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45. Caipirinha

The signature cocktail of Brazil’s national spirit, cachaça, this charmingly lo-fi drink resembles a Daiquiri on paper – cane spirit, lime juice, sugar – but is very much its own thing. It’s all about the unfussy preparation, with limes muddled with sugar directly in the glass. It’s a wonderful showcase for the spirit, and also a good base for variations, whether switching up the spirit or adding various other fruits. As for the Caipirinha’s origins, there are a few stories to choose from. Some link its origin with sailors and scurvy preventatives, others with a Spanish flu remedy from the early 1900s.

44. Old Cuban

The deceptively-named Old Cuban is actually quite new by classic cocktail standards, drawing generously from far more venerable beverages for inspiration. Created in 2001 by Audrey Saunders, it rather deftly twists the Mojito, borrowing elements from the French 75, and referencing the Sour family of drinks too. The result is a combination of aged rum, mint, sugar syrup, lime juice, Angostura and champagne, served up. Saunders was working at Beacon restaurant in New York when she came up with it – ahead of opening Pegu Club in 2005 – and it didn’t take long for it to attain modern classic status.

43. Aviation

Flying the flag for floral-scented classics, the Aviation has actually existed without its most distinctive ingredient for much of the time since it first took flight in the early 1900s. Crème de violette is certainly accounted for in the drink’s first printed recipe, in Hugo Ensslin’s 1917 book, Recipes for Mixed Drinks, alongside gin, lemon juice and maraschino. A few years and one Prohibition later, the violet liqueur becomes absent from Harry Craddock’s recipe in his 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. It remained AWOL until the early 2000s, resurfacing out of the blue to restore the Aviation’s point of difference and rightful appearance.

42. Sidecar

The oft-maligned Sidecar, one of cognac’s only really enduring classics, has survived over the ages, even if the details of its origins haven’t. With its combination of brandy, triple sec and lemon juice, complete with sugar rim at its most gaudy, some consider it to be an evolution of the New Orleans classic the Brandy Crusta. There’s some debate about whether the Sidecar was born in England or France, with the case for the former attributing it to Pat McGarry of London’s Buck’s Club, while others trace it to Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, giving Harry MacElhone the credit.

41. Bramble

The Espresso Martini might be the best-known creation of the legendary, late Dick Bradsell, but there are other masterpieces in his oeuvre. Among these is the Bramble, created while Bradsell was working at Soho members’ club Fred’s in the 1980s. Setting out to make a distinctly British drink, and working with the Sour as the cocktail’s basic structure, he deftly combined gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a glass with crushed ice, finishing the drink off with some blackberry liqueur, crème de mûre – creating a timeless classic distinguished not only by its simplicity and balance, but by its eye-catching appearance too.

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40. Cosmopolitan

For a universally-recognised classic with only a few decades of history, you’d think that we would have a good idea of where this brightly-coloured combo of vodka, cranberry, triple sec and lime came from, but there are competing stories. The earliest claim comes from Neal Murray, a Minnesota bartender said to have mixed the first in 1975, while Toby Cecchini says he invented the iconic pink drink in New York in 1988. Miami bartender Cheryl Cook is another contender, said to have created it in 1989. Whoever was originally responsible, Sex and the City made it so that the Cosmo won’t be forgotten in a hurry.

39. Vieux Carré

One of the numerous gifts New Orleans has given to drinking culture over the years, the Vieux Carré traces its origins to the city’s Hotel Monteleone, around the year 1938. In what was then known as the hotel’s Swan Room, now the Carousel Bar, head bartender Walter Bergeron is said to have created his soon-to-be-famous Vieux Carré. Bergeron not only named his creation in honour of the city’s French Quarter (“old square”), but threw in a couple of French ingredients too, with cognac and Benedictine liqueur meeting more local rye whiskey and Peychaud’s – with Italian vermouth and Angostura from further afield.

