The Gin Basil Smash is a modern classic, and one of the few cocktails invented this century to earn that title. Created in Hamburg in 2008, it took the simple gin sour template and threw a big hand...

The Amaretto Sour has a bit of a reputation to shake off. For years it was a sickly, oversweet afterthought, all almond syrup and no balance. Done properly, though, it is one of the loveliest sours...

There is nowhere to hide in a Martini. Two ingredients, no fruit juice, no sugar, nothing to paper over a cheap spirit or a lazy pour. That is what makes it the ultimate test of a home bartender, a...

The Manhattan is the drink I reach for when I want something that feels like an occasion. Rich, smooth and unapologetically spirit-forward, it is whiskey dressed up in its evening best. Just three ...

The Dirty Martini divides people, and that is rather the point. Add olive brine to a Martini and you turn something austere and botanical into something savoury, briny and grown-up. Get it right an...

Some cocktails earn their place by being complicated. The Woo Woo earns its place by being the opposite. Three ingredients, a wedge of lime, thirty seconds of effort, and you have a bright, peachy,...

The Bloody Mary is the one classic cocktail that behaves more like a meal than a drink. Savoury, spiced, thick with tomato and dressed with celery, it is the undisputed champion of the brunch table...

If one drink has quietly taken over British summers in the last couple of years, it is the Hugo Spritz. It arrived in the wake of the Aperol Spritz and, for a lot of people, promptly overtook it. W...

Ask any bartender which drink makes them sigh when it gets ordered on a busy Friday and the Mojito wins every time. It is fiddly, it needs fresh mint, and it takes twice as long as anything else on...

The sex on the beach cocktail recipe is one of those classics that never really goes out of style. Fruity, vibrant and dead easy to throw together at home. It's perfect for garden parties, summer B...

If you have ever stood at a Wetherspoons bar and watched that deep purple pitcher land on the table, you already know the Purple Rain. It is loud, it is fruity, and it turns a normal round into an ...

The Moscow Mule is proof that a great cocktail can come from a warehouse full of stock nobody wanted. The story goes that in the 1940s a vodka seller, a ginger beer maker and a man with a load of c...