Name: Johnny's Dream
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 60 ml Blanco tequila; 30 ml Orange-red aperitivo; 15 ml Lime juice; 5 ml Orange juice; 1 dash Orange bitters

Johnny's Dream
Jump to

Glass:

Photographed in an UB Retro Coupe 1910

Ingredients:
2 oz	Patrón Silver blanco tequila
1 oz	Bittersweet orange-red aperitivo
¹⁄₂ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₆ oz	Orange juice (freshly squeezed)
1 dash	Orange Bitters by Angostura

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish:

EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

I tried this dry, bittersweet, apertivo cocktail with blanco and then reposado tequilas to discover how much better it is with the more youthful tequila.

View readers' comments

History:

Urban myth has it, backed up by reports in mainstream media in 2023, that this cocktail features on a business card printed with only the recipe and a photograph of the lurid orange drink presented to bartenders in Los Angeles, presumably by Johnny himself, accompanied by the request, "Make this if you can."

Nutrition:

One serving of Johnny's Dream contains 205 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
18.26% alc./vol. (36.52° proof)
20.1 grams of pure alcohol

More Aperitivo/aperitif cocktails
More Bittersweet (e.g. Negroni) cocktails

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

Join the discussion

Showing 6 comments for Johnny's Dream.
See discussion in the Forum

Please log in to make a comment

John Hinojos

8th January at 01:23

This is perfect as written. Found the sweetness spot on. Very flavourful. Was looking for an aperitif which used orange juice and was not sweet. This matched. On my favourites.

Sally Morgan

3rd January at 20:57

slightly upped the orange juice to 7.5 ml and that was just right for me - light and fruitily acidic

Florian Ruf

19th October 2025 at 14:50

Nice story, nice cocktail. For my taste it needed a little bit more sweetness, so I used a half barspoon of Agave syrup.

Werd Bmocsil

14th April 2025 at 03:52

Cayeya Tequila Blanco, Contratto Bitter, "cara-cara" orange juice
I ran out of lime, so added 10 ml of pure cranberry juice. Good, but maybe more orange next time.

Sean Baron

12th January 2024 at 23:49

I only had Anejo on hand (only Anejo! Poor me), and it wasn’t too bad to be honest. If you up the oj it makes it less bitter, depending on what oh you have. I had clementine juice, which still has some tartness to it, but still makes it a very easily drunk cocktail.