Taste profile
Dry cocktails
Dry cocktails keep added sugar to a minimum, finishing crisp and clean rather than rounded off with sweetness. That doesn't mean flavourless — dry vermouth, sparkling wine and citrus peel all bring plenty of character without adding sugar, which is why dry drinks are often the ones people graduate to once they've moved past sweeter, entry-level cocktails. They reward a drier palate and tend to pair especially well with food.
44 dry cocktails
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.
Alcohol-free
Dry without the alcohol
8 alcohol-free dry options.
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.
What drives it
What makes a cocktail dry
Not simply the most common ingredients — the ones that appear far more often in dry drinks than across the catalogue as a whole.
Dry Vermouth
In 6 of these · 4.3× the catalogue rate
Sweet Vermouth
In 9 of these · 2.6× the catalogue rate
Alcohol-Free Spirit
In 4 of these · 3.4× the catalogue rate
Gin
In 12 of these · 1.9× the catalogue rate
Campari
In 5 of these · 2.4× the catalogue rate
Soda Water
In 9 of these · 1.3× the catalogue rate
Angostura Bitters
In 5 of these · 1.3× the catalogue rate
Sparkling Wine
In 4 of these · 1.3× the catalogue rate
The flavour graph
Where dry sits
Measured from the catalogue rather than asserted: which flavours actually travel together, and the drink that gets you from one to the other.
- Bitter
Dry drinks are clearly associated with bitter ones: 15 carry both, making a dry drink 73% more likely to also be bitter than a drink picked at random.
- Strong
Dry drinks are mildly associated with strong ones: 26 carry both, making a dry drink 44% more likely to also be strong than a drink picked at random.
- Herbal
Dry drinks are mildly associated with herbal ones: 10 carry both, making a dry drink 29% more likely to also be herbal than a drink picked at random.
Drinks that bridge across
Dry + Bitter
Reads as dry and bitter at once — the shortest way across if you already like one of the two.
Dry + Strong
Reads as dry and strong at once — the shortest way across if you already like one of the two.
Dry + Herbal
Reads as dry and herbal at once — the shortest way across if you already like one of the two.