Hitting a cocktail bar is great — we love it! It’s also expensive as f*ck. Granted, you’re accessing ingredients and talent (sometimes) that you simply don’t have access to at home, and that’s 100% worth paying a premium for. Still, there are some basic and classic cocktails that you don’t need to go out to enjoy. In fact, you should be able to make a solid roster of classic cocktails at home (and riff on them endlessly). And we’re here to help you do exactly that.
Below, I’m breaking down and making five iconic cocktails that you can easily make at home: A classic martini, bourbon old fashioned, classic margarita, rye Manhattan, and a Negroni. As with anything in this life of ours, your home bartending skills are a journey. You have to start somewhere, practice, fail, refine, fail some more, and repeat until you start getting a groove where this shit becomes simple muscle memory. So don’t fret, the learning part is fun… and gets you buzzed!
At the end of the day, there are a few things to know that’ll help you make better cocktails. Consider the following rules to live by at your home bar:
- Always use base spirits — bourbon, scotch, gin, vodka, tequila, whatever — that you actually like drinking. There is no top price for good booze to add to cocktails. When I make Manhattans, I use a bottle of rye that costs around $300. Why? Because it tastes freaking amazing. Always use good booze. Period.
- All cocktails need water — it’s a vital ingredient (all cocktails are a mix of a base spirit, sweetener, acid or bitter, and water). Ice does two things: It dilutes the cocktail while cooling it. You can get super detailed about ice but always use very good and deeply frozen ice when making cocktails. Get the good stuff.
- Don’t get all caught up with gear. You can make a cocktail in a pint glass with a chopstick as a barspoon. Seriously. You can shake a cocktail in an old jam jar. Again, seriously — it already has a lid! Sure, a nice bar kit looks great and can help. But you can get started with what you have in kitchen cabinets right now (probably).
- At the end of the day, you’re generally aiming for a four-ounce cocktail. That’s typically 3 to 3.5 ounces of ingredients and 0.5 to 1 ounce of water. It just depends on what you’re making. For instance, a Negroni needs a full ounce of water to balance out. A Manhattan needs 0.5 ounces. (Trust me, part of my training was mixing cocktails and pouring them into measuring cups to make sure I hit four ounces perfectly every time.)
- Lastly, practice. You simply need to put in the reps. The best part is that you can drink your practice cocktails.
Okay, that’s a lot of preamble so let’s just dive in and make some great cocktails!
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Classic Martini
Ingredients:
- 3 oz. London dry gin
- 0.5 oz. dry vermouth
- Lemon peel
- Ice
What You’ll Need:
- Coupe or cocktail glass
- Mixing jar/glass
- Cocktail strainer
- Jigger
- Pairing knife
- Barspoon
Method:
- Prechill the glass, mixing jug, spoon, and jigger in the freezer. 10 minutes is enough. Overnight is ideal. Ice-cold tools make a better martini since you’re going for a drink as cold as you can get.
- Add the gin, vermouth, and two handfuls of ice to the mixing jug and then stir until the drink is ice-cold — about 20 to 30 seconds.
- Strain the drink into the prechilled glass and then express the oils from the peel over the cocktail. You can trim the peel and then twist it like a pigtail and drop it into the glass or just discard it. Serve.
Bottom Line:
This is a perfect cocktail. It’s so clean and crisp. The lemon oils are essential and make it pop in a way that feels professional. Overall, this is very easy to have more than one of them on a lazy afternoon.
And look, if you want to add an olive or a pickled onion, or whatever, do it! No one is stopping you and don’t let anyone judge you for enjoying what you like. I like mine clean, simple, and ice cold. I’ve had phases where I’d add gorgonzola-stuffed green olives and anchovies and all that. Find your groove. No matter what, you need that lemon oil over the top to complete the cocktail though.
Old Fashioned
Ingredients:
- 3 oz. bourbon whiskey
- 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters
- 0.25 oz. simple syrup
- Orange peel
- Cherry
- Ice
- Large ice cube
What You’ll Need:
- Rocks glass
- Mixing jar/glass
- Cocktail strainer
- Jigger
- Pairing knife
- Barspoon
Method:
- Prechill your glass.
- Add the simple syrup, bitters, and bourbon to a mixing glass, and then add two large handfuls of ice.
