Cocktails From Around The World to Recreate at Home

This isn’t quite mixology 101, but it comes quite close. While mixologists are constantly dreaming up new concoctions to wow our taste buds, there’s nothing like the tried and tested, beloved favourites from around the world.

There are many versions of how the cocktail – as a drink, a concept, or an hour of the day – came to be: everything from fabled cockfights in European taverns, to using pepper and ginger to perk up a race horse’s tail to give it a look of vim and vigour.

Cocktails come in so many different incarnations and are an amalgamation of varied flavours rolled into one – sweet, salty, bitter, sour, fizzy, creamy, even spicy. They also hail from all corners of the world. Each sip of a cocktail’s awesome alchemy wonderfully lets us discover our palates, and in our imaginations, the enchanting places we might not have been. Indeed, cocktails are liquid art expressed with a variety of spirits and liqueurs that can transport us to different times and places.

While new mixes and cocktail recipes are being dreamt up every day, you can re-discover these iconic 8 and learn how to recreate them too.

The name Long Island Iced Tea is a bit of a misnomer. Although it looks like a tall, refreshing glass of iced tea, it isn’t, and it does not contain any tea.

In 1972, bartender Robert ‘Rosebud’ Butt invented the Long Island Iced Tea (LIIT) cocktail, when he tended bar at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island in Hampton Bays. Robert Rosebud created it as an entry in a friendly contest for a new mixed drink that uses triple sec or orange liqueur.

LIIT is the sort of drink that combines many spirits in one tall glass of cocktail. Its palatable mix of vodka, tequila, rum and gin, with a giant splash of triple sec and loads of ice, ticks all the boxes as a crowd pleaser. With 22% alcohol, this smooth yet potent melange that can go to your head quickly, is the sort of drink to be sipped, ever so slowly, on idyllic summer vacation days.

Ingredients:

• ½ ounce Belvedere Vodka, sweet and savoury, with a hint of white pepper and spice, notes of almond, brazil nut and clotted cream.
• ½ ounce Don Papa 10 Year Rum, which has a rich and supple mouth feel with a smooth and delicate finish.
• ½ ounce Sipsmith VJOP Gin, with strong junipery pine and cedarwood notes and hints of zesty orange.
• ½ ounce Tequila Herradura Reposado, with notes of cooked agave, vanilla and butter.
• ½ ounce triple sec (orange-flavoured liqueur)
• 1 ounce lemon-lime syrup
• 1 ounce cola
• 1 lemon slice

Method:
Step 1: Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
Step 2: Pour in vodka, rum, gin, tequila, triple sec, and lemon-lime syrup over ice; cover and shake.
Step 3: Pour cocktail into a tall cylindrical glass.
Step 4: Top with splash of cola for colour.
Step 5: Garnish with a lemon slice.

Margarita is often hailed as the quintessential Mexican cocktail, but its true origins are somewhat complicated and hazy. There are as many as 6 stories surrounding how the margarita cocktail came to be. All except one story – the one from LA – puts it as hailing from 5 Mexican cities – Acapulco, Juarez, Puebla, Rosarito and Tijuana.

The drink was said to have been mostly concocted by bartenders through sheer experimentation or out of necessity, and also mostly said to have been named after women in the stories called Margaret or Marjorie. The Margarita has also been nicknamed Mexico’s tequila sour because of its ingredients.

Margarita’s Mexican roots are not unexpected, with tequila being the primary alcoholic base in the mix. This beloved Mexican export is popular for its pleasant citrusy, salty taste, which brings to mind balmy evenings at Mexican haciendas. It is the perfect drink to toast a relaxing twilight, post-siesta. Margaritas are best drunk from wide champagne glasses.

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Patron Teguila Silver, fresh, fruity and citrusy, handmade in small batches from the finest Weber Blue Agave.
• 1 ounce Cointreau Noir, a superbly rich, orange liqueur cognac with an infusion of almonds and walnuts.
• 1 ounce lime juice
• Coarse salt to rim the glass
• 1 lime wedge

Method:
Step 1: Place salt in a small plate.
Step 2: Moisten the rim of a wide champagne or lowball glass with the lime wedge.
Step 3: Roll rim of the glass in the salt to coat.
Step 4: In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine remaining ingredients, shake well, and strain into the prepared glass.

This elegant tipple, with its innate French je ne sais quoi, doesn’t try too hard. It is easy to prepare and universally delicious. Who would have known that mixing equal parts orange juice and fine champagne could result in such a beautiful mixture with an equally beautiful name – the Mimosa? Back in 1925, a genius of a bartender at the exquisite Ritz Hotel in Place Vendome, Paris, certainly did.

