Classic Cocktails
726 recipes. The recipes everything else is a variation on.
A classic earns the label by outliving the fashion that produced it. Most of the drinks here were written between about 1860 and 1935, and they survive because their proportions are right rather than because anyone is being nostalgic.
They are also the most useful thing to learn, because modern drinks are overwhelmingly variations on them. Know the Old Fashioned, the Martini, the Manhattan, the Daiquiri and the sour template and you can reverse-engineer most cocktail menus.
Start with one and make it three times, changing one thing each time. That teaches more than making three different drinks once.
Start here
The ones worth knowing before the rest.
Add one more bottle
What a second bottle opens up.
All 726 recipes
Page 2 of 16.
- Brandy Alexander Brandy, Crème de Cacao Blanc Liqueur, Light Cream
- Cream Sherry Flip Cream Sherry, Egg, Caster Sugar
- Gin Sour Gin, Lemon Juice, Caster Sugar
- Gluhwein Medium-Bodied Red Wine, Brandy, Caster Sugar
- Knickerbocker Cocktail Dry Vermouth, Sweet Vermouth, Gin
- Trilby Cocktail Sweet Vermouth, Bourbon, Orange Bitters
- Vodka Collins Vodka, Lemon Juice, Confectioners' Sugar
- Yale Cocktail Dry Vermouth, Gin, Blue Curaçao Liqueur
- Brainstorm Scotch, Bénédictine(R) Herbal Liqueur, Sweet Vermouth
- Cape Codder Vodka, Cranberry Juice
- Martini (Sweet) Gin, Sweet Vermouth
- Shirley Temple Ginger Ale, Grenadine
- Bacardi Cocktail Bacardi(R) Superior Rum, Lime Juice, Sugar Syrup
- Brantini Brandy, Dry Vermouth, Gin
- Danish Martini Aquavit, Dry Vermouth
- Deauville Cocktail Apple Brandy, Brandy, Triple Sec Liqueur
- Diplomat Dry Vermouth, Sweet Vermouth, Maraschino Cherry Liqueur
- Dubonnet Cocktail Dubonnet(R) Rouge, Gin, Aromatic Bitters
- Flamingo Cocktail Apricot Brandy, Gin, Lime Juice
- Gin And It Gin, Sweet Vermouth
- Pink Squirrel Crème de Noyaux Liqueur, Crème de Cacao Blanc Liqueur, Light Cream
- Reform Cocktail Dry Sherry, Dry Vermouth, Orange Bitters
- Rum Daisy Dark Rum, Lemon Juice, Caster Sugar
- Rye Club Cocktail Old Potrero(R) Rye Whiskey, Orange Curaçao Liqueur, Orange Bitters
- Fitzgerald Gin, Simple Syrup, Lemon Juice
- Kir Martini Gordon's(R) Gin, Extra Dry Vermouth, Crème de Cassis Liqueur
- Bluebird Gin, Triple Sec Liqueur, Blue Curaçao Liqueur
- Boomerang Gin, Dry Vermouth, Aromatic Bitters
- Brandy Classic Brandy, Maraschino Cherry Liqueur, Triple Sec Liqueur
- Casino Beefeater(R) London Dry Gin, Luxardo(R) Maraschino Liqueur, Lemon Juice
- Cognac Mint Frappe Cognac, Crème de Menthe Blanche Liqueur
- Egg Nog - Cooked Granulated Sugar, Water, Lemon Juice
- Montreal Gin Sour Gin, Lemon Juice, Confectioners' Sugar
- Negus LBV Port, Claret Wine, Sparkling Red Burgundy Wine
- Port Wine Cocktail Port, Brandy
- Western Sling Gin, Cherry Brandy, Lemon Juice
- Fog Cutter Light Rum, Gin, Brandy
- Tom and Jerry Egg, Confectioners' Sugar, Cinnamon
- Armour Cocktail Dry Sherry, Sweet Vermouth
- Bentley Calvados, Dubonnet(R) Rouge
- Bourbon Flip Bourbon, Egg, Caster Sugar
- Crusta Brandy, Lemon Juice, Maraschino Cherry Liqueur
- Killarney Irish Mist(R) Herbal Liqueur, Gin, Dry Vermouth
- Narragansett Bourbon, Sweet Vermouth, Anisette Liqueur
- New Orleans Fizz Gin, Cream, Orange Flower Water
- Silver Cocktail Gin, Dry Vermouth, Sugar Syrup
- Smoky Martini Gin, Scotch
- Tipperary Irish Whiskey, Cinzano(R) Rosso Vermouth, Green Chartreuse Liqueur
Worth reading
- Shake or Stir? The Rule and Its Exceptions Shake anything cloudy, stir anything clear. The rule takes one line, and knowing why it works tells you what to do with the drinks it does not cover.
- The Sour Formula: One Ratio, Twenty Drinks Two parts spirit, one part citrus, one part sweet. Learn the shape and the Daiquiri, the Margarita, the Gimlet and the Whiskey Sour come free.
