Just as with menu items, cocktails go in and out of fashion — and also just as with menu items, sometimes offerings from the past find new life in the modern age.
To compile a list of the top 10 trending cocktails for 2023, 24/7 Tempo consulted a report published by The Spirits Business, an international spirits magazine and website, based on Google search traffic for the year to date. The list ranks those drinks that enjoyed the highest spikes in traffic in the U.S. over a sustained period this year, compared with 2022. (On an international level, these are the world’s 25 most popular cocktails.)
Five of the cocktails here are vintage selections — the Last Word, White Lady, Bee’s Knees, Gimlet, and Brown Derby — dating from the late ‘teens of the 20th century up through the 1930s. Four of the five are based on gin (the exception is the bourbon-based Brown Derby), including the classic and elegantly simple Gimlet, made with nothing more than that spirit and fresh lime juice.
And it might be noted that the original White Lady — named for a heroic woman who dressed up as a washerwoman (in white) to help British prisoners of war escape from Turkey during WWI — was made with crème de menthe instead of gin when legendary bartender Harry MacElhone invented it in London in 1919, though he updated it to gin 10 years later at his Harry’s American Bar in Paris.
Another entry on the list, the Revolver, invented in San Francisco in 2004, is an updated, and caffeinated, variation on still another cocktail classic, the Manhattan — which was invented not in the last century but in the late 1800s.
The No. 2 cocktail on the list, the vodka-based Azalea, is popular among spectators at the Masters Tournament held annually at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. As for No. 1, it’s not only the top cocktail but also the youngest one here. It was invented at the bar Death and Company in New York City in 2011, inspired by the Last Word and a 21st-century drink called the Paper Plane. (Here is our list of the best bar in every state.)
Here are the top 10 trending cocktails of 2023
10. Sex on the Beach
- Ingredients: Vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice, cranberry juice
9. Last Word
- Ingredients: Gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, lime juice
8. White Lady
- Ingredients: Gin, triple sec, lemon juice, egg white (optional)
7. Bee’s Knees
- Ingredients: Gin, lemon juice, honey
6. El Presidente
- Ingredients: White rum, dry vermouth, orange Curaçao, grenadine
5. Gimlet
- Ingredients: Gin, lime juice
4. Revolver
- Ingredients: Bourbon, coffee liqueur, orange bitters
3. Brown Derby
- Ingredients: Bourbon, grapefruit juice, honey or maple syrup
2. Azalea
- Ingredients: Vodka, pineapple juice, lemon juice, grenadine
1. Naked & Famous
- Ingredients: Mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol, lime juice