Named for the pretty yellow flower, another account about the history of the glamorous Mimosa cocktail, says that Alfred Hitchcock invented this beloved drink in San Francisco in the 1940s. But more likely is the fact that the famous director of Psycho and Rear Window popularised the Mimosa as a brunch drink among the glitterati in America.

This tasty, thirst-quenching cocktail is best made with top-quality champagne and freshly-squeezed, pulp-strained orange juice. It is a suitable drink accompaniment with hearty brunch food like eggs benedict, crab omelette, steak sandwiches, cold cuts, quiche, crepes and French pastries.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ ounces Dom Perignon Brut champagne, with aromas of almond and powdered cocoa that develop into white fruit and hints of dried flowers.
• 2 ½ ounces freshly-squeezed, pulp-strained orange juice

Method:
Step 1: Fill glass flute with champagne.
Step 2: Top it off with equal portion of orange juice.

Havana, Cuba is named the birthplace of the humble Mojito, which, interestingly, has its roots and reputation in medicine. Back in the day, as the South American islanders of Cuba were known to have found many medicinal cures for common tropical diseases, a party of intrepid explorers from Havana ventured there to learn more. This was how they discovered and brought back with them ingredients such as a crude version of rum (which is the main spirit in mojito) called ‘burning water’, lime juice, sugarcane juice and mint. The medicinal cocktail tasted so good, it eventually became a drink to enjoy.

Another minor theory of the Mojito’s origins holds that the name relates to mojo, a Cuban seasoning made from lime and used to flavour dishes.

As destiny would have it, the Mojito was born of the perfect combination of warming rum, sweet sugarcane and citrusy lime. The Mojito’s bracing lime-mint combination also makes it a refreshing libation for muggy, humid island days in the exotic Caribbean. Little wonder it is also a palate pleaser in other tropical countries that enjoy year-round summer. The Mojito is best drunk from a highball glass, with lots of mint leaves and a lime wedge for garnishing.

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 lime, cut into 4 wedges
• 4 sprigs fresh mint
• 4 ounces Diplomatico Rum Planas, a unique white rum aged for up to six years, with a smooth and complex flavour and tropical aromas that lead to slightly fruity and creamy finish.
• 16 ounces club soda
• 16 ounces crushed ice
• 2 lime wedges, as garnish

Method:
Step 1: Place 1 teaspoon of sugar into each of two 12 ounce highball glasses.
Step 2: Squeeze the juice from a lime wedge into each glass, drop in the wedge, and add 2 sprigs of mint.
Step 3: Use a spoon or muddler to mash the sugar, lime juice, and mint together.
Step 4: Fill each glass about half full with crushed ice.
Step 5: Fill glasses with rum and club soda, stir.
Step 6: Garnish with additional lime wedges and mint sprigs.

The name of Louisville’s official cocktail has its beginnings in old money. The recipe for the Old Fashioned was said to have been invented by a bartender at the Pendennis Club, in honour of Colonel James E. Pepper, a prominent bourbon distiller, who later brought it to the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria bar in New York City.

With its conception rooted in the city's history, in 2015 the city of Louisville even named the Old Fashioned as its official cocktail. So much so that each year to this day, during the first two weeks of June, Louisville celebrates Old Fashioned Fortnight, which culminates on June 14, as a bourbon festival to rival Oktoberfest.

For a bona fide Louisville, Kentucky experience, one of the best ways to enjoy an Old Fashioned these days is still the old fashioned way: from a lowball glass, listening to lonesome tunes and melancholic folk songs.

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, comprising more than 200 detectable flavour notes, from bold grain and wood, to sweet aromatics, spicy, fruity and floral notes. 
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup (or ½ lump of sugar)
• ½ orange slice
• 1 cherry with stem
• 1 lemon twist
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters (a herbal, alcoholic preparation)
• 2 dashes of water

Method:
Step 1: Mix sugar, water and Angostura bitters in a lowball tumbler.
Step 2: Drop in a cherry and an orange wedge.
Step 3 : Muddle ingredients into a paste using a muddler or the back of a spoon.
Step 4: Pour in bourbon whiskey, fill with ice cubes, and stir.

Sangria, which means ‘blood-letting’ in Spanish and Portuguese, named for the way it looks, is really a Spanish wine punch that’s now enjoyed not only in Spain, but around the world. This is partly because of its many tasty versions – there’s Bubbly Sangria, Rose Sangria, Red, White, even Blue Sangria.

Sangria was traditionally made with Spanish Tempranillo and other wines from Rioja. But these days, it is also mixed with a berry-rich and spicy cabernet sauvignon, or a dry white wine like a chardonnay.

This sultry-looking drink, with its elementally powerful name, is also made delicious with antioxidant fruits like redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, oranges, grapefruit, apple and pineapple.

