This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
The Best New Bartenders of 2025 are bound by a shared belief that sustainability goes beyond making cocktails. And while hyperlocal, hyperseasonal and low-waste efforts drive their drink-making, the class of 2025 takes a broader view of the term, understanding that sustainability—of land, ingredients, their peers, businesses—is all interconnected. This year, Punch is partnering with Astral Tequila, who brings shared values of sustainability, resourceful upcycling and social responsibility to th
Our Best New Bartenders of 2025 describe their drink-making styles in different ways: Tone Arasa is “heavily inspired by the seasons”; Molly Gajdosik’s cocktails are “fun, approachable and full of flavor”; Ricardo Rodriguez wants his recipes to be “purposeful,” above all else. The cocktails they’ve shared with us exemplify that mix, and more. In this collection of recipes, there are nostalgic flavor combinations, clever techniques and odes to the tried-and-true classics.
John Dye might not be a native Milwaukeean, but he’s most definitely an avid convert. In 2000, he moved to the city to pursue a Ph.D. in architecture, but found himself enchanted by the unique local bar scene, which is proudly working class, with deep ties to German beer heritage and a strong affinity for friendly neighborhood spots. Turning his back on academia, Dye pivoted.
For Obehi Ekhomu, the Chapman “is part of our collective Nigerian memory.” Ekhomu is the owner and head chef of Ona Restaurant and the bar Ona Cloud , in Lagos, and she describes the homegrown nonalcoholic drink as “a national treasure.” It’s true: I haven’t come across a Nigerian restaurant without a Chapman on the drinks menu. The delightful, ruby red mocktail combines sodas—orange, lemon and lime—with black currant cordial or grenadine, bitters (often Angostura), fresh citrus and cucumber.
As our extensive archive might suggest, we try a lot of cocktails. We regularly return to the classics (and the modern classics ), pick up new favorites from around the world and throw in the occasional bartending project here and there. But it takes something special—a novel ingredient, an unbeatable flavor combination, a recipe that’s truly more than the sum of its parts—to stand out.
Tracy Miller is a Portland, Oregon–based writer who has worked as a bouncer at dive bars, live music venues, and upscale lounges for nearly a decade. Here, Miller explains what it’s really like to work nightlife security—navigating the unwritten rules, practicing de-escalation, managing crises—and how the job has changed alongside national conversations about race and policing.
There are many cocktails that I’ll automatically order if I see them on a menu—a Saturn, an El Presidente, a sherry cobbler—but the Moscow Mule is not one of them. The drink, a simple highball of vodka, ginger beer and lime, is often too one-note for me. But perhaps that’s why it was ready for the kind of reinterpretation that Portland, Oregon’s Palomar brings to classic cocktails.
“Mai Tais are very tiki in that they’re very hard to balance,” says Kavé Pourzanjani, owner of Paradise Lost in New York City. “All the tiki [drink] problems apply: They’re often too sweet, and if your lime juice isn’t fresh it completely ruins the cocktail.” Though the Trader Vic original ranks among the simpler tiki recipes on paper, its four key ingredients—rum, lime juice, orgeat and orange liqueur—are not an easy combination to get right.
First there was “ aperitiki.” Then there was the wave of tiki-like bars ditching the genre’s appropriative aspects for other fantasies and fandoms, like outer space and death metal. Now, it seems, we’ve arrived at another popular mashup: agave + tropical. This pairing of spirits and flavors isn’t new; much of Mexico, after all, has a tropical climate.
Whether it’s the Martini, which has taken over the world , or the G&T, in its infinite moods , the gin classics seem to always be in season. The canon is vast: fizzes topped with crowns of foam, highballs topped with tonic and tropical drinks topped with elaborate garnishes. To help you filter through the countless recipes, here, we’ve compiled all the classics that you need to know.
Strong and stirred or light and bright , rum can do it all. The spirit’s long history in Caribbean classics , tiki culture and tropical locales around the world means that its canon of classics is vast. On top of that, there are many ways to make a Piña Colada or a Mojito. To help you filter through the wide world of recipes out there, we’ve compiled our very best ones, drinks that have been put to the test in our tastings or brought back to life by a group of dedicated bartenders.
