Taste profile
Sweet cocktails
Sweetness is the easiest flavour to like and the easiest to overdo. The best sweet cocktails use sugar, liqueur or ripe fruit to soften a spirit's edges rather than mask them, pairing rich syrups with acid or bitterness so the drink never tips into cloying. Think dessert in a glass — but one built with the same restraint as a good pastry chef, not a sugar bomb.
85 sweet cocktails
Shirley Temple
Ginger ale and grenadine with a maraschino cherry — a bright, fizzy classic mocktail.
Brandy Alexander
Cognac, dark crème de cacao and cream, shaken smooth — a dessert cocktail dusted with nutmeg.
French Connection
Cognac and amaretto, built over ice — a simple, warming two-ingredient sipper.
Vietnamese Coffee Cocktail
Dark rum stirred into strong iced coffee and sweetened condensed milk — a spirited take on Vietnamese cà phê sữa đá.
Virgin Daiquiri
Lime and sugar blended with crushed ice to a frozen slush, finished with a splash of soda — the Daiquiri's citrus snap, without the rum.
Oaxaca Old Fashioned
Tequila and mezcal with agave and bitters, stirred over ice — an Old Fashioned built on agave rather than grain.
Roy Rogers
Cola and grenadine with a maraschino cherry — the cola-based sibling to a Shirley Temple.
Virgin Sunrise
Orange juice and grenadine, layered so the colour bleeds from red to gold — the Tequila Sunrise without the tequila.
Alcohol-Free Bellini
Peach purée topped with alcohol-free sparkling wine — two ingredients, and the same drink the original always was.
Alcohol-Free Hot Toddy
Honey, lemon and hot water with whole spice — the toddy's comforting half, without the whisky.
Alcohol-free
Sweet without the alcohol
15 alcohol-free sweet options.
Shirley Temple
Ginger ale and grenadine with a maraschino cherry — a bright, fizzy classic mocktail.
Virgin Daiquiri
Lime and sugar blended with crushed ice to a frozen slush, finished with a splash of soda — the Daiquiri's citrus snap, without the rum.
Roy Rogers
Cola and grenadine with a maraschino cherry — the cola-based sibling to a Shirley Temple.
Virgin Sunrise
Orange juice and grenadine, layered so the colour bleeds from red to gold — the Tequila Sunrise without the tequila.
Alcohol-Free Bellini
Peach purée topped with alcohol-free sparkling wine — two ingredients, and the same drink the original always was.
Alcohol-Free Hot Toddy
Honey, lemon and hot water with whole spice — the toddy's comforting half, without the whisky.
What drives it
What makes a cocktail sweet
Not simply the most common ingredients — the ones that appear far more often in sweet drinks than across the catalogue as a whole.
Pineapple Juice
In 13 of these · 1.8× the catalogue rate
Grenadine
In 13 of these · 1.8× the catalogue rate
Orange Juice
In 18 of these · 1.5× the catalogue rate
Vodka
In 15 of these · 1.5× the catalogue rate
Amaretto
In 5 of these · 2.2× the catalogue rate
Sparkling Wine
In 9 of these · 1.5× the catalogue rate
Coffee Liqueur
In 4 of these · 2.2× the catalogue rate
Coconut Cream
In 4 of these · 2.2× the catalogue rate
The flavour graph
Where sweet sits
Measured from the catalogue rather than asserted: which flavours actually travel together, and the drink that gets you from one to the other.
- Creamy
Sweet drinks are clearly associated with creamy ones: 15 carry both, making a sweet drink 84% more likely to also be creamy than a drink picked at random.
- Tropical
Sweet drinks are mildly associated with tropical ones: 15 carry both, making a sweet drink 58% more likely to also be tropical than a drink picked at random.
- Fruity
Sweet drinks are mildly associated with fruity ones: 46 carry both, making a sweet drink 27% more likely to also be fruity than a drink picked at random.
Drinks that bridge across
Sweet + Creamy
Reads as sweet and creamy at once — the shortest way across if you already like one of the two.
Sweet + Tropical
Reads as sweet and tropical at once — the shortest way across if you already like one of the two.
Sweet + Fruity
Reads as sweet and fruity at once — the shortest way across if you already like one of the two.