of gin, and often called the Dubonnet Cocktail. Low, sweet and bitter all at once.

Bitterness is what makes a spritz feel grown-up, and bitterness doesn't need alcohol.

Three rums and a stack of syrups. Traditionally limited to two per customer.

Three citrus juices and two rums. A daiquiri that spread out.