Drink of the week
Paper Plane
The Paper Plane is four ingredients in equal measure, in the pattern of the Last Word. Bourbon gives it body, the grappa-based amaro brings bitter orange and caramel, the light orange aperitivo adds rhubarb-like bitterness and colour, and lemon keeps it sharp. It drinks lighter than its bourbon content suggests.
Start with the essentials
All 81 cocktails →
Old Fashioned
Whiskey, a little sugar, bitters and ice. The oldest cocktail formula, and still the clearest test of a bartender's balance.
Daiquiri
White rum, fresh lime and sugar, shaken hard and served straight up. Three ingredients with nowhere to hide.
Negroni
Equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and red bitter aperitivo. Bittersweet, strong and easy to remember.
Margarita
Tequila, orange liqueur and lime, with salt on the rim. The most popular tequila cocktail, at its best fresh and simple.
Dry Martini
Gin and dry vermouth stirred very cold. A short, clean, aromatic drink whose dryness is set by how much vermouth you use.
Whiskey Sour
Whiskey, lemon and sugar, shaken, often with egg white for a soft foam. The simplest balance of strong, sour and sweet.
Mojito
Rum, lime, mint and sugar over crushed ice with a splash of soda. Havana's long, cool answer to a hot afternoon.
Manhattan
Rye or bourbon, sweet vermouth and bitters, stirred and served up. Rich, spiced and the model for a whole family of drinks.
Tools that do the arithmetic
Cabinet finderTick the bottles you own. See every drink you can make now, and the ones a single bottle away.
Batch calculatorScale any recipe for a party, with the water to add so a bottled batch pours ready to drink.
Strength estimatorHow strong a drink really is once the ice has melted into it, in ABV, grams, units and standard drinks.
Cocktail families
How the families work →Technique
All guides →ShakingWhen to shake instead of stir, how long and how hard, and why double straining and a cold glass matter.StirringWhy spirit-only drinks are stirred, how long to stir, and how to tell when a Martini or Manhattan is ready.Ice and dilutionWater from melting ice is a quarter to a third of most finished cocktails. How chilling and dilution are linked, and how to control them.Balance and ratiosThe ratios behind the classic families, how to adjust for your limes and liqueurs, and how to taste and fix a drink.SyrupsHow to make the syrups classic cocktails call for, how to swap one for another, and how long they keep.Egg white and foamHow to get a dense, silky foam on a sour, the dry-shake and reverse-dry-shake methods, aquafaba, and raw-egg safety.GarnishesWhy a citrus peel is an ingredient, how to cut and express one, and the garnishes worth bothering with.Glassware and measuringWhich glass each drink needs and why, chilling glasses, and how ml, oz, dashes and barspoons compare.
Know your bottles
Spirit primers →GinWhat makes gin gin, the difference between London dry, Old Tom and Plymouth styles, and which bottle suits which drink.WhiskeyHow bourbon, rye, Scotch and Irish whiskey differ by law and in the glass, and which to use in an Old Fashioned, Manhattan or sour.RumRum is made from sugarcane in dozens of countries. Here is how to read the styles by tradition, and which one each classic needs.Tequila and mezcalTequila is one kind of mezcal. What the labels mean, why 100% agave matters in a Margarita, and where the smoke in mezcal comes from.BrandyBrandy is distilled wine or fruit. The styles behind the Sidecar, Jack Rose and Pisco Sour, and what VS and VSOP mean.VodkaWhy vodka mixes the way it does, what actually differs between bottles, and the drinks it took over in the late 20th century.Vermouth, aperitivo and wineThe wines of the bar. Sweet versus dry vermouth, bitter red aperitivi, quinquinas, sherry and sparkling wine, and how to keep them fresh.Liqueurs and bittersOrange liqueurs, maraschino, the Chartreuses, absinthe and cocktail bitters. What each one does in a drink, and the legends on their labels.