Sangria is a pitcher drink best sipped from a red wine glass, fruits included, and meant to be shared at gatherings, where food like tapas and copper platters of paella are served.

Ingredients:

• 750ml or 1 bottle of Montes Alpha – Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, a robust red with outstanding aromas of ripe figs and blackberries complemented by notes of crème de cassis, cayenne pepper and dark chocolate.
• 120ml Lacolline Brandy XO Plenitude, an elegant brandy blended from eau-de-vies and then aged for more than 10 years in oak casks to reach a peak of delicacy.
• 50ml Cointreau, a complex blend of orange peel essences, zesty, fresh, floral and sweet.
• Half a cup of sugar syrup
• The juice from 4 oranges
• Half a litre soda water
• 1 lemon slice
• 1 lime slice
• Your choice of fresh fruits to fill half a pitcher
• Mint leaves (or similar) to garnish

Method:
Step 1: In a pitcher, add wine, Cointreau, brandy, syrup, and orange juice. Stir.
Step 2: Add fresh fruit and stir.
Step 3: Let sangria stand in fridge for at least two hours, though overnight is ideal.
Step 4: Add soda water just before serving it chilled.

Raffles Hotel’s Long Bar, famous for its bags of groundnuts and shells strewn on its checkered floors, is the birthplace of the luscious, complex Singapore Sling.

Equally celebrated, the sexy pink Singapore Sling libation was imagined and stirred up by one creative Hainanese bartender, Ngiam Tong Boon in 1915, and concocted for upper-crust ladies in colonial Singapore to enjoy on muggy afternoons.

This world-renowned fruity, punchy potion is delicious and fortifying, with intoxicating effects that slowly creep up on you. It has been said to mirror many sumptuous, enigmatic aspects of Singapore, an interesting kwali of cultures, languages, foods, tastes and attractions.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ ounces Monsieur Gin Bio, made from organic verbena, elderflower, juniper berries and coriander seeds, which are harvested by hand in the Spirits Valley
• ½ ounce cherry-flavoured brandy
• ¼ ounce triple sec or orange liqueur like Cointreau
• ¼ ounce Benedictine® DOM, a herbal liqueur, with an artful alchemy of 27 different plants and spices
• 4 ounces pineapple juice
• ½ ounce lime juice
• ½ ounce grenadine syrup
• 1 fresh pineapple slice
• 1 maraschino cherry
• 1 cup ice

Method:
Step 1: Fill a tall cylindrical glass with 1 cup ice and freeze it.
Step 2: Mix gin, cherry-flavoured brandy, triple sec, Benedictine, pineapple juice, lime juice, and grenadine in  cocktail shaker. Add 1 cup ice, cover and shake until the mixture is chilled.
Step 3: Strain shaken blend and pour it into the prepared glass.
Step 4: Garnish with a slice of pineapple and a cherry.

The Ume Highball is Japanese through and through. In true Nippon spirit (pun intended), this contemporary, easy-to-drink cocktail is light, an uplifting highball cocktail of ume or plum liqueur, Japanese whisky, ginger juice and soda water. It is a small twist to the classic Japanese favourite, the highball, a much-loved liquid accompaniment with food. 

Umeshu, the main alcohol in this new-fangled highball, is a traditional type of Japanese liqueur made from ume plums steeped in sugar and alcohol (rice, potato or barley wine). Ume in fact, was brought to Japan from China over 1,000 years ago, and is beloved for its beautiful pink blossoms too.

Umeshu was first consumed as medicine for sore throats, but when the liquor laws were relaxed during the Showa period, people began to make umeshu at home. It became a popular alcoholic beverage due to its sweet aroma, sour-plum taste, and relatively low alcoholic content.

Combined with the other Japanese spirit of choice, whisky, and made into a highball with lashings of soda water and other piquant garnishings, this nouveau Ume Highball cocktail is certainly three times a true Japanese winner.

Ingredients:

• 1 ounce The Choya Extra Years umeshu, revered throughout Japan for its balance of sweetness, acidity and fragrance.
• 1 ounce Kakubin Suntory Whisky, delicate with a light, sweet aroma and a crisp finish
• 1 tsp ginger juice (from crushed or grated fresh ginger)
• 3 ½ ounces chilled soda
• Ice
• A small stub of ginger thinly sliced, as garnish

Method:
Step 1: Grate a portion of fresh ginger, juice and strain it.
Step 2: Fill a tall glass with ice
Step 3: Mix the whisky, umeshu and ginger juice in a small glass or cocktail shaker.
Step 4: Pour the blend on the side of the glass, rather than over the ice.
Step 5: Fill the glass with soda, again from the side of the glass.
Step 6: Stir the cocktail gently and garnish with a ribbon of thinly sliced ginger. 

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