Cocktail Families
Almost every cocktail descends from a handful of templates. Learn them and you can understand, adapt and create hundreds of drinks.
Thinking in templates
A daiquiri, a margarita and a whiskey sour are the same idea: spirit, citrus and sweet. Swap the spirit or the sweetener and you get a new drink. That's the core idea behind books like Cocktail Codex.
The main families
A practical way to group them:
- Old fashioned: spirit, sugar, bitters. E.g. old fashioned, oaxaca old fashioned.
- Martini / Manhattan: spirit plus aromatized wine. E.g. dry martini, manhattan.
- Sour: spirit, citrus, sweet. E.g. daiquiri, margarita, gimlet, whiskey sour.
- Highball: spirit lengthened with something fizzy. E.g. paloma, americano.
- Bitter: Italian bitter base. E.g. negroni, mezcal negroni.
- Spritz and sparkling. E.g. spritz, French 75.
How to use them
When a guest asks for 'something like a margarita, but different', think family: same skeleton, different spirit or modifier. A Tommy's margarita, for example, swaps orange liqueur for agave syrup.
Key terms
- Sour
- Family of spirit, citrus and sweetener.
- Template
- Base ratio structure of a family.
- Modificador
- Ingredient that shapes the base spirit: vermouth, liqueur, amaro.
Related
Rum · Shaken
Daiquiri
Rum, lime and sugar: every bartender's acid test. Three ingredients and nowhere to hide a balance mistake.
Gin · Stirred
Dry Martini
Gin and dry vermouth, nothing more. Its simplicity makes it a precision drink: temperature, dilution and ratio are everything.
Whisky · Stirred
Manhattan
Rye whiskey and sweet vermouth with a touch of bitters: elegant, deep and spicy. A pillar of classic mixology.
Tequila · Shaken
Margarita
The world's most famous tequila sour: agave, lime and orange in balance, with salt as an accent. Made well, it is bright, dry and never cloying.
Gin · Stirred
Negroni
Three equal parts holding each other up: juniper from the gin, bitterness from Campari and spiced sweetness from vermouth. It is Italy's definitive aperitivo and a template behind dozens of riffs.
Whisky · Stirred
Old Fashioned
The cocktail in its original form: spirit, sugar, bitters and water. A slow sipper that shows off the whiskey.
Tequila · Built
Paloma
The tequila highball Mexico drinks at home, at the fonda and on the beach. Grapefruit, lime and salt: refreshing, bittersweet and easy to make.
Amaro · Built
Spritz
Bubbly, bittersweet and low in alcohol, the Spritz is the aperitivo ritual of northern Italy. Light enough for long afternoons.
Vermouth & aperitifs
Vermouth
Vermouth is a fortified wine flavored with herbs, spices and wormwood. It is a classic aperitif and a pillar of cocktails like the negroni and the manhattan.
Digestifs
Amaro
Amaro (Italian for "bitter") is a family of bittersweet herbal liqueurs. They are traditionally drunk after a meal as a digestif.
Sources
- Cocktail Codex by Alex Day, Nick Fauchald and David Kaplan
Updated October 20, 2026