The world of cocktails comprises numerous different cocktail families, each family having its own surname, distinctive traits, genetics and history. Some of these cocktail families are forgotten and facing extinction while others, such as the Daiquiri, Sour and Colada dynasties, are better known now than when they were first conceived. Follows the 36 families which populate the world of cocktails.
While not advocating that every cocktail should be pigeonholed under one of the following headings – history/rules should not be allowed to stifle creativity – these cocktail family names do give an indication to the drinker the style of cocktail they are ordering. Consequently, if a cocktail carries one of the following family names, then its ingredients, serving vessel and style should reflect the traits suggested by that name.
Blazer Cocktails
- Comprises: Spirit + sweetener
- Glass: Snifter
- Serve: Straight-up while still warm
- Created: Mid-1800s by Jerry Thomas
- Example: Blue Blazer
Buck
- Comprises: Spirit + ginger beer/ginger ale + lime juice
- Glass: Collins or highball
- Serve: With ice
- Created: Late 1890s
- Example: The Gin Buck with ginger ale emerged as the best-known of the various Bucks, and is one of the two Bucks in Albert Stevens Crockett’s 1935 The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book.
- More info: Bucks originated during the Prohibition era in the form of the Gin Buck. Like the Ricky, the Collins and the Fizz it is a tall drink served with citrus juice and a carbonate. (A Highball is also tall but never contains citrus juice.) Originally a Buck was made by cutting a large lemon into quarters and squeezing the juice of one quarter into the drink using a hand squeezer. The squeezed shell was also dropped into the glass with the juice. Unlike the afore mentioned drinks, no sugar is added to a Buck – sufficient sweetness to balance the lemon is provided by the sweet carbonate.
Cobbler
- Comprises: Spirit or wine base + fruit + sugar
- Glass: Collins or Cobbler glass
- Serve: Shaken and served over crushed ice garnished with lots of fresh berries and fruits
- Created: 1930s
- Example: Bramble
Colada
- Comprises: Spirit + fruit juice + sweetener
- Glass: Poco Grande / Colada glass
- Serve: Blended with crushed ice
- Created: Pre-1922
- Example: Piña Colada
- More info: Colada, Spanish for ‘washed’, or in this case ‘strained’, refers to a cocktail blended (or sometimes shaken) with fruit juice and often coconut.
Collins
- Comprises: Spirit + lemon (or lime) juice + sugar (&/or liqueur) + soda water
- Glass: Collins
- Serve: Traditionally a stirred/built drink but now often shaken. Always served long over ice.
- Created: London 1814
- Example: Tom Collins
Cooler
- Comprises: Wine/spirit base + soda/ginger ale/other carbonate (often also with flavoured syrup/liqueur + bitters)
- Glass: Collins
- Serve: Built or shaken and served long over ice
- Created: Unknown
- Example: Colonial Cooler
- More info: Cooler is a loose term for a long, iced mixed drink, usually containing wine with soda, ginger ale or another carbonate (sometimes also with syrup/liqueur + bitters). The ratio of soda to spirit is usually approximately three to one.
Crusta
- Comprises: Spirit + lemon juice + sugar + bitters
- Glass: Fluted glass – usually wine glass
- Serve: Shaken and strained into sugar rimmed glass with a large lemon zest
- Created: 1840s or 1850s
- Example: Brandy Crusta
Cup
- Comprises: Spirit + vermouth/wine + fruits + liqueur (often also sugar) + mixer/water.
- Glass: Originally small tankards but now Collins or goblet
- Serve: Mixed over ice in the glass they are served in.
- Created: Mid 1800s
- Example: Pimm’s Cup
Daisy
- Comprises: Spirit + liqueur (usually orange) + lemon or lime juice
- Glass: Coupe, old-fashioned, goblet
- Serve: Shaken and served straight-up, on-the-rocks or frozen
- Example: Margarita
- Created: Pre-1876
- More info: A loose term suggesting a spirit-based drink with liqueur (mostly orange) or flavoured syrup, often served over crushed ice. Daisies always contain lemon or lime juice.
Eggnog
- Comprises: Spirit (mostly rum, brandy, bourbon) + milk &/or cream + sugar/liqueur + egg yolk
- Glass: Old-fashioned, Collins or toddy
- Serve: Shaken and served straight-up. Also served hot.
- Created: 1600s
- Example: Eggnog
- More info: Eggnogs contain sugar, milk (or cream) and the yolk of a fresh egg with either rum, brandy, bourbon or a combination of spirits. Eggnogs are now usually shaken with cubed ice and served straight-up, often with a nutmeg dusting. They are traditionally served at Christmas.