38. Painkiller

Cocktail stories don’t come more colourful than the Painkiller’s, starting with its birthplace, the six-seater Soggy Dollar Bar on a white beach in the British Virgin Islands, where the absence of a dock made it troublesome to keep your cash dry as you waded ashore. It was known in the 1970s for a drink that English proprietor Daphne Henderson made with Pusser’s rum, cream of coconut, pineapple and orange – the Painkiller. Among her regulars was Pusser’s founder Charles Tobias, who tried in vain to get the recipe from Henderson, eventually figuring it out himself. Pusser’s has since trademarked the name.

37. Vesper

Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond – and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, of course – is also responsible for this enduring gin/vodka Martini hybrid. Making its first appearance in 1953, in the first Bond novel, Casino Royale, the Vesper ordered by 007 contains three parts gin and one part vodka, as well as the now-discontinued Kina Lillet – shaken, of course. In the novel, Bond names his creation after agent Vesper Lynd, and the rest is history. Bartenders may need to improvise when it comes to one of its core ingredients, but the Vesper lives on nevertheless, no doubt aided by the enduring popularity of Bond himself.

36. Vodka Martini

Spare a thought for the Vodka Martini, Vodkatini, Kangaroo… whichever you prefer. A drink whose fortunes have always been at the whim of passing fads, perhaps more than most. No doubt benefiting from vodka’s ascendence in the 1950s, and fuelled by a certain spy who loved them, its popularity peaked for a few decades, edged out in later years by a slew of colourful, fruity Tinis. As we collectively came to our senses, the Gin Martini made its rightful return, leaving the Vodka Martini somewhat out in the cold. Regardless, this vodka and vermouth mix is definitely back, at least for the moment.

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35. Mezcal Margarita

It’s not the greatest conceptual leap to replace the tequila in a Margarita with its fellow agave spirit mezcal, and we’ll probably never know who was the first to make the swap, but we nevertheless owe them a debt of gratitude, whoever they are. Playing on mezcal’s often-smoky characteristics, the result tends to be punchier and more complex than the original – and with the inexorable rise of mezcal at the moment, it’s becoming ever more prevalent. Some elect to retain the triple sec of the original Margarita, while others opt for the more modern Tommy’s approach, simply combining mezcal, lime juice and agave syrup.

34. Naked & Famous

With its progenitor the Last Word ranking so high this year, it’s no surprise that the Naked & Famous is getting its share of the limelight too. Its creator, Joaquín Simó, describes it as “the bastard love child born out of an illicit Oaxacan love affair” between that venerable classic and the more contemporary Paper Planes cocktail, resulting in a combination of mezcal, Yellow Chartreuse, Aperol and lime juice. The Naked & Famous has lived up to its name, or at least half of it, in the brief time since he mixed the first one in 2011, appearing on menus far and wide.

33. Gin Basil Smash

The Gin Basil Smash is among the youngest drinks on this year’s list, created in 2008. This youthful upstart is based on a historic style of drink, the only Smash featuring in this year’s top 50. The person responsible for its creation, keeping the Smash alive in the process, is Germany’s Jörg Meyer. The way he tells it, he was drinking a lot of Whiskey Smashes at the time, thought to make a gin version, and simultaneously came across another drink with basil as a garnish. Cue some experimentation and muddling, and a modern-day classic was born.

32. Pornstar Martini

With its approachable, fruity flavour profile, and distinctive appearance – not least the shot of fizz served alongside – the Pornstar has always had both the looks and the personality to become one of the most successful and mainstream of modern-day classics. Indeed, as its creator the late Douglas Ankrah once wrote, the first time he made these, in 2002, the whole bar was ordering them by the end of the night. The bar in question was Ankrah’s Townhouse in London’s Knightsbridge, but his other venue, Soho’s LAB, often gets the credit. Today you can get one pretty much anywhere.

31. Dark ’n Stormy

With the dubious honour of being the highest-ranked trademarked cocktail on this list, the Dark ’n Stormy has undoubtedly weathered the test of time. Unsurprisingly, there’s no neat origin story for when rum was first mixed with ginger beer, but it’s likely that this inspired combination, well-established in Bermuda in the 1800s, received a boost from Prohibition. The same Americans who would take rum-fuelled holidays to nearby islands during those years continued to mix these ingredients after repeal. Cut to the 1970s, and Bermudan rum Goslings trademarked the name, although that hasn’t stopped other rums from being mixed with ginger beer, of course.

