Cocktails You Can Make At Home

There are several cocktails that everyone should know how to make. It’s one of those life skills that everyone needs.

We think so anyway.

Learning to make some popular cocktails is a great skill to have in the locker and will level up your house party game.

Any decent party worth it’s salt will offer a selection of cocktails. Beer or wine alone just won’t cut it.

Luckily, we have put together a guide on how to make some of the most popular cocktails – think Pornstar Martinis, Negroni and Espresso Martinis.

And what if we were to tell you it’s really easy to make these wildly popular cocktails at home?

Really easy.

Take a look below at our guide on how to make popular cocktails at home and look out for our bar equipment infographic at the end of the post with great alternatives to professional kit you can find in your kitchen.

How To Make A Pornstar Martini

The worlds most popular cocktail is a modern classic. And It’s easy to see why.

The flavours of passionfruit and vanilla, vodka and prosecco, all blended and served straight up in a martini glass. Interested in another vodka based recipe? Check out the tea thyme flip.

It’s a masterclass in creating a cocktail with MASS appeal. Below is our recipe and method to make a Pornstar Martini – if you want to buy a kit with all of the ingredients ready to go the click here.

Tasting Notes: Sweet – Sour – Tropical

Pornstar Martini Ingredients

40ml Absolut Vanilla Vodka
15ml Passoa Passionfruit Liqueur
15ml Vanilla Sugar Syrup
20ml Passionfruit Puree or 1 ½ Fresh Passionfruit’s
50ml Champagne or Prosecco

Method

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, excluding the champagne or prosecco, and fill with cubed ice. If you are using fresh passionfruit’s, cut in half and scoop out the flesh and pop in the shaker. Shake hard to blend all the ingredients.

Strain into a martini glass (if you are using fresh passionfruit beware of the seeds – these will need to be strained out with a tea strainer or similar) and top with prosecco.

How To Make A Negroni

An extremely popular classic cocktail, the Negroni has legions of fans. It also has more than its fair share of people who are not the biggest fans.

The antithesis of the fruity sling or martini, the Negroni cocktail is complex and bitter and does not suit every palate.

We love them here though.

Here is a great Negroni Cocktail Making Kit from our friends at The Cocktail Society

Tasting Notes: Bitter – Herbal – Balanced

Negroni Ingredients

25ml Williams Gin
25ml Campari
25ml Antica Formula Vermouth
Orange Zest

Method
Combine all of the ingredients, excluding the orange zest in a rocks or old fashioned glass. Half fill with cubed ice and stir 3 times with a bar spoon. Squeeze the orange zest over the drink and drop into the cocktail.

How To Make An Espresso Martini

The Espresso Martini is a cocktail you can order in every bar in the land, simple to make and oh so delicious.

The allure is clearly the blend of espresso and vodka, the alcohol and caffeine seemingly giving the drinker a supposed edge.

We just think they taste damn good.

Tasting Notes: Rich – Light Bitterness – Smooth

Espresso Martini Ingredients

25ml Chase Vodka
25ml Mr Blacks Coffee Liqueur
30ml Espresso (a single shot)
5ml Sugar Syrup (see how to make it here)

Method
Add all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Fill with cubed ice and shake hard (shaking this cocktail hard is a must to get that all-important foamy head on the cocktail) Strain into a martini glass and garnish with three coffee beans.

How To Make a Cosmopolitan

Love them or hate them the Cosmopolitan is a very popular cocktail.

It’s also super easy to knock up at home and is a real crowd-pleaser at cocktail parties.

In terms of popularity versus ease of making the Cosmopolitan does score very high.

The recipe below is the classic and original recipe. If you are the type to cut corners, then swap out the citrus vodka for the normal stuff and forget the orange bitters.

Tasting Notes: Fruity – Citrus – Tart

Cosmopolitan Ingredients

30ml Citrus Vodka
20ml Triple Sec (orange liqueur)
60ml Cranberry Juice
15-10ml Lime Juice (2-3 lime wedges squeezed)
2 Dashes Orange Bitters
Flamed Orange Disc

Method

Put all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and fill with cubed ice. Shake up and strain into a martini glass.

Cut a coin-sized disc from a firm orange.

Either squeeze the oil directly over the glass or, if you are feeling adventurous, in one hand hold the orange between your thumb and forefinger with the orange side facing towards your cocktails.

In the other hold a lit lighter or match in front of the orange. Squeeze the orange to expel the oil over the flame and drop the peel into the cocktail.

How To Make A Mojito

The Mojito is a failsafe cocktail but one we would not necessarily recommend for parties. Why? They need to be made individually and are quite time consuming to create. People do love them though, so we’ll let you decide.

