14 Bartender-Approved Whiskey Cocktails You Need to Try
If the Manhattan or old fashioned teaches us anything, it’s that with whiskey cocktails, less is always more. That's why we tapped top bartenders from around the country to gather cocktail recipes that have around four or five ingredients and put the whiskey front and center. It doesn’t hurt that these cocktails are quick and simple to make at home, too.
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“This slow-sipping cocktail is balanced between bitter and sweet and is a perfect after dinner drink,” says Benjamin Schiller, beverage director for Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants group.
Ingredients:
- 2 oz bourbon or rye
- 1/2 oz Aperol
- 3/4 oz Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
Instructions: Combine all ingredients into a mixing glass, add ice, stir, and strain over one large cube in a rocks glass. Add aromatic garnish with Allspice liqueur and orange oil.
“The Whiskey Smash is my all-time favorite classic whiskey cocktail,” says Schiller. “One can add any additional fruits or flavors to this format to put an immediate twist on this classic. At The Sixth, we commonly use whatever berries are in season to make this one of our nightly specials.”
Ingredients:
- 2 oz bourbon
- .75 oz simple syrup
- 1/2 lemon
- Mint
Instructions: Combine bourbon, half of a lemon, and simple syrup in a shaker tin. Muddle, add mint and ice, shake, and strain over one large piece of ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with mint.
“I wanted to find something that could further integrate the nutty notes of the bourbon with the bittersweet notes of Campari,” says Erick Castro, owner of Polite Provisions in San Diego. “I ended up finding the perfect ingredient in the form of Creme de Noyaux, an often forgotten almond liqueur that has recently been making a comeback.”
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 oz bourbon
- 3/4 oz Campari
- 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
- Barspoon Creme de Noyaux
Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice, stir. Pour into an ice-filled old fashioned glass and garnish with an orange twist.
“Milk & Honey bartender Vincenzo Errico created the Red Hook cocktail in 2004, setting off a wave of Brooklyn cocktail variants all named for neighborhoods in the borough,” says Chad Solomon, co-creator of Midnight Rambler in Dallas. “The Bensonhurst is a twist on the classic Brooklyn Cocktail I created in early 2006. I was inspired to create the drink due to the lack of original-formula Amer Picon to make an authentic Brooklyn, so I used Cynar instead.”
Ingredients:
- 3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
- 1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino
- 1/4 oz Cynar 70
- 2 oz Hochstadter’s Vatted rye whiskey
Instructions: Stir, strain, and serve straight up in a Nick and Nora glass.
“I love a whiskey sour as my first cocktail of the evening,” says Scott Beattie, beverage director at Meadowood Napa Valley. “My personal preference is for a well-aged bourbon and a dash or two of aromatic bitters to add a bit more flavor and depth to the drink.”
Ingredients:
- 2 oz bourbon (preferably one that's at least 7 years old and 90 proof or higher)
- 1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3/4 simple syrup (1:1 ratio)
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
Instructions: First, fill an empty double rocks glass with ice and set aside. Add all ingredients to an empty mixing glass, add enough ice to fill the glass completely, seal it up tight, and shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Unseal and double strain over the fresh ice in the double rocks glass. Garnish with a real Maraschino cherry.
“When coming up with our house Manhattan for Goose and Gander in St. Helena five years ago, my friend Michael Jack Pazdon and I created this version,” says Beattie. “Take the time to seek out these bitters, you won't be disappointed!”
Ingredients:
- 2 oz bourbon (we use Evan William's Single Barrel)
- 1 oz Carpano Antica vermouth
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
- 1 dash Fee Brothers Barrel-Aged Bitters
- 1 dash Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Bitters
Instructions: Add all ingredients to an empty mixing glass, add ice 2/3 of the way up, stir for 15 seconds, and strain into an empty, chilled coupe glass or over a large ice cube. Garnish with a real Maraschino cherry.
“The Toy Tiger, named for a now defunct but legendary bar in Louisville, is our version of a Manhattan,” says Stacie Stewart, general manager at Decca in Louisville, KY. “We choose to use rye whiskey (George Dickel is the current staple, but Bulleit Rye is an excellent substitution) and Bonal, which is a quina liqueur crafted with gentiane that adds an herbaciousness that sweet vermouth does not. If you can't find Bonal, you can use high-quality sweet vermouth like Carpano Antica and extra Angostura.”
Ingredients:
- 2 oz rye whiskey
- 0.5 oz Bonal
- 0.25 oz simple syrup
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
Instructions: Build ingredients in a shaker tin, add ice, and stir. Strain into a double old fashioned glass with one big ice cube. Garnish with a lemon peel or orange twist.