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30. Bee’s Knees

In lieu of actual facts, this Prohibition-era favourite’s history consists primarily of inference and conjecture, and a few competing theories. A rather appealing blend of gin, honey and lemon, with optional orange juice, the Bee’s Knees has at times been attributed to Margaret Brown, otherwise known as Molly Brown, American socialite and Titanic survivor. Perhaps more likely is that Frank Meier, head bartender at the Ritz in Paris in the 1920s, was behind its creation, and this is backed by some of its early appearances in print. Or it may have merely emerged, as some think, as a way of making the questionable gin of Prohibition times palatable.

29. Zombie

Ranking, fittingly, just behind the Corpse Reviver 2 this year, the Zombie, like its namesake, continues to show signs of life. Its spot on this list suggests it’s more than just a Halloween favourite, and also that the moderation trend hasn’t infiltrated every drinking occasion just yet. This famously boozy tiki favourite, created by Donn Beach in the 1930s, combines a staggering amount of rum with a varying mix of falernum, fruit juices and more – the original recipe was a secret, after all. Few modern takes are as lethal as the original, limited to two per customer at Don the Beachcomber, where they were first served.

28. Corpse Reviver 2

The most undying of Corpse Revivers, this century-old sharpener combines gin, triple sec, Lillet Blanc and lemon juice in equal parts, with a reanimating dash of absinthe, to great effect. Whether bartender Harry Craddock invented it or not, he certainly popularised it, including it in The Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930. There’s no doubt about its revivification recently, climbing these ranks with almost as much alacrity as the Last Word, to which it bears a passing similarity. Those using the Corpse Reviver 2 for its purported benefits should bear Craddock’s contraindication in mind: “Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again.”

27. Piña Colada

While its distant origins likely lie in Cuba, with a drink that combined rum and pineapple with sugar and lime, the indulgent coconut-cream cocktail we know and love is almost certainly a Puerto Rican invention. Far less certain is which of three contenders is actually responsible – either Ramón Pérez, at San Juan’s Caribe Hilton Hotel’s Beachcomber Bar in 1952, his colleague Ricardo Garcia, or Ramón Mingot in 1963, while bartender at Barrachina in Old San Juan. Regardless of who first mixed these ingredients together, the Piña Colada has made a rather triumphant return in recent years, and has spawned some rather excellent modern takes too.

26. Sazerac

Often thought, probably erroneously, to be the very first cocktail, the Sazerac is nevertheless a fine historical artefact, and a damn good drink too. Some classics change from one season to the next, but the Sazerac has remained firm since its origin in the mid-1800s. Its birthplace, legend has it, was the Exchange Coffee House in New Orleans, later renamed the Sazerac Coffee House. Here, Sazerac de Forge et Fils cognac is said to have met the new Peychaud’s bitters, with absinthe joining the party soon after. Phylloxera caused rye to replace cognac for a time, although it’s not uncommon to see both used together nowadays. The Sazerac was trademarked by Sazerac Co in 1900.

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25. Gin Fizz

A venerable classic, this non-Ramos Gin Fizz has consistently outranked that famously labour-intensive variant on this list over the years, the latter not cracking the top 50 at all this year – a well-deserved respite for bartenders’ arms, if nothing else. Requiring comparatively less shaking, the original dates all the way back to the mid-1800s. The Jerry Thomas version from the late 1880s, with Holland gin, lemon juice, sugar and soda water, is not only a fine drink, but an excellent base for twists and variations of all sorts. Many consider egg white to be an essential component, but if we’re being pedantic, that’s a Silver Fizz.

24. Jungle Bird

Refreshingly, this tiki classic’s origins aren’t disputed, or lost to the mists of time. Believe it or not, we know with relative certainty when it was invented, and who by. Considered to be Malaysia’s only widely-recognised classic, the Jungle Bird was created by Jeffrey Ong, beverage manager for Kuala Lumpur Hilton when it opened in 1973. Served at the hotel’s opening that year, the drink was presented in a ceramic bird-shaped vessel, all in keeping with the hotel bar’s avian theme. The addition of Campari offers a welcome twist to the drink’s tropical ingredients of dark rum and pineapple juice.

