10 Best Spirit-Forward Cocktails

Spirit-forward stirred cocktails are the cleanest expression of the craft. No citrus, no egg, no sugar to hide behind — the drink is the spirit, plus modifiers, plus dilution and temperature. When they're bad they're embarrassing; when they're good they're transcendent.

Here are ten that matter, in rough order of foundational importance.

1. Martini

Gin, dry vermouth, 5:1 or 6:1 ratio, stir with Kold-Draft ice for 20 seconds, strain into a chilled coupe. Lemon twist — express, rim the glass, drop it in.

The platonic cocktail. If you can make a perfect Martini, you can make anything.

2. Manhattan

2 oz rye, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 2 dashes Angostura. Stir, strain, cherry (brandied, never neon-red). Some traditions put a dash of orange bitters in too; do it, it's better.

The Martini's older cousin. Where the Martini is all about precision, the Manhattan is about texture — the way the rye and vermouth bind together.

3. Negroni

Equal parts gin, Campari, sweet vermouth. 1:1:1. Stir with ice, strain over a large cube in a rocks glass, orange peel expressed and dropped.

The most forgiving cocktail on this list. Hard to screw up, impossible to make boring.

4. Old Fashioned

2 oz rye or bourbon, 1 barspoon demerara syrup (or a sugar cube dissolved with a few dashes of water), 2 dashes Angostura, 1 dash orange bitters. Stir with ice, serve on a large cube. Expressed orange peel.

The original cocktail recipe. Everything else branched from here.

5. Boulevardier

Negroni's whiskey cousin. 1.5 oz rye or bourbon, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 1 oz Campari. Stir, strain, orange peel.

Heavier and more autumnal than the Negroni. A great bridge for people who don't yet love bitter drinks but want to get there.

6. Sazerac

2 oz rye, 1 barspoon demerara, 3 dashes Peychaud's bitters, 1 dash Angostura. Stir. Rinse a chilled rocks glass with absinthe or Herbsaint, dump. Strain into glass, lemon twist expressed and discarded (the oils matter, the peel doesn't).

New Orleans' contribution to the canon. The absinthe rinse is non-negotiable.

7. Rob Roy

Manhattan with scotch. 2 oz blended scotch (or single malt if you're showing off), 1 oz sweet vermouth, 2 dashes Angostura. Stir, strain, cherry.

Weird in the best way. The smoke-free scotch + vermouth combination is completely different from a Manhattan even though the recipe is structurally identical.

8. Vieux Carré

Rye, cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, Peychaud's and Angostura. Another New Orleans drink, this time from the Hotel Monteleone. Denser and more complex than any of the above. The Bénédictine is the secret.

1 oz rye, 1 oz cognac, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 1 barspoon Bénédictine, 1 dash Angostura, 1 dash Peychaud's. Stir, strain over ice, lemon twist.

9. Martinez

The Martini's great-grandfather. 2 oz Old Tom gin, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 1 barspoon maraschino liqueur, 2 dashes orange bitters. Stir, strain, lemon twist.

If you like the structure of a Manhattan but want gin, this is where you go.

10. Hanky Panky

Created at the Savoy in the 1920s by Ada Coleman for Charles Hawtrey. 1.5 oz gin, 1.5 oz sweet vermouth, 2 dashes Fernet-Branca, orange peel.

A Martini-Negroni hybrid with a fernet kick. Absolutely wild and completely coherent.