- Stir the drink until it’s ice-cold to touch — about 20 seconds.
- Strain the drink into the prechilled glass over a large ice cube.
- Express the orange oils over the glass and drop in the peel with a dark cocktail cherry. Serve.
Bottom Line:
This is the perfect classic cocktail that runs deep with bourbon notes — a little dark fruit, wood spice, and vanilla. You can get really chef-y with this — I tend to use raw sugar instead of syrup and create a base from that but that’s getting into the weeds. It’s 100% okay to use simple syrup and really dial in your technique before getting overly persnickety.
Once you do start getting fastidious about making old fashioneds at home, you can start playing around with the sugar component to add seasonal vibes. Cinnamon sugar for fall, orange chocolate for the holidays, mint for spring, and so, so much more. The sky really is the limit.
Margarita
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz. blanco tequila
- 0.75 oz. triple sec
- 0.75 oz. fresh lime juice
- Pinch of kosher salt
- Ice
- Lime wheel
What You’ll Need:
- Rocks glass
- Cocktail shaker
- Cocktail strainer
- Jigger
- Pairing knife
- Hand juicer
Method:
- Prechill your glass.
- Add the lime juice, triple sec, tequila, and salt (seriously just a small pinch) to a cocktail shaker, and then add two handfuls of ice.
- Affix the lid and shaker vigorously for about 15 seconds.
- Add fresh ice to the rocks glass and strain the margarita into the glass. Attach a lime wheel to the rim and serve.
Bottom Line:
I love talking about classic margaritas because it gives me a chance to use one of my favorite bartending memes of all time…
Cointreau is a brand of triple sec — it’s just orange liqueur.
Lastly, don’t salt your rim. That’s over-salting and will ruin the balance of the cocktail. The drink needs a pinch of salt to add depth. Salting the rim means that you’ll get way too much salt on the first sip and then not enough as you avoid the salted rim the rest of the time. Or do, I’m not your boss.
Manhattan
Ingredients:
- 3 oz. rye whiskey
- 0.5 oz. sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters
- Orange peel
- Cherry
- Ice
What You’ll Need:
- Coupe or cocktail glass
- Mixing jar/glass
- Cocktail strainer
- Jigger
- Pairing knife
- Barspoon
Method:
- Prechill the glass in the freezer.
- Add the rye, sweet vermouth, and bitters in a mixing glass, and then add two handfuls of ice.
- Stir the drink until it’s ice-cold — about 20 to 30 seconds.
- Strain the cocktail into a prechilled glass, express the orange oils and discard the peel, and then add the cherry and serve.
Bottom Line:
I’m using a 6:1 ratio for this because the weather is warm right now. That balance gives you a whiskey-forward cocktail that’s very light and almost playful. In the winter, I’ll take that ratio closer to 2 oz. of whiskey and 1 oz. of sweet vermouth to give the drink a darker and sweeter vibe that’s a bit more wintry spice-forward. Play with it to find your favorite ratio.
Negroni
Ingredients:
- 1 oz. dry gin
- 1 oz. sweet vermouth
- 1 oz. Campari Italian Bitters
- Orange peel
- Ice
- Large ice cube
What You’ll Need:
- Rocks glass
- Mixing jar/glass
- Cocktail strainer
- Jigger
- Pairing knife
- Barspoon
Method:
- Prechill the rocks glass in the freezer.
- Add the gin, vermouth, and Campari to the mixing glass, and then add two handfuls of ice.
- Stir until the glass is ice-cold to touch — about 20 to 30 seconds.
- Strain the cocktail into the glass and express the orange oils from the peel over the glass. Dop the orange peel in the glass and serve.
Bottom Line:
This is a drink that you can 100% make in the glass. It’ll be stronger and dilute a lot faster as the ice will melt pretty quickly. But it’s still very fun that way.
I do like to prechill a Negroni in a mixing jug and pour over fresh ice. It is just more velvety that way and lasts longer without over-diluting in the glass. And if you really want to take this to the next level, express some lemon oils with the orange oils to brighten it up even more.
Just don’t shake these in a cocktail shaker. Sorry, Stanley Tucci but that’s just … sigh. This reaction seems appropriate: