Dry and bitter
Sophisticated cocktails
Dry, bitter, spirit-led drinks with very little sugar — the grown-up end of the catalogue.
Sophistication in a drink is mostly the absence of sugar. What reads as adult is bitterness, dryness and a clean finish, which is why the drinks in this category tend to be stirred, served short, and built from spirits and aperitifs rather than juices.
These are also the drinks that reward good ingredients most obviously. There is nothing in a Martini or a Negroni to hide behind, which is the point and also the risk.
Garden Highball
Alcohol-free botanical spirit, tonic, cucumber and mint — a crisp, herbal highball for the garden.
Espresso Tonic
Chilled tonic water over ice with a fresh double espresso poured on top — bittersweet, fizzy and cold.
Tommy's Margarita
Tequila, lime and agave syrup — no triple sec — a cleaner, more agave-forward take on the Margarita.
Death in the Afternoon
Absinthe topped with ice-cold Champagne — a stark two-ingredient drink credited to Ernest Hemingway.
Coffee Old Fashioned
A classic Old Fashioned given a cold-brew twist — bourbon, coffee and bitters, stirred slow.
Corpse Reviver No. 1
Cognac, apple brandy and sweet vermouth, stirred cold — the older, spirit-forward half of the Corpse Reviver family.
How this list is built
Computed from real catalogue fields: a dry or bitter taste profile, or a bitterness score of 3 or more, combined with a sweetness score of 2 or less.
Nothing on this page is hand-picked or sponsored — the list comes straight from the recipe data, so it stays correct as the catalogue grows. Lists only exist once enough real recipes match; that is why some categories you might expect aren't here yet.
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