30 Best Gin Cocktails to Try – A Couple Cooks

One of the most classic of all gin drinks is the Gin Fizz! It’s perfectly balanced, both sweet and tart, and adding soda water magically creates a frothy egg white foam topping. You’ll need a short list of ingredients: gin, lime juice, maple syrup, soda water, and an egg white.

What’s a more classic gin cocktail than the gin and tonic? Its crisp, botanical flavor is straightforward yet intriguing: a feat using only 2 ingredients! It’s no wonder that this is one of the world’s popular easy cocktails. This recipe includes a few tips from the Spanish gin tonic to take it to the next level.

The Tom Collins is a tall highball drink that’s a classic gin sour, a sweet and sour drink made with gin and lemon juice. It’s refreshing, bubbly, and makes any evening more fun. This classic cocktail always impresses.

Here’s a gin cocktail that takes only 5 minutes to whip up: the gin gimlet! This drink became popular in the 1950’s, and it’s the perfect balance of sweet tart against the botanical flavor of gin. All you need is 3 ingredients to whip up this classic.

Variations: French Gimlet or Basil Gimlet

One of the most sophisticated and refreshing gin cocktail recipes is a French 75! It’s got a mysterious name, but it’s made with just a few simple ingredients: gin, lemon, and champagne. It’s tangy, bubbly, and makes every occasion more festive!

A Southside is a classic gin cocktail made with mint, lemon, lime, and gin. It’s similar to a Mojito with gin, with a bold and herbaceous flavor. The oldest known printed recipe called “Southside” was from 1917, so it’s got decades of history.

Here’s a classic gin drink that’s one of the most popular cocktails out there: the Negroni! The bright red of the Campari makes for a stunning jewel-tone statement of a drink. This three ingredient cocktail is easy to make and memorize: it uses one ounce each of gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.

Here’s a classic gin cocktail that’s refreshing and sweet tart: the Bees Knees! It’s got a fun 1920’s name and a smooth flavor to match. Making simple syrup with honey instead of refined sugar adds a rich depth to cocktails. Combine it with lemon and gin, and you’ve got a refreshing cocktail that goes down easy. 

It’s tall, it’s bubbly, and it’s effortless to make: try the Gin Rickey! This classic cocktail was born in the 1880s and has been popular ever since. It’s tangy, bubbly, and irresistibly delicious. If you love a Vodka Soda or a Gin and Tonic: this is the drink for you!

Variations: Cherry Lime Rickey or Raspberry Lime Rickey

Here’s a fun gin cocktail that steals the show: the Clover Club! This bright pink drink stems back before Prohibition. Sweet raspberry or grenadine syrup combine with zingy lemon and gin to make a balanced sweet tart drink. A classic egg white foam gives a creamy body and frothy texture to each sip.

This gin cocktail’s got a unique name and a beautiful pale pink color! Grapefruit juice and gin make one tangy and refreshing cocktail! It’s perfect as a brunch drink or for happy hour.

It’s minty, bubbly, and refreshing: meet the Gin Gin Mule! Considered a modern classic cocktail, it’s a mashup of the mule and minty Mojito. The bubbly ginger beer and fresh lime juice of a mule are balanced by the fresh mint and sweetness of a Mojito. 

Here’s a classic gin cocktail that’s as unique as its name: the Corpse Reviver No 2! Turns out that this drink has nothing scary or ghoulish about it. It’s a classic gin sour cocktail that’s tart and zingy from lemon juice and orange liqueur, with a hint of licorice on the finish.

The gin martini is one of the most iconic cocktails of all time. With one sip it announces itself: crisp, cool, searing, and spirit-forward. It’s seeped in tradition, and there’s no cocktail that has the amount of variations: shaken or stirred, gin or vodka, straight or on the rocks.

Variation: Dirty Martini, Gibson, or Vesper Martini (with Lillet Blanc)

Love gin cocktails? Here’s the ideal drink for you: the Gin Basil Smash! This modern spin on the Whiskey Smash is light and herbaceous, pairing peppery basil with botanical gin. It’s refreshing, fun, and goes down easy.