Fix
- Comprises: Spirit + lemon juice + sugar syrup (mostly raspberry syrup or fresh pineapple & sugar)
- Glass: Old-fashioned or goblet
- Serve: Shaken and served over crushed ice.
- Created: Mid-1800s
- Example: Gin Fix
- More info: These are miniature Cobblers – short, sweet, strong, spirit based mixed drinks served over crushed ice in an Old-fashioned or goblet.
Fizz
- Comprises: Spirit + citrus + sugar + carbonated mixer (soda, ginger ale, champagne)
- Glass: Fizz or Highball (8 to 10oz)
- Serve: Shaken and served in tall chilled glass (without ice) topped with carbonate to produce a thick head.
- Created: Late 1800s
- Example: Ramos Gin Fizz
- More info: Fizzes are based on spirit, citrus fruit juices and sugar, which are shaken with ice and strained into an ice-filled Collins glass, then topped up with something fizzy - soda water, ginger ale or even champagne. The addition of the white of an egg turns a plain fizz into a Silver Fizz; add an egg yolk and it becomes a Golden Fizz; add cream and it becomes a Cream Fizz.
The Fizz was at its peak popularity in the late 1800s when it was mostly enjoyed as a morning bracer. Where today we are likely to go for a coffee or two to start the day, then it was the Fizz, and as many as six of them. Distinct styles of drink were associated with different occasions/times of day, and whereas the sour was an evening drink, the Fizz was a morning cocktail.
Flip
- Comprises: Spirit/fortified wine + sugar + egg yolk & white (or just the yolk)
- Glass: Coupe or wine glass
- Serve: Shaken and served up or mixed and heated
- Created: 1600s England
- Example: Sherry Flip
- More info: A flip is a cocktail containing egg (the whole egg or just the yolk), sugar and any spirit or fortified wine. Flips are similar to Eggnogs but while Eggnogs contain milk or cream, Flips don’t. Flips were originally served hot, often heated with a red-hot poker. Today they are occasionally served hot but more usually cold – shaken with ice and strained into a chilled coupe or wine glass, usually with a nutmeg dusting.
Frappé
- Comprises: Spirit or liqueur or cocktail or non-alcoholic liquid
- Glass: Not specific
- Serve: Poured over crushed ice
- Created: 1800s
- Example: Absinthe Frappé
- More info: Pronounced ‘frap-pay’, this refers to any liqueur, spirit, cocktail, coffee or even just milk served over crushed ice.
Frozen
- Comprises: Spirit or liqueur-based cocktail
- Glass: Not specific
- Serve: Blended with crushed ice
- Created: Originally made with shaved ice (which dates back to when man had a knife sharp enough to cut ice), ‘frozen’ cocktails emerged after Fred Waring released his electric blender in 1937.
- Example: Frozen Strawberry Margarita
- More info: Frozen drinks are cocktails mixed by blending the ingredients with crushed ice to produce a cocktail with a slushy consistency.
Grog
- Comprises: Rum + lemon juice + sugar/sweetener
- Glass: Double old-fashioned
- Serve: Shaken and served on-the-rocks
- Created: 1740 or earlier. In 1740, Admiral “Old Grogram” Vernon ordered the British Navy’s daily issue of half a pint high-proof rum be replaced with two servings of a quarter of a pint, diluted 4:1 with water which became known as ‘grog’.
- Example: Grog
- More info: Any drink made with rum and diluted with water can be called a grog, but grogs usually also contain lemon juice, sugar and aromatic fruits or spices. They can be served hot or cold in a mug or a glass. The name is said to originate from when the British Navy used to issue sailors with a daily ration of rum and water.
Highball
- Comprises: Spirit + carbonated mixer
- Glass: Highball (max 10oz capacity)
- Serve: Premixed ingredients or simply poured into ice-filled glass.
- Created: 1890s. First known publication by Chris Lawlor of the Burnet House, Cincinnati, USA.
- Example: Scotch Whisky Highball
- More info: Highballs are simple small mixed drinks, most commonly with only two ingredients - a spirit and a carbonate, served in a tall ice-filled glass (often referred to as a Hi-ball glass). Highballs always have a carbonate (tonic, soda etc.) but unlike Rickeys, Collinses and Fizzes, Highballs traditionally do not contain citrus fruit juice, although that last convention no longer applies, and a small amount of juice is acceptable in a Highball. However, a Highball MUST be served in a glass no larger than 10oz or it is no longer a true Highball.
Julep
- Comprises: Spirit + mint + sugar
- Glass: Julep cup
- Serve: With muddled mint and served over crushed ice.
