Contemporary Classic Cocktails

What has become known as the "cocktail renaissance", the period when skilfully made and balanced cocktails were rediscovered by bartenders and embraced en masse by Discerning Drinkers, properly took off in the 1990s. However, it really began in the mid-1980s with the fathers of contemporary bartending, Dick Bradsell and Dale DeGroff.

Dick Bradsell created the Vodka Espresso in 1983; it is the earliest cocktail from the modern bartending age that has proved enduring – particularly in its Espresso Martini form. Hence, the Espresso Martini is the oldest cocktail to appear in this collection of cocktails to emerge during this period.

Modern classics are cocktails:

• Modern – created after 1985.
• Enduring – perhaps even more popular now than when created.
• Travellers – appearing on bar menus &/or in publications beyond the city or country of origin.
• Good - Worthy of making and drinking.
• Replicatable - easily made in bars around the world and even by home cocktail enthusiasts.

This collection was originally inspired by and published soon after the release of Robert Simonson's Modern Classics of the Cocktail Renaissance app in 2016.

Cocktail page views on this website help us track popularity and identify new cocktails to induct into the collection. The most recent being:
Daisy Buchanan – inducted 08 November 25
TomatiniTomatini – inducted November 2024
Flannel Shirt – inducted November 2024

Californian Margarita – inducted in September 2026 when it was moved from the Cocktail Hall of Fame. It should have been here since its popularity first became apparent in 2021.