Here’s a gin cocktail for the adventurous home bartender: the Last Word! This pale green gin sour is a classic cocktail that was all but lost to history. But with the revival of cocktail culture, it’s come back strong! It’s equal parts sharp, sweet, and sour: full of intrigue and nuance from a few special ingredients.

The Pegu Club is a classic 1920’s gin cocktail that was invented at, as the name suggests, the Pegu Club. This boozy drink is sophisticated and refreshing, with a citrus and herbal finish. It’s surprisingly balanced and not too sweet.

Here’s a cocktail with a long history that inspired a slew of other drinks: the Gin Sour! It’s the lesser known relative to sours like the Whiskey Sour and Amaretto Sour. But the Gin Sour is just as tasty as its cousins: it’s smooth and balanced, with floral notes from the gin.

Here’s a gin drink that’s classy and complex: the Martinez! This classic cocktail is in the spirit-forward cocktail family, relative of the Martini and the Manhattan. It’s balanced and just sweet enough, with notes of cherry and cinnamon, and a little spice at the finish.

Want a gin cocktail with a salted rim? Enter, the Salty Dog! This cocktail’s got a fun name and a beautiful pale pink color, pairing gin and grapefruit juice with simple syrup. It’s tangy and refreshing, perfect as a brunch drink or for happy hour. 

Here’s a smooth, citrus-forward classic gin drink: the White Lady! This 1920’s style sour is clear and crisp, with a refreshing flavor and a frothy egg white foam topping. It’s classy and perfect for a cocktail night or just sipping on the porch.

Here’s a tasty spin on a classic: the Red Snapper, essentially a classic Bloody Mary with gin. Switching out the vodka leads to a whole new drink: savory, spicy, tangy, spicy, with a subtle botanical finish from the gin.

For an over-the-top impressive classic gin cocktail, try the Ramos Gin Fizz! The impossibly tall frothy topping and tangy burst of lime, lemon and orange blossom water makes it taste just like a lemon meringue pie.

Here’s one of our favorite refreshing gin cocktails: the Southside Fizz! A relative of the Southside, this gin cocktail features bright citrus, herbaceous mint, and fizzy soda water. It’s like a mashup of a Tom Collins and a Mojito.

Here’s a special gin drink that will become a favorite at first sip: the Bramble! This drink has the sweetest name and it’s full of tangy, fruity and sophisticated flavors. This refreshing drink uses a special blackberry liqueur called crème de mûre. 

Here’s a gin cocktail invented by a fictional character: the Vesper martini! James Bond created this drink in the 1953 book Casino Royale, and it lives on today. The key ingredient is Lillet Blanc, a lightly sweet, vaguely floral fortified wine that brings life and personality into this drink. 

For an impressive gin cocktail that’s fruity and refreshing, try the Singapore Sling! It’s for the adventurous drinker because it calls for a whopping 8 ingredients! The combination of fruity, sweet tart and bubbly is intriguingly complex and just plain fun.

Here’s a fun highball gin cocktail that we recommend giving a try: the Finnish Long Drink! This concoction of gin and usually grapefruit soda was invented in Finland in the 1950’s. This homemade spin is easy to make and so fizzy, sweet tart and refreshing.

Here’s a sophisticated cocktail that’s refreshing and perfectly tart: the French gimlet! Just three ingredients go into this chic drink, and it’s a fun way to mix up cocktail night. This has become our favorite gimlet variation because of the way the warm floral flavor of the elderflower liqueur mixes with the gin.

Need a easy 2 ingredient cocktail idea with gin? Try Gin and Lemonade! Gin and lemon are a natural cocktail pairing featured in many classic drinks. What do the Tom Collins, Gin Fizz, and French 75 have in common? They all pair gin and lemon!

Here’s a light, bubbly classic gin cocktail that’s flown under the radar for too long: the Floradora! This beautifully pink drink was inspired by a Broadway show by the same name and dates back to the early 1900’s. It’s a total gem of a drink, pairing gin with raspberry syrup, lime, gin, and the spicy kick of ginger beer!