It may seem odd for Guinness—a deep, dark, robust stout—to play a key role in the latest crop of refreshing summer drinks. But bartenders say its creamy texture and bitter-chocolate flavor add just the right counterpoint to a wide range of cocktails, and it’s showing up in surprising ways. For Taylor Yale, a bartender at Hartley’s in Brooklyn, New York, the inspiration for the Guinn & Tonic was an espresso tonic spotted in a coffee shop.
Mezcal consumption has grown rapidly over the past decade, and the thirst for the agave spirit shows no signs of slowing. In 2021, U.S. spending on mezcal grew 53 percent in value , while the spirit made its way into just about every classic cocktail template, from Negronis to Martinis ; it also continued its reign in modern classics like the Oaxaca Old-Fashioned.
It was the height of sophistication: Curvier than a Martini glass but deeper than a coupe, the Nick & Nora was the glass of the early aughts’ great craft cocktail renaissance. It was elegant and classic, and at the same time, it was new. When, in 1987, Dale DeGroff originally revived the glass for the pre-Prohibition cocktail list at the Rainbow Room —and christened it the “Nick & Nora,” after the murder-solving sophisticates in the 1934 film adaptation of The Thin Man —it was a rebellio
At Good Neighbor Bar in Altadena, California, bar director Jesus Gomez showcases his deep affection for classic cocktails. The extensive menu even includes a whole section for egg white–laced drinks like the Apple Blow Fizz, Spanish Monk , Astor Hotel Special and the Prado. The latter drink, whose name means “meadow” or “field” in Spanish, has murky origins, but appears to have first been published in the massive 1977 compendium Jones’ Complete Barguide.
With its signature smoky-spicy profile, its rich Scotch base and peated whisky float, the Penicillin is the encapsulation of fall in cocktail form. Were it a person, it might layer a flannel shirt under a chunky wool sweater below a beanie-topped head. But what would the drink look like if it shed its thermals in favor of flip-flops? Enter the Rum Penicillin.
The Knickerbocker, a largely forgotten Civil War–era drink, is an unlikely candidate for the cocktail menu at a chic restaurant in San Diego. But when Lucas Ryden, bar director at the newly opened Vulture , was looking for old drinks to revive for the menu, he searched for recipes that would hit a sweet spot: “not overplayed, but also not too weird or strange that the modern drinker wouldn’t enjoy them.
“If only I’d thought of it first,” said every bartender, at least once. It was how I felt back in 2019, at the Ave in Grand Cayman, when I first tasted the Escape (If You Like Piña Coladas) for the first time. The mashup of the iconic Ramos Gin Fizz and the Champagne Piña Colada from London’s Coupette was so simple, yet so clever, and it completely stole my heart (as did my now-wife, whom I also happened to meet and share this cocktail with on said trip).
The jury’s still out for this year’s Drink of Summer, but your favorite Punch recipes this month are worthy contenders. For one, there’s the Thunderbird, which proves managing editor Jess Mayhugh’s case for Creamsicle-flavored drinks this season. There’s also a good argument for making your favorite classic cocktails summery by swapping the base spirit or throwing in a seasonally appropriate fruit.
Since we last chronicled the new vocabulary of wine , a half-decade ago, wine culture has drastically changed. The way we shop for bottles has been reimagined, and how much we drink ( if at all ) has been reconsidered. Natural wine became entangled with the internet, so much so that posting about it is now a viable career path for a duo of wine-tasting influencer twins , a shitposting wine critic and several online personalities dedicated to making wine more accessible, or at least more fun.
Mezcal’s rise is a breakneck journey unparalleled by any other spirit category in the modern market. As a commercial product, it has only really existed since 1995, when Ron Cooper launched Del Maguey, and it wasn’t until a little over a decade ago that mezcal began to gain a serious foothold in major American cities. In short order, however, the spirit has become a household name and a commercial success, giving way to dozens of new brands.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
159 
Let's personalize your content