23. Amaretto Sour

If there’s one cocktail that has only become better with age, it’s the mass-appeal Amaretto Sour. When it was making its first appearances, likely around the year 1974, it was little more than a combination of Amaretto and lemon juice, the latter quickly turning into sour mix – thanks very much, ’80s bartending. That original formulation has evolved and improved since then, taking cues from the far more established Whiskey Sour. Portland bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler has done much to bring honour to the Amaretto Sour with his version from around 2012, combining the liqueur with cask-strength bourbon, lemon juice, sugar syrup and egg white.

22. Clover Club

Like the group of businessmen who would meet at Philadelphia’s Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in the early 1900s, whose club gave this classic its name, the Clover Club had something of a fleeting heyday. This delightful blend of gin, vermouth, lemon juice, raspberry syrup and egg white went from pre-Prohibition acclaim to outright mockery in just a few decades. Unlike the original club, the drink has thankfully made a comeback, and deservedly so. This is a beautifully structured drink, simultaneously light and indulgent, bright and silky, with balanced complexity from its various components, not to mention its wonderful pink hue which is, like, so in right now.

21. Gimlet

Born out of necessity – that being scurvy prevention – this deceptively simple combination of gin and lime cordial has survived relatively intact since the late 1800s. Whether named for the Royal Navy’s Sir Thomas Desmond Gimlette or the sharp tool used to tap barrels on ships, the Gimlet is inextricably linked with Rose’s Lime Cordial. The first-ever fruit concentrate, it was patented in 1867, the same year that the Navy began requiring ships to carry lime or lemon juice. Many modern takes have moved on from Rose’s, with other cordials or fresh juice taking its place, but the spirit of the drink remains.

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20. Americano

Precursor to the Negroni, before the eponymous Italian count jacked up its abv with a slug of gin, the Americano is a fine aperitivo in its own right. It also couldn’t be more now, with its bitter flavour profile, low alcohol content and Highball-style presentation. This classic, thought to have originated at Gaspare Campari’s bar in the 1860s, probably only gained its name much later, when American tourists taking a holiday from Prohibition favoured this over its stronger-flavoured precursor, the Milano-Torino. An inspired splash of soda lightened up the latter drink, with its equal-parts blend of Campari and sweet vermouth.

19. Mai Tai

Firmly among those cocktails that are transcendent when made properly, but have been much abused over the years, the Mai Tai is the most legendary of tiki classics. Victor Jules Bergeron – Trader Vic – claimed to have invented it in 1944, although he’s not the only one. His account – in which he combined J Wray & Nephew rum, lime juice, curaçao, orgeat and rock candy syrup in his bar in Oakland – also offers the best story regarding the drink’s name. Giving this new creation to a pair of friends visiting from Tahiti that night, one exclaimed “mai tai-roa aé”, meaning, in Tahitian: “Out of this world – the best.”

18. Boulevardier

Bearing an uncanny resemblance to the number one cocktail on this list, this whiskey, Campari and sweet vermouth drink has, remarkably, a history all of its own, and one that might pre-date that of the Negroni. The Boulevardier is widely attributed to Erskine Gwynne, socialite and editor of a Paris magazine entitled The Boulevardier in the 1920s. Bartender Harry McElhone namechecked Gwynne as the creator of the drink in his 1927 book Barflies and Cocktails, recommending equal parts of the drink’s three ingredients. Modern-day versions differ, usually with a larger proportion of bourbon, or even rye.

17. Last Word

The story of the Last Word is less about where it was invented – possibly the Detroit Athletic Club – and more about those who have kept it alive over the years. Vaudeville actor Frank Fogarty spread the word after visiting the club in 1916, and Ted Saucier of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel included it in his cocktail book Bottoms Up in 1951. More than a few decades of obscurity followed, ending when bartender Murray Stenson unearthed a copy of that same tome in the early 2000s and put the forgotten classic on his menu. The Last Word is made with gin, Green Chartreuse, Maraschino and lime and is the highest climber on this list.

