The Top 20 best selling cocktails in 2020 based on Drinks International
Up three places, this classic has been around since pre-Prohibition and was named after a men’s club in Philadelphia. Despite being very popular in its heyday, it fell away until reappearing during the cocktail renaissance 15-20 years ago. Julie Reiner’s bar Clover Club – which is a fivetime member of the World’s 50 Best Bars – is, of course, named after the drink. The Brooklyn bar uses gin, dry vermouth, raspberry, lemon juice and egg white.
This cult twist on the Margarita by Julio Bermejo of Tommy’s in San Francisco has almost become the blueprint recipe for many in the high-end bar community. We split it out from its parent this year for the first time and hey presto, it’s in the top 15. Bermejo’s twist sees 100% agave tequila, plus fresh lime juice and agave syrup.
Based on 100 of the world's best bars to rank their top ten best-selling classics. Here are the results
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20. Aviation
 |
| Liquor |
Gaining altitude in the list this year – nine places – is the Aviation. The recipe first appeared in Hugo Ensslin’s 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks, where crème de violette provided an extra floral dimension. It is one of 16 cocktails that call for gin and at number 20, according to our poll, the fifth most frequently made In the world’s best bars.
19. Dark 'N' Stormy
 |
| Cocktail Kit |
This Bermuda highball is almost too simple for the label ‘cocktail’. In essence, it is rum’s version of the Moscow Mule. The history goes that British seafarers brought the ginger beer and local distiller Goslings met them halfway with its rum. They threw in some lime, and there you have it, the Dark ’n’ Stormy. Twists aside, this is a recipe blokes with beards and tats use on and off land.
18. Penicillin
 |
| Vine Pair |
Invented by the ex-Milk & Honey now Attaboy owner Sam Ross, this drink uses blended scotch, lemon juice, honey-ginger syrup and peated scotch and is garnished with candied ginger. It says a lot that this is the highest-placed scotch classic – ahead of the Blood & Sand in 50th. The Rob Roy was nowhere to be seen.
17. French 75
 |
Jumping 12 places, the French 75 in its earliest form was created by Harry MacElhone in Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. The cocktail was popularised by The Savoy Cocktail Book and later appeared in The Stork Club, New York, which contributed to its popularity. At Arnaud’s – the adopted home of the drink in New Orleans – the French 75 is made with Courvoisier VS, sugar, lemon juice and Moët & Chandon champagne.
16. Clover Club
 |
Up three places, this classic has been around since pre-Prohibition and was named after a men’s club in Philadelphia. Despite being very popular in its heyday, it fell away until reappearing during the cocktail renaissance 15-20 years ago. Julie Reiner’s bar Clover Club – which is a fivetime member of the World’s 50 Best Bars – is, of course, named after the drink. The Brooklyn bar uses gin, dry vermouth, raspberry, lemon juice and egg white.
15. Boulevardier
 |
Bored of the Negroni? If you replace the gin with American whiskey you have a Boulevardier. Up five places, a quarter of our polled bars had it among their top-10 repertoire. This whiskey classic was created by Erskine Gwynne, an American writer in the 1920s. The Boulevardier was named after his Parisian monthly magazine of the same title.
14. Bloody Mary
 |
This boost to the spirits and the morning economy is up a place, and never really goes out of fashion. It is among the top 10-selling classics in a little less than a quarter of bars we polled. If you are in crawling distance of the Connaught, London, its Bloody Mary is legendary. Devised by Ago Perrone and Erik Lorincz a decade ago, it calls for Ketel One vodka, fresh tomato juice, a homemade spice mix, fresh lemon juice and celery air.
13. Tommy's Margarita
 |
| Urban Mixologist |
This cult twist on the Margarita by Julio Bermejo of Tommy’s in San Francisco has almost become the blueprint recipe for many in the high-end bar community. We split it out from its parent this year for the first time and hey presto, it’s in the top 15. Bermejo’s twist sees 100% agave tequila, plus fresh lime juice and agave syrup.
12. Gimlet
 |
| PUNCH |
This gin-turned-vodka-turned-gin-andlime cocktail has rebounded this year, with a quarter of bars naming it among their 10 most-served classics. The ratio was originally 50/50 gin-to-lime cordial, but that was when people didn’t care much for their teeth. Now a 75/25 gin-tolime cordial is what the dentist ordered. Many, though, go fresh lime juice, making this is a Daiquiri for gin drinkers.
11. Moscow Mule
 |
Down three, the Moscow Mule still occupies a lofty station in this list. It’s a crowd pleaser in more than a quarter of our 100 bars, with popularity emanating from the US. It’s vodka, lime, ginger and soda – one for the less adventurous punters. Still, great for bulk orders on busy nights.