- Created: Unknown. First known publication 1634 in a court poem by John Milton, England.
- Example: Mint Julep
- More info: Juleps are long drinks with muddled fresh mint and sugar served with crushed ice. Now synonymous with bourbon, Juleps were originally often based on rum or brandy – they can now be based on almost any spirit, although bourbon remains the default.
Martini
- Comprises: Gin (or vodka) + vermouth & often bitters
- Glass: Cocktail (V-shaped Martini)
- Serve: Shaken or stirred and served straight-up
- Created: Unknown. Earlier origins but first “Martini Cocktail” published in Tim Daly’s 1903 Bartenders Encyclopedia
- Example: Martini
- More info: Martini was (and some would argue still is) a type of cocktail containing gin and vermouth (and optionally orange bitters) served in a stemmed glass, in its heyday usually with a ‘V’ shaped bowl, commonly referred to as a Martini glass. From the 50s onwards, Martinis were often made with vodka.
‘Martini’/Alternatini/Neo Martini/Alternatini/Fruit Martini
- Comprises: Vodka (or other spirit) + numerous other ingredients
- Glass: Originally a V-shaped Martini glass but now often a coupe
- Serve: Shaken and served straight-up
- Created: 1990s
- Example: Espresso Martini
- More info: The bastard child of the cocktail world but thanks to the Espresso Martini, Porn Star Martini and French Martini, arguably the second most successful cocktail dynasty. These ‘imposter-‘ / ‘sudo-‘ / ‘Mock-tinis’ emerged in the 1990s becoming popular in New York and dominating cocktail menus in London. They grew on the back of the vodka boom, hence tend to be vodka-based. They are predominantly shaken drinks and the only thing they have in common with a true Martini (see above) is they are (or at least were) served in V-shaped Martini glasses but in recent years are more commonly served in coupe glasses.
Mull
- Comprises: Wine + herbs and spices
- Glass: Goblet or toddy
- Serve: Stirred and served hot
- Created: 2nd century by the Romans
- Example: Mulled Wine
- More info: The word ‘mull’ means to warm a drink, and a mull is a hot mixed drink generally based on wine (usually red) and flavoured with herbs and spices. Mulled drinks are generally made in quantity and served hot in wine goblets – they used to be heated using red hot pokers.
Nogs
- Comprises: Spirit + egg + cream + sweetener
- Glass: Varies
- Serve: Shaken and over ice
- Created: Unknown
- Example: Eggnog
- More info: Nogs traditionally contain egg and cream or milk (whereas Flips contain egg but not milk or cream). Nogs originate from medieval Britain’s hot, milky posset (see below). The name originates from rum being known as a Grog and the cups it was served in being called Noggins. Hence, egg and nog became Eggnog.
Posset
- Comprises: Milk/cream + beer or wine or sherry + honey + spice
- Glass: Two handled Posset
- Serve: Heated over a hob/stove and poured into serving vessel
- Created: 15th century
- Example: Lemon Posset
- More info: A Posset consists of hot milk (or cream) mixed with ale or wine and flavoured with honey and spices. (Egg may sometimes be added.) Traditionally passed around as a sharing drink in a twin handled vessel called a posset and drunk from the pour spout. Today Possets tend to be desserts.
Pousse café
- Comprises: Spirits + liqueurs + syrups
- Glass: Tall thin shot glass or small schooner (2 1⁄2oz max capacity)
- Serve: Layered in glass
- Created: Unknown
- Example: Pousse-Café
- More info: Pousse-cafés are very short, layered cocktails, served in a tall Pousse-café glass. Each ingredient must be poured carefully into the glass so that it floats on the previous layer – this is made possible by the different specific weights or densities of different drinks.
Punch
- Comprises: Spirit + citrus + sugar + spice
- Glass: Punch cup (or Collins glass)
- Serve: Mixed in a punch bowl (or individually mixed and served on-the-rocks)
- Created: 17th century India
- Example: Fish House Punch
Rickey
- Comprises: Spirit + lime juice + sugar/sweetener + soda
- Glass: Highball or sour glass
- Serve: On-the-rocks
- Created: 1880 by George A. Williamson at Shoomaker’s Bar, Washington DC
- Example: Gin Rickey
- More info: Something of a cross between a Collins and a Sour, Rickeys are short mixed drinks containing lime juice, soda and normally gin, although they can also be made with brandy, whisk(e)y or rum and were originally made with bourbon. Rickeys are served in a highball or sour glass (or an old-fashioned will do) but shorter/smaller than a Collins glass.