16. Mojito

With a cast that includes everyone from Sir Francis Drake to Ernest Hemingway, the Mojito has a long and colourful history. We’ll probably never know whether the 16th-century English seafarer said to have given the drink its former name, the Drake or Draque, was actually involved in its creation. Or whether, instead, the drink originally hails from Havana’s Bodeguita del Medio, where Hemingway is said to have enjoyed his fair share of them. We do know that only a few years ago it was so popular as to become the bane of bartenders’ lives, although that’s begun to wane more recently.

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15. French 75

Nothing like a light, celebratory champagne-based cocktail named after a field gun used in World War I… Taking its name from the Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897, the French 75 has evolved significantly in its time. The modern-day incarnation, a bright and refreshing combination of gin, lemon, sugar and champagne, began to emerge from the late 1920s, but earlier versions named for this piece of artillery variously included grenadine, applejack, calvados or absinthe. While it’s often served in champagne flutes nowadays, there’s a growing number returning this classic to an earlier style, on the rocks in a Collins glass.

14. Bloody Mary

Universal hangover remedy and acceptable morning drink, the Bloody Mary comes in almost as many shapes and forms as there are people making it. This savoury cocktail’s history includes a name change, to the Red Snapper and back, and a move from vodka to gin, and back to vodka. Among its potential inventors, bartender Fernand ‘Pete’ Petiot is in the lead, said to have created it in the 1920s at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. He took it with him to The Savoy in London and New York’s St Regis Hotel, setting it up to eventually conquer brunch menus everywhere.

13. Paloma

While the rest of the world has been mixing tequila into Margaritas of varying quality, in Mexico – and Jalisco in particular – they have long favoured a simple long drink with grapefruit soda Squirt as the mixer. The Paloma, meaning ‘dove’ in Spanish, has been gaining ground further afield in recent years, increasingly finding itself on cocktail lists around the world. Most contemporary versions feature a squeeze of lime juice, with many adding salt, and there’s a growing number of premium grapefruit mixers to choose from. It’s not uncommon to find classier examples made with fresh grapefruit juice either.

12. Pisco Sour

While Chile and Peru both lay claim to pisco as their national spirit, the latter is almost certainly the birthplace of this South American brandy’s most widely-known cocktail. The drink is most commonly attributed to American bartender Victor Vaughen Morris, who arrived in Peru in 1903. Somewhere between that date and 1916, when he opened Morris’ Bar in the capital of Lima, he’s said to have invented the drink that would put his establishment on the map. There are competing stories but, regardless, it’s the Peruvian version that endures, combining pisco with lime, sugar and egg white, garnished with bitters.

11. Moscow Mule

The tale of the Moscow Mule, which brings together the stories of three struggling 20th-century entrepreneurs, is perhaps too neat to be entirely credible, but is an entertaining one nevertheless. Our first protagonist, John Martin, had recently acquired the rights to Smirnoff vodka, but wasn’t having much luck with the brand. Jack Morgan, meanwhile, proprietor of the Cock ’n’ Bull pub on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, was unsuccessfully attempting to launch a ginger beer brand. 

As they sat in the pub on a day in 1941, in walked Sophie Berezinski, looking for a way to sell a rather large quantity of copper mugs from her father’s factory in Russia. With the help, some say, of bartender Wes Price, one thing led to another, and the Moscow Mule was born, leading them all to great fortune. The classic they created continues to thrive, giving its name to all manner of ginger beer-based creations.

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10. Penicillin

Born in the mid-2000s, this whippersnapper of a modern classic effortlessly rubs shoulders on this list with drinks dating back to the mid-1800s. It’s earned its place with a timeless combination of scotch whisky, lemon juice and sugar, the latter taking the form of a ginger and honey syrup. The final flourish by the drink’s creator, Sam Ross, is a float of peaty Islay single malt, adding a smoky, almost-medicinal element to the cocktail’s aroma. 

While this is quite clearly a Whiskey Sour riff, Ross, who was working at New York’s Milk & Honey at the time, based his creation on one of that bar’s well-known cocktails, the Gold Rush. Itself a Sour twist, the Gold Rush combined bourbon with lemon and honey. Its evolution, the Penicillin, quickly spread beyond the bar in which it was invented, finding itself on cocktail lists far and wide.

9. Aperol Spritz

Synonymous with the Italian institution that is aperitivo hour, the distinctively-coloured Aperol Spritz has been enjoying more than a moment over the past decade or so, no longer only in its native Italy, but seemingly in every corner of the globe. The perfect low-abv accompaniment to a light bite to eat as the sun sets, the Aperol Spritz couldn’t be more early-2000s if it tried, with moderation trends and a move towards lighter flavours and away from high-energy drinking occasions. 

The Spritz, as a style of drink, pre-dates the creation of Aperol. It was in 1919 that brothers Luigi and Silvio Barbieri presented their new creation to the world, at the Padua International Fair. According to the brand, the Aperol Spritz itself came into being in the 1950s, soon becoming popular throughout the country. The official ratio, immortalised in advertising campaigns, is three parts prosecco, two parts Aperol and one part soda.

8. Manhattan

Not only the most famous cocktail to be named after a New York borough, the Manhattan also has some of the most colourful origin stories of the classics. One unlikely tale involves Winston Churchill’s mother, Jennie Jerome, who is said to have held a party in 1874 at New York’s Manhattan Club for presidential candidate Samuel J Tilden. A certain Dr Iain Marshall reportedly created the drink for the event, which may be true, but Lady Randolph Churchill was almost certainly in Europe at the time, pregnant with Winston.

Another story attributes the drink’s creation in the 1860s to a man named Black, who ran a bar on Broadway.  Regardless of who invented it, we’re fortunate to still have this transcendent combination of whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters today, along with some of its more capable evolutions, such as the Rob Roy, or more recent Black Manhattan by US bartender Todd Smith.

7. Whiskey Sour

As a category of cocktail, the Sour is a venerable one, and its whiskey-based incarnation is the most prevailing. Countless citrus-and-spirit classics have followed, but the Whiskey Sour stands relatively unchanged, aside from a few details. The egg white that’s near-essential nowadays wasn’t always so, for example, but the core elements of whiskey, sugar and lemon juice come to us directly from the mid-1800s. The earliest written references to the Whisky Sour date back to around 1870, following the first mentions of the Sour in the 1850s.

Like all the best classics, there’s an interplay between the ingredients that transforms the entirety of the drink into so much more, and also lends itself well to variation. Liqueurs such as amaretto have formed the base of popular twists, but it’s the original Whiskey Sour that continues to earn its spot in the top 10 of this list.

6.Dry Martini

Enduringly elegant and sophisticated, and a masterclass in minimalism, the Dry Martini is many things, but a cocktail with a neat origin story it is not. What people once knew as a Martini, or a Martinez or Martine, was a far cry from the Dry Martini of today, made with Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth and bitters. Some give credit, at least for the name, to New York resident Franklin Martine, who was mixing these ingredients together in the late 1800s.

It took some time for dry vermouth to enter the picture, and dry gin too, evolving the drink into something more closely resembling what we know today. That evolution continued, sometimes too far, such as the Anything Martinis of the ’80s. But the timeless Dry Martini remains, with a range of gin-to-vermouth ratios in use, all simply garnished with an olive or lemon twist.

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5. Daiquiri

The very essence of simplicity, and a study in perfect balance, the Daiquiri elevates its three humble ingredients into something far greater than their sum. It also might be the most bastardised of cocktails, suffering one lurid, sickly-sweet transformation after the next, over the course of its long history. It has spawned its fair share of worthwhile variations too, at least – everything from the Hemingway Daiquiri of Havana’s El Floridita, to Gregor De Gruyther’s Nuclear Daiquiri.

Meanwhile, the original – simply combining rum, lime and sugar – endures. Origin stories abound, with a number featuring American engineer Jennings Stockton Cox, stationed near the village of Daiquiri in Cuba from the late 1800s. Some say that Cox reached for the local spirit when he ran out of gin while entertaining some American guests, others that he was inspired by his workers and their practice of mixing their rum ration with coffee. Likely, the combination of rum, lime and sugar predated him.