“It's a very simple, very Southern classic: bourbon and sweet tea,” says Stewart. “I use Buffalo Trace because it has a really nice, clean, grassy finish that pairs well with tea. It's important to use really good tea; I make a mix of Luzianne cold brew and Celestial Seasonings Peach and finish with about a half ounce of simple syrup so that the drink is sweet, but not enough to overpower the subtleties of the bourbon.”
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Buffalo Trace bourbon
- 0.25 – 0.5 oz simple syrup (to taste)
- 3 oz peach tea
Instructions: Build ingredients in a collins glass, add ice, and garnish with lemon wheel and fresh mint (when available).
“The Angeleno is a take on a Manhattan, but it's also similar to a Negroni,” says Aaron Ranf, bartender at Laurelhurst Market in Portland, OR. “It's a bit softer and more floral than a Manhattan, but has kind of a burnt orange and bitter quality that is reminiscent of Campari.”
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Redemption Rye
- 3/4 oz Manuel Acha red vermouth
- 1/2 oz Grand Poppy Liqueur
- 2 dashes Bitter Cube Orange Bitters
Instructions: Stir all ingredients over ice for 30 seconds and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with an expressed orange peel.
“Both rye and armagnac serve as a spicier and firmer counterpart to their sibling spirits of bourbon and Cognac,” says Schiller. “This cocktail combines both American and French ingredients to make a richer, darker, and spicier Black Manhattan variation.”
Ingredients:
- 1 oz rye
- 1 oz armagnac
- 1 oz Amaro Lucano
- 2 dashes bitters
Instructions: Combine all ingredients into a mixing glass, add ice, stir, and strain over one large ice cube in a rocks glass.
“This cocktail was inspired by the season—it's summertime, hot, and you get your first Georgia peach of the season,” says Damien Breaw, bartender at The 404 Kitchen in Nashville. “That sweet, juicy, refreshing flavor that is just perfect. We wanted to capture that experience in a cocktail year round with The Georgian Victory.”
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
- 1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse
- 1/2 oz Cynar Amaro
- A few dashes of peach bitters
Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin, stir, and serve up with a lemon twist.
“The Hokey Toki is based off of a Japanese Highball, which is traditionally made with soda, filtered water, and grapefruit," says Tim Johnson, bartender at Urban Farmer in Philadelphia. “My goal was to blend this beverage with the heart of an Old Fashioned. To bring out the citrus flavor, I stir the drink with the grapefruit rind before pouring the liquid over hand-cut ice, leaving the grapefruit rind in the shaker. The Benedictine brings a sweeter flavor and the Cardamaro blends it all together.”
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Suntory Whisky Toki
- .5 oz Cardamaro Amaro
- .5 oz Benedictine
- Three dashes of Regan's orange bitters
- 2 expressed grapefruit peels
Instructions: Build all liquor components in mixing glass. Express two grapefruit peels in glass, fill with ice, and stir. Serve over large ice cube with grapefruit peel garnish.
“This is a great twist on a classic Sazerac, with the same flavor component as the classic, but in a softer, easier-to-drink way,” says David Shenaut, former bar manager at the now-closed Raven & Rose in Portland, OR. “The name comes from my favorite term behind the bar: all the unnecessary noise bartenders can make when going through the process of making a cocktail.”
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Maker's Mark
- 3/4 oz Aperol
- Absinthe
- Splash of Dolin Blanc Vermouth de Chambery
- Orange zest for garnish
Instructions: Rinse a martini glass with a little absinthe and ice, stir, and let sit and bind to the glass. Fill a shaker with ice, add the Maker’s Mark, Aperol, and vermouth. Stir gently. Discard the ice and absinthe. Strain the cocktail into the glass. Garnish with a strip of orange zest.
It doesn't get easier than this one. Just whiskey, seltzer water, and ice (and a lemon peel, if you're feeling particularly ambitious). Despite the simplicity of the whiskey highball's ingredients, however, Sother Teague, beverage director of Amor y Amargo in New York and author of I’m Just Here for the Drinks, says it's easy to screw it up—especially if the ice melts too fast, watering the whiskey down.
"I want my spirit to be as cold as possible, so there's a little bit of planning involved. I put my whiskey in the freezer so it'd be rocket-cold," Teague says. "Because whiskey can go to below freezing temperatures without becoming a solid, it's colder than the ice, so your ice doesn't budge at all."
Ingredients:
- 2 oz whiskey (Teague prefers A. Overholt Straight Rye)
- 4 oz seltzer water
- Ice
- Lemon (optional)
Instructions: Leave a bottle of whiskey in the freezer overnight. Add ice cubes to a highball glass. Pour in 2 oz of your whiskey of choice. Then, slowly add in seltzer water. Stir from the bottom up. Optionally garnish with a lemon peel.
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