Occasion
Dinner cocktails
A cocktail served with a meal has to share the stage — too sweet or too strong and it fights the food instead of complementing it. Dinner-friendly drinks tend to be drier and more balanced than their party or celebration counterparts, closer in spirit to a good glass of wine: interesting enough to enjoy on its own, restrained enough not to overwhelm whatever's on the plate next to it.
What dinner drinks have in common
Measured across the 45 recipes on this page, compared with the rest of the site.
- Strength
- Stronger than average — a median of 22% in the glass against 10% across the rest of the site.
- Citrus
- Only 38% use fresh citrus, against 65% elsewhere, so most of this list keeps without a shopping trip.
- Effort
- Only 22% are built in the glass, against 50% elsewhere, so most of these want a shaker or a mixing glass.
- Difficulty
- 38% are rated easy, against 70% across the rest of the catalogue.
- Alcohol-free and low-alcohol
- 16% of this list is alcohol-free or low in alcohol, so there is something to serve everyone without making a separate drink.
If there is food involved
Acid does for seafood what a squeeze of lemon does: it lifts delicate flavours and cuts through the mineral, briny edge. Sweetness works against it, which is why an overly sweet drink makes fish taste muddy.
Seafood, oysters and anything raw, and the drinks that meet it →45 dinner cocktails
French Connection
Cognac and amaretto, built over ice — a simple, warming two-ingredient sipper.
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.
Oaxaca Old Fashioned
Tequila and mezcal with agave and bitters, stirred over ice — an Old Fashioned built on agave rather than grain.
Lime Rickey
Lime, a little sugar and soda water — three ingredients, and the driest long drink on the site.