Cocktail Families Explained: Sours, Highballs, and More
Most classic cocktails fall into a handful of templates. Learn the patterns and you can recognize — or invent — almost any drink.
The Sour
Spirit, citrus, and sweetener in roughly a 2:1:1 ratio, shaken with ice. The Whiskey Sour and Daiquiri are textbook examples — swap the spirit and you get an entirely new drink from the same skeleton.
The Old Fashioned template
Spirit, sugar, and bitters, stirred with ice and served in a rocks glass. Once you understand this pattern, the Old Fashioned and countless riffs on it make a lot more sense.
The Highball
Spirit plus a larger volume of a single mixer, built directly in a tall glass over ice. The Gin and Tonic, Moscow Mule, and Cuba Libre are all highballs at heart.
The Martini family
Spirit and vermouth, stirred and served up with no ice. The Martini, Manhattan, and Rob Roy all follow this template with different base spirits.
The Fizz and Collins
A Sour lengthened with soda water. The Tom Collins is essentially a Whiskey Sour-style build topped with soda in a tall glass.
Cocktails to try
Whiskey Sour
A silky, tart classic where bourbon meets fresh lemon juice and a touch of sweetness, optionally crowned with a frothy egg white foam.
Old Fashioned
The original cocktail. A spirit-forward showcase of whiskey, mellowed slightly with sugar and aromatic bitters.
Moscow Mule
A zippy, thirst-quenching mix of vodka, spicy ginger beer, and fresh lime juice, traditionally served in a copper mug.
Martini
The definitive gin cocktail, stirred with dry vermouth and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist.
Tom Collins
Gin's answer to the Collins family: bright lemon and soda water lengthen a gin base into a tall cooler.