Behind the numbers
Words by Simon Difford
Our Top 100 Cocktails are calculated from page view analytics generated by our 700,000 to 1 million monthly users viewing our 7,000 Difford's Guide cocktails, using data collected from 1st January 2025 to 31st December 2025.
Dick Bradsell's Espresso Martini (in 8th place) is one of over 200 "Espresso Martini" cocktails on our database, while Douglas Ankrah's Porn Star Martini (1st place for a 11th year) is joined by over 50 other me-too cocktails with "Porn Star Martini" in the name. That's nothing compared to how fragmented the numbers are for Manhattans, Martinis and Margaritas. I have partly mitigated this by aggregating traffic for versions of the same cocktail. E.g. varying ratios for a Dry Martini.
Rises and falls in page views reflect a cocktail's relative popularity and reveal trends. Soho House's Picante de la Casa led the Spicy Margarita boom and burst into our Top 100 in 20th place back in 2020. It's now in 9th place, down from 6th place in 2024.
Sour cocktails remain popular, led by the Amaretto Sour and Whiskey Sour.
Martinis, from 'proper' Dry Martinis to altern'atinis like the Espresso Martini remain on trend with the Dirty Martini and Martinez joining our Top 100.
The Aperol/Aperitivo Spritz continues to fall from its high of 9th place in 2020 to 92nd place in 2025. My own St-Germain/Elderflower Spritz has since been replaced by the mint-enhanced Hugo Spritz, which now sits in 46th place. Last year, I predicted a decline in the Spritz category, but I may have been overinfluenced by the demise of the Aperol/Aperitivo Spritz. What Spritz will take over from Hugo?
