Less is More – Minimalist Cocktails

Sometimes less can be deliciously more! There’s no need to have your bar stocked with every kind of liquor imaginable in order to make great cocktails that your guests will love. And you’ll also be any bartender’s favorite patron when you ask for a 3-ingredient cocktail that doesn’t require them to toast a thinly sliced vanilla bean during peak bar hours.

If you’re thinking these are going to be barebones, old school, cocktails that your granddad drank, well you’re partially right. Some of the most enduring drinks have the simplest ingredients, which is probably why they’ve managed to stand the test of time.

Check out our list of ultra-simple cocktails and get to impressing your friends, and yourself, in no time.

Vesper

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Gin
• ¾ oz. Vodka
• ⅓ oz. Lillet Blanc

Directions

1. Add all the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice and stir
2. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
3. Serve straight in a martini glass with a thin slice of lemon peel

Green Ghost

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Gin
• ½ oz. Green Chartreuse
• ½ oz. fresh lime juice, from 1 lime

Directions

1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add ingredients.
2. Shake until well chilled, about 15 seconds.
3. Strain into cocktail glass and serve.

Great Gatsby

Ingredients

• 1 oz. Vodka
• 1 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 2½ oz. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
• Garnish: orange slice

Directions

1. Fill mixing glass halfway with ice and add ingredients.
2. Stir until cold and strain into ice-filled glass.
3. Garnish with orange slice.

Barbados Cocktail

Ingredients

• 1 oz. Velvet Falernum
• 1½ oz. Dark rum
• ¾ oz. freshly squeezed juice from 1 to 2 limes

Directions

1. Fill mixing glass halfway full of crushed ice and add ingredients.
2. Shake for 15 seconds.
3. Strain into cocktail glass and serve immediately.

Japanese Cocktail

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Cognac
• ½ oz. Orgeat
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters
• Lemon peel for garnish

Directions

1. Fill a mixing glass half full of ice, add ingredients, and stir well.
2. Strain into chilled cocktail glass.
3. Twist lemon peel over the drink and drop in as a garnish.

Sparkling Suze

Ingredients

• ¾ oz. Suze
• 1¼ oz. St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• 4 oz chilled Cava
• Lemon twist, for garnish

Directions

1. Add Suze and St-Germain to a mixing glass and fill with ice.
2. Stir until well chilled, about 15 seconds.
3. Strain into a Champagne flute and top with Cava.
4. Garnish with lemon twist.

Dark & Stormy

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Dark rum
• ½ oz. Lime juice
• 4 oz. Ginger beer

Directions

1. Fill a highball with ice.
2. Pour in ginger beer, and lime juice, followed by the rum. (the drink should look layered)
3. Stir gently and garnish with lime.

Man About Town

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Rye whiskey
• 1 oz. Cynar
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth
• Brandied cherry

Directions

1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add ingredients, and stir until very cold, about 15 seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a brandied cherry in the bottom of the glass.