Sangaree
- Comprises: Wine (usually red) or port + spirit + sugar/sweetener/liqueur ( + often juice)
- Glass: Collins
- Serve: Straight-up or on-the-rocks
- Created: Pre-1736
- Example: Gin Sangre
- More info: This term derives from the Spanish word for blood, Sangre and describes a tall mixed drink based on wine and fortified with spirit, usually served in an ice-filled collins glass (without bitters) and topped with nutmeg. Sangarees can also be served hot in a toddy glass or mug.
Scaffa
- Comprises: Spirit + liqueur + bitters
- Glass: Coupe or Nick & Nora
- Serve: Without ice / room temperature
- Created: Unknown but popular mid-1880s
- Example: Both Harry Johnson and Jerry Thomas included a Brandy Scaffa recipe in their respective bartending manuals.
- More info: The exact meaning of Scaffa has been lost with time, but generally refers to a mixed drink served at room temperature. They are always strong, consisting of a good slug of spirit, sweetened with a dash of liqueur and spiced by a dash of bitters.
Screw
- Comprises: Spirit (usually white) + orange juice
- Glass: Collins
- Serve: Usually mixed in the glass and served on-the-rocks
- Created: Unknown but popular in 1950s
- Example: Harvey_wallbanger
- More info: This loose term describes a cocktail that contains orange juice and any white spirit – it probably derives from the 50s drink the Screwdriver. A whole family of Slow Screw cocktails emerged.
Shrub
- Comprises: Spirit + fruit + sugar
- Glass: Not specific
- Serve: Traditionally served hot but also on-the-rocks
- Created: Unknown
- Example: Orange Shrubb
- More info: Shrubs are old English spirit-based drinks flavoured with fruit and sweetened with sugar. The fruit can be anything from berries to oranges, but the mixture is always left to macerate for a few weeks. It is then strained and served, often hot. Historically, this style of drink was popular in Devon and Cornwall as a way of flavouring smuggled or illicit spirits. Shrubs are best made with brandy or rum.
Sling
- Comprises: Spirit + citrus juice + sugar/liqueur + soda
- Glass: Sling
- Serve: Shaken and served in an ice-filled glass.
- Created: Unknown but popular in late-1800s
- Example: Gin Sling
- More info: Slings are one of the oldest categories of cocktail, the earliest definition of a “cocktail” describes it as being a bittered sling.
Smash
- Comprises: Spirit + mint + sugar
- Glass: Old-fashioned
- Serve: Over cubed or crushed ice
- Created: Unknown but around since 1850s
- Example: Strawberry Basil Smash
- More info: A short julep-like mixed drink containing sugar, mint and spirit, and served over ice (crushed or cubed) in an old-fashioned glass.
Sour
- Comprises: Spirit (or liqueur) + citrus juice (usually lemon) + sugar or other sweetener (not necessary if liqueur based) + bitters (optional) + egg white (optional)
- Glass: Old-fashioned or sour glass.
- Serve: Shaken and served on-the-rocks or shaken and served straight-up.
- Created: The first record of a Sour appears in 1856 and the first known written recipe appears six years later in Jerry Thomas’ 1862 The Bartender’s Guide.
- Example: Whiskey Sour
- More info: Sours are citrus fruit influenced (mostly lime) short spirit (or liqueur) based mixed drinks sweetend with sugar/liqueur/honey and sometimes with egg white. Sometimes topped with champagne or soda water.
Swizzle
- Comprises: Spirit (or strong liqueur) + citrus + flavoursome sweetener or liqueur + bitters
- Glass: Collins
- Serve: Mixed in a glass filled with crushed ice using a swizzle stick
- Created: Originated from the 17th century Switchel
- Example: Chartreuse Swizzle
- More info: Swizzles originated in the West Indies and were originally rum coolers made in tall glasses with ice, stirred with a twig until the glass became frosted.
Tea
- Comprises: Spirits + liqueur + citrus + sugar/sweetener + carbonate or other mixer
- Glass: Collins
- Serve: Shaken and built or simply assembled in an ice-filled glass
- Created: Said by some to have emerged during Prohibition
- Example: Long Island Iced Tea
- More info: A long, mixed drink containing at least two clear spirits and served in a tall, ice-filled glass.
Toddy
- Comprises: Spirit + sugar/sweetener + hot water
- Glass: Toddy glass
- Serve: Stir in a pre-warmed glass
- Created: Unknown but first known written reference on 7th November 1786 in The Edinburgh Advertiser
- Example: Scotch Toddy
- More info: A hot, short, mixed drink often taken to soothe the effects of a cold. Toddies usually contain lemon juice and spices.
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