The first quarter of this century has seen the birth and rebirth of literally thousands of cocktails, more than any other period in history. But it can be argued that most of those original creations were inspired by a handful of foundational cocktails — the liquid mentors of the mixology world. Here’s a list of the most influential drinks of the past 25 years. Some are newer inventions, like the Red Hook, while others are resurrected classics that returned to relevance. Each one has left an unmistakable legacy on cocktail menus around the world.
Last Word
Seattle bartender Murray Stenson didn’t know the Pandora’s box he opened when he put a forgotten pre-Prohibition cocktail called the Last Word on the menu at the Zig Zag Café in the aughts. But word soon spread that the odd, equal-parts mixture of gin, lime juice, Maraschino liqueur, and Chartreuse was not just good, but great. Soon, it was on menus in New York and elsewhere. Soon after that, it began inspiring variations, with every part of the drink subbed out for similar components in different recipes. Over time, Last Word riffs would constitute an entire new branch of sours, one that embraced the bitter and herbal. A few of these would become famous in their own right, like the Division Bell, Final Ward, Naked and Famous, and Paper Plane.
Espresso Martini
When Dick Bradsell came up with this heady mix of sugar, coffee, and vodka at Soho Brasserie in London in the early ’80s, coffee cocktails didn’t have much standing in the bar world. There was the Irish Coffee and dramatic after-dinner affairs like Spanish Coffee and Café Brûlot. And, for many years after its creation, Bradsell’s “wake-you-up-then-f*ck-you-up” concoction stood out similarly as a stand-alone novelty. For a while in the 2010s, it seemed to be fading away. Then, aided by the arrival of better-quality coffee liqueurs like Mr Black, it came roaring back in the last decade to the point where it is one of those rare cocktails that you could safely order in any bar even when it is not on the menu. More significantly, the Espresso Martini brought coffee permanently into regular rotation behind the bar. It’s a rare cocktail menu these days that doesn’t have at least one drink where coffee isn’t the dominant informing flavor.
Negroni
This three-part aperitivo, invented in Florence in the 1910s, spent most of the rest of that century being largely ignored, or at least not celebrated. The cocktail revivalists of the early 21st century, with their love of gin, vermouth, and bitters, finally nudged the old drink into the spotlight. Once there, the Negroni variations began. First, old riffs like the Old Pal, Boulevardier, and Negroni Sblagliato, were resurrected. Then came new spins like the White Negroni, made with gin, Lillet Blanc, and Suze; and the Kingston Negroni, made with rum. And with the arrival of new vermouths and new red bitters and amari from around the world, the potential number of interpretations was endless. It still is.
Oaxaca Old Fashioned
Bartender Phil Ward was just experimenting with mezcal when he created this simple Old Fashioned variation at Death & Co in New York in 2007. He wanted to see what the old but unfamiliar (at least in the U.S.) category of agave spirit could do in a cocktail. Turns out, a lot! Even the half-ounce he put into what he called the Oaxaca Old Fashioned caused the drink to punch well above its weight in terms of flavor and complexity. Soon, he added many more mezcal cocktails to the world’s lexicon when he opened his own bar, Mayahuel, in 2009. And the world’s bartenders took note. Today, there are hundreds upon hundreds of original mezcal cocktails where we once had, literally, none.
Clarified Milk Punch
This is not a single cocktail, but a category of drinks, and an old one at that. Clarified milk punch has been around for centuries. But it had been completely abandoned for generations by the time a few bartenders in the early 2010s began to experiment with the formula. It arguably broke wide open when Betony, a Manhattan restaurant, began offering different milk punches on a regular basis. Some craft cocktail trends burn bright, then fade away. Not this one. Despite the effort involved in creating these potions, the prevalence of clarified milk punches has only grown over the last few years. Some even say they have become a bit too prevalent.
Martini
The Martini has always inspired. Bartenders and drinkers have carefully examined its structure and components since the drink made its debut in the 1880s. This has led to occasional evolutions in the cocktail, such as the hyper-dry Martini, the Vodka Martini and the Dirty Martini. But in no time in the Martini timeline have possibilities exploded as they have in the post-Covid era, a time when every bar has a house Martini on the menu. Modifiers like sherry, sake, shochu, and blanc vermouth have become common, along with gin blends and vermouth blends. None of them are your parents’ or grandparents’ Martini. But your parents never had such a breadth of choice.
Aperol Spritz
Yes, the Aperol Spritz, while inoffensive and quite enjoyable, is a bit of a dull drink. And, yes, it is a corporate creation, brought to you by the folks at Aperol. But it is also hugely influential. If you want to know why the world’s bars are awash with refreshing, fizzy spritzes, look no further than this ubiquitous orange number.
Red Hook
Without the Red Hook, today’s Manhattans would just be Manhattans: bourbon or rye augmented by sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters. Vincenzo Errico, an Italian bartender who worked briefly at Milk & Honey in New York, showed the world you could play with that simple template and come up with something new and different, yet still in the same Manhattan/Brooklyn ballpark. In his case, he substituted the sweet vermouth for Punt e Mes and Maraschino liqueur, and the Red Hook was born in 2003. Other bartenders followed his lead and added a variety of vermouths, amari, and liqueurs — even garnishes other than the cherry — to their interpretations. The population of Manhattan, the cocktail, went from 1 to 1,000.
The Pickleback
Credit: 5ph via stock.adobe.com
To what do we credit the younger generation’s increasing and unending thirst for dirtier and dirtier Martinis? Could it be this oddball boilermaker, whipped up almost by accident at the Bushwick Country Club in Brooklyn. The drink — a shot of whiskey paired with a shot of pickle brine — caught on and went viral in 2009-10. For better or worse, it taught drinkers it was OK, and even cool, to drink brine straight. Now they pile the brine into a conical glass and call themselves Martini drinkers.
Zombie
Credit: Super Juicy
When tiki historian Jeff “Beachbum” Berry found the original recipe for this most famous of tiki drinks in the notebook of an old Don the Beachcomber bartender, he saved the Zombie from lasting infamy. It has been made wrong, cheaply, or badly for decades. The genuine 1934 formula proved it had initially been a good cocktail. The same held true for the Mai Tai when bartenders began making the drink true to original Trader Vic form. Once bartenders realized old tiki cocktails were once excellent and could be great again, through diligence and the use of proper ingredients, the faded tiki bar universe came back to life.
The article The 10 Most Important Cocktails of the 21st Century appeared first on VinePair.