The 10 Cocktails Every Home Bartender Should Master First

2026-07-14 · MixerNights

If you learn just ten drinks — really learn them, to exact proportions — you can walk into almost any situation and make something great. Better still, these ten are templates: master the Daiquiri and you understand every sour; master the Old Fashioned and every spirit-forward drink opens up.

Here are the ten to start with, with the exact measurements we use at MixerNights.

1. Old Fashioned

The original cocktail. 2 oz bourbon, 1 tsp demerara syrup, 3 dashes Angostura, 1 dash orange bitters. Stir over one big cube, express an orange peel. Learn this and you understand dilution — the most underrated skill in cocktails.

2. Daiquiri

The bartender's benchmark. 2 oz white rum, 1 oz fresh lime, 0.75 oz simple syrup. Shake hard, double-strain. If your Daiquiri is balanced, your palate is calibrated.

3. Margarita

2 oz blanco tequila, 1 oz Cointreau, 0.75 oz fresh lime, 0.25 oz agave. Fresh lime is non-negotiable — sour mix is why you think you don't like Margaritas.

4. Negroni

Equal parts: 1 oz gin, 1 oz Campari, 1 oz sweet vermouth. Stir, orange peel. The gateway to bitter, and impossible to improve on.

5. Whiskey Sour

2 oz bourbon, 0.75 oz lemon, 0.75 oz simple, optional egg white. The 2:0.75:0.75 ratio here is the skeleton of a hundred other drinks.

6. Manhattan

2 oz rye, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 2 dashes Angostura. Stirred, up, cherry. Elegant, boozy, essential.

7. Mojito

2 oz white rum, 1 oz lime, 0.75 oz simple, 8 mint leaves, soda. Learn to press mint, not pulverize it.

8. Espresso Martini

1.5 oz vodka, 1 oz cold espresso, 0.75 oz coffee liqueur, 0.25 oz simple. Shake like you mean it for that glossy foam.

9. Gin & Tonic

2 oz gin, 4 oz cold tonic, a squeeze of lime, tons of ice. The proof that "simple" and "great" are the same drink.

10. Aperol Spritz

3 parts prosecco, 2 parts Aperol, 1 part soda. The 3-2-1 you'll make all summer.

Where to go next

Each of these unlocks a whole family. Once the ratios are muscle memory, the fun begins: swap the base, change the modifier, dial the sweetness. Our full cellar has 565 recipes — 65 free classics like these, plus 500+ premium drinks that riff on every one of these templates.

Browse all the free classics →