4. Espresso Martini

Equal parts functional and flavourful, this caffeinated classic has been on the rise in recent years. It was at some point in the ’80s, at the Soho Brasserie on Old Compton Street in London, that legendary bartender Dick Bradsell received a request from a young lady for “something that’s gonna wake me up, then fuck me up”. The resulting Vodka Espresso had all the ingredients of today’s version – vodka, sugar syrup, coffee liqueur and espresso – but was served on the rocks.

Later, when Bradsell was working at Match on Clerkenwell Road, the drink evolved into the Espresso Martini, complete with three coffee beans as garnish. At times going by the name Pharmaceutical Stimulant, this is the version that continues to perform its original function for drinkers today, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that it really took off, no doubt benefiting from coffee’s recent rise in popularity.

3. Margarita

Nothing says good times quite like tequila’s flagship cocktail, the Margarita. Its most classic incarnation, in which tequila is shaken with lime juice and orange liqueur, most likely has its origins in the pre-Prohibition drink the Daisy. More of a template than a specific cocktail, the Daisy combined a spirit with lime juice and either orange liqueur or grenadine. The tequila version eventually came to be known by the Spanish word for daisy, and it went on to conquer the globe.

The Margarita has endured countless takes and variations in its time, many of them ignoble, to say the least, and the less said of those the better. But one version that unquestionably elevates the original is the Tommy’s Margarita, created by Julio Bermejo of Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco. His version, which replaces the orange liqueur with agave syrup, puts tequila centre stage, where it belongs.

2. Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned recalls a simpler time of no-nonsense, spirit-forward cocktail drinking. The essence of the earliest definition of the word ‘cocktail’ – comprising spirit, sugar, water and bitters – this classic emerged in the mid-to-late 1800s in opposition to new-fangled cocktail additions such as maraschino or absinthe. “Gimme an old-fashioned Whisky Cocktail,” a patron would say, curbing the enthusiasm of an eager barkeep.

For all its simplicity, there’s no shortage of nuance and customisation here. There’s the spirit, of course, with bourbon and rye at the forefront, but variations using other aged spirits too. Sugar comes in syrup or cube form, with demerara and the like to choose from, and there’s a vast array of bitters to incorporate, singly or in combination. Then there’s the garnish, mercifully limited to orange or lemon zest nowadays. Gone, mostly, are the dark days of muddled fruit Old Fashioneds – too fancy for this humble drink.

1. Negroni

This quintessentially Italian aperitivo has become ubiquitous in recent times, and justifiably so. The Negroni is punchy and complex, yet bright and lifted, with a gorgeous colour. And it’s difficult to make badly, thanks to an easy, equal-parts ratio of gin, sweet vermouth and Campari.

Like any self-respecting classic, the Negroni’s origins are contested, and will likely ever remain so. Perhaps the best tale of its creation involves an Italian cowboy with a cheeky request for more booze in his aperitivo. The former cattle farmer – a count, no less – was Camillo Negroni, who returned to his native Florence after his travels in the US. The beverage in need of more kick was the Americano, an approachable mix of Campari, sweet vermouth and soda. Count Negroni, the story goes, moseyed up to the bar at the Caffé Casoni somewhere around the year 1919, and instructed bartender Fosco Scarselli to spruce up his drink with some gin. Scarselli is said to have added a twist of his own, replacing the customary lemon garnish with orange, and a legend was born.

A word on the cocktail genealogy here, as the Americano is itself a twist on the Milano-Torino, a deceptively simple combination of Campari and sweet vermouth. The addition of soda water made it more palatable to American tourists, likely giving the drink its name. The Count Negroni followed, with his hard-drinking ways, but that’s not where the family tree ends, of course. There’s the recently TikTok-famous Negroni Sbagliato, for example, created in the 1970s through yet another ingredient swap. According to legend, Milan bartender Mirko Stocchetto, making a standard Negroni, accidentally picked up a bottle of prosecco instead of gin. And so the wheel turns. Nowadays you’ll find bartenders switching any and all of the Negroni’s components – the next enduring variation may already be out there.