Mojito Ingredients

50ml Aged Rum
10 Fresh Mint Leaves
25ml Lime Juice (6 Lime Wedges)
15ml Sugar Syrup (the ideal is demerara)
Top Soda
Mint Sprig

Tasting Notes: Fresh – Citrus – Balanced

Method

Squeeze 6 lime wedges into a highball glass and drop in. Add all ingredients excluding the soda.

Top with crushed ice and churn with a bar spoon (you essentially want to fully blend all the ingredients together). Fill glass with more crushed ice, top with soda and garnish.

How To Make A Margarita

Margaritas are having a moment and have got to be the ultimate summer party cocktail. Our advice is to not skimp on the tequila. There is some brilliant and cost-effective tequilas available at the supermarkets now so make sure you choose wisely – it makes or breaks the cocktail.

Margarita Ingredients

50ml Aqua Riva Reposado Tequila
30ml Cointreau
20ml Lime Juice (4 Lime Wedges)
10ml Sugar Syrup

Tasting Notes: Earthy – Citrus – Sweet

Method

Put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and fill with cubed ice. Shake up and strain into a martini glass or a rocks glass on ice. Either garnish with a salt rim or a lime wedge.

How To Make An Aperol Spritz

The Aperol Spritz cocktail has been the drink of the summer for some years. This genius drink is so simple to make and is extremely quaffable. This Italian aperitif is dry and bitter which really needs the garnish as its adds some essential fruit sweetness to the cocktail.

Aperol Spritz Ingredients

60ml Aperol
90ml Prosecco
Top Soda Water
Orange Slice

Method
Fill a large wine glass or goblet with cubed ice and add the Aperol followed by the prosecco. Top with quality soda water. Garnish with a wheel from a large orange.

How To Make An Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned is a serious classic. Often sat perched atop of the worlds most popular cocktail lists it is a serious player in the cocktail world. If you group cocktails by occasion this is not a party drink, its more a cocktail for after a nice meal sat in front of a roaring log fire. Short, strong and complex, it’s a delightful way to drink bourbon whiskey.

Below is our recipe and method to make an Old Fashioned cocktail – make sure to check out our Old Fashioned Cocktail Making Kit.

Old Fashioned Ingredients

50ml Makers Mark Bourbon
1 Unrefined Demerara Sugar Cube
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Orange Zest

Method
Put the sugar cube on a napkin or kitchen towel and add 3 dashes to the cube and transfer to an old fashioned glass (we do this to prevent adding too much powerful bitters into the glass – the napkin absorbs any excess dashes)

Drop-in two orange zests and add the Bourbon. Put two or three cubes of ice into the glass and stir until dissolved. Repeat this process once or twice more according to taste then top with more ice.

Add one more zest, wiping on the rim before dropping in the cocktail.

How To Make A Bramble

The Bramble is one of the UK’s best exports, a thoroughly British affair invented by London bartender Dick Bradsell. As the name suggests, it’s a fresh blackberry cocktail balanced with gin and lemon juice.

The Bramble is a brilliant cocktail and will be right up there with your favourites. Just a note – ensure you use crushed ice and not cubed for this cocktail – it is an essential part of the drink.

Bramble Ingredients

50ml Slingsby Gin
25ml Fresh Lemon Juice (three lemon wedges)
10ml Sugar Syrup
10ml Crème De Mure (blackberry liqueur to you and I)
Blackberry and Lemon Slice

Method
Fill a rocks glass with crushed ice. Add all ingredients (except the liqueur) and blend all of the ingredients well. Top with crushed ice so there is a nice crown on the top. Lace the liqueur over the top and add the blackberry and lemon slice.

How To Make A Daiquiri

Another famous cocktail that is as simple as any cocktail comes. Daiquiris, like Margaritas, lets the spirit really sing, which is somewhat of a lost art in modern cocktail mixology.

And we do mean simple, rum lime and sugar combine and are served either over ice or straight up in a martini glass.

The Daiquiri is another with a large number of variations, so once you have cracked the original get creative.

Daiquiri Ingredients

50ml Aged Rum
25ml Lime Juice
15ml Sugar Syrup (add to taste – some prefer a more sour or sweeter cocktail)
Lime Zest

Method
Add all of the ingredients to a shaker and shake hard over ice. Strain into a rocks glass with cubed ice or a martini glass and garnish with a lime zest.

Bartender Notes

1. The ingredients are all very easy to source – most things you can buy from a supermarket. We have named brands but any premium brand will do. As ever – the cocktail is only as good as its ingredients.
2. Vanilla Syrup you can either make at home with sugar syrup infused with a vanilla pod or buy online at retailers such as Master Of Malt.

Cocktail Equipment Substitutes

In terms of cocktail-making equipment more and more people have cocktail shakers these days. If you don’t, kitchen items such as a blender cup, protein shaker or even a tupperware with a lid can do the same job for you.

For more inspiration, check out our autumn spritz recipes.