10. Aperol Spritz
 |
| Celebrating Sweets |
The Aperol Spritz remains in the top 10, though it’s down a place from last year. Just under 30% of bars named it in their top 10. Created by the Barbieri Brothers in the 1900s, the Aperol Spritz was their answer to a lighter pre-dinner tipple. Aperol, prosseco and a splash of soda – one of the easier mixed drinks in this list.
9. Mojito
 |
This Cuban classic may seem out of step with the current cocktail fashion – a vestige of the noughties not the teens – yet it remains a true classic, much loved by the consumer. It is a top-10 classic in about 30% of top bars. Havana’s La Bodeguita is the place for a mouthful of mint and, though it’s never been a top 50 bar, it’s received a few votes over the years. It makes its Mojitos with rum, lime juice, soda, brown cane sugar, fresh mint and ice.
8. Manhattan
 |
Eight seems a little low for this venerable classic but 37% make it one of their top 10. Bitters and sweet vermouth are most frequently partnered with Bulleit, Woodford Reserve or Rittenhouse. Jim Meehan of PDT has the recipe: rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and two dashes of Angostura, stirred with ice, strained into a chilled coupe and garnished with brandied cherries.
7. Margarita
 |
The Margarita is the top tequila classic in our sample of the world’s best bars. Very few made it their top classic served, but it’s in the top three in almost 10% of those polled. This year we split out the votes for Tommy’s Margarita from its mother mix, which didn’t seem to impact the Margarita’s ranking – it moved up from eighth to seventh.
6. Espresso Martini
 |
Up one place into the top six, you can track the meteoric rise of this coffee and vodka cocktail from the passing of its inventor Dick Bradsell. In 2017 it was no.27 and is now fighting it out with the grand old classics. Infamously made for a customer who wanted a drink that would “wake her up and fuck her up”, this modern-age classic was found to be the number one cocktail in 6% of bars and a top-10 serve in almost 40%.
5. Whiskey Sour
 |
The name and recipe might vary slightly but this classic cocktail remains a consistent in our list, albeit down from third to fifth place this year. It is said the Whiskey Sour recipe was first published in Jerry Thomas’s book How to Mix Drinks or the Bon Vivant’s Companion in 1862. This isn’t too many bars’ top serve – it’s an everyman drink, rather than a house signature – but was a top-10 classic in just under half of the bars polled. The recipe is bourbon, lemon juice and a teaspoon of sugar. Egg white is optional, though this is a drink that benefits from texture.
4. Dry Martini
 |
The Dry Martini, beloved of gin fans, gains two places this year. This boozy yet refined favourite was among the top five classics in just under a fifth of our polled bars, while just under half said it figured in their top 10. There are many bars that might claim to make the exemplar but Barcelona’s Dry Martini (multi-time member of The World’s 50 Best Bars) is one. It uses half-and-half gin to French vermouth, a dash of orange bitters, a squeeze of lemon and a green olive.
3. Daiquiri
 |
Bartender favourite the Daiquiri is the most ordered rum drink in the world’s best bars, up a place this year. Interestingly only 6% said this was their top classic, but 27% named it in their top three and almost a half in their top 10 most-made. At the drink’s home, Havana’s La Floridita, they prefer the frozen version, but mostly this is lime juice, white rum and sugar syrup, shaken and served. In the bars we poll, strawberries are left in the fridge.
2. Negroni
 |
Things are looking pretty sweet for the bitter Negroni – for six years now it’s been the number two, though never really challenging the top spot. Like the Old Fashioned, the Negroni’s strength has been its transition from bartender to consumer favourite – 13% of bars said it was their number one classic and it was among the top three served in 42% of bars. It’s ironic really, if ever there was a cocktail that could be thrown together at home, it is the Negroni – classically, it’s a third, a third, a third of Campari, sweet vermouth and gin.
1. Old Fashioned
 |
King of the cocktails is the Old Fashioned – and that’s six years straight this vanguard drink of the classic cocktail revival has topped our poll. The Old Fashioned shows no sign of waning – indeed, this American whiskey classic is picking up pace, says our poll. Almost 35% of bars said it was their top selling classic. Make it with bourbon, or rye as they probably did way back when. Mastermind of the classics David Wondrich says: “One sugar cube wetted with three dashes of Angostura bitters and a little soda, crushed, stirred with a large ice cube and two ounces of rye.”
Related Page: Best Selling 2019
Comments
Post a Comment