The 7 Most Underrated Cocktail Recipes You Should Mix Now

The world was already flush with Manhattan variations when Vincenzo Errico made the Red Hook in 2003, the cocktail that would kickstart a renaissance in the field. There has subsequently been the Greenpoint, the Fort Point, the Little Italy and about 20 more, all Manhattan variations, all named for neighborhoods, and frankly all worthy of being on this list, but over the years I’ve found that the original Red Hook is the one that the broadest set of drinkers seem to love the most. Rye whiskey forms a robust and spicy base, the bittersweet vermouth Punt e Mes offers plush fruit, and a spot of maraschino liqueur gives an intriguing and never-too-sweet earthy funk that makes cocktail fans come back sip after sip, glass after drained glass. Make one with the recipe below, or find out how the whole “name a Manhattan after its neighborhood” thing got started here.

Stir on ice for 15 seconds (if small ice) to 30 seconds (if large ice). Strain off ice into chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a cocktail cherry or nothing at all.

The fun of this drink starts, of course, with the name, which weighs in at 11 words (and one punctuation mark) and with which people tend to be both amused and bemused. Taste it, though, and it all starts to make sense—it is bitter, weird, and above all, great. It is this drink’s sweeter and friendlier cousin (the Bitter Giuseppe) that gets most of the attention, but this one is my favorite—I’ve made this for guests before their meals, after their meals, during their meals, if they’re not having a meal, whatever, and as long as they’re not afraid of a little bitterness, everyone always loves it. 

Add liquids and salt to a mixing glass and stir a bit to dissolve salt. Express your lemon peels so the oil goes into the liquid, then add them to the glass itself, to be stirred with the cocktail. Add ice and stir for 10 to 12 seconds (if using small ice) or 20 to 25 seconds (if using big ice) and strain up into an absinthe-rinsed coupe, and garnish with yet another lemon peel.

The Autumn Negroni is what would happen if a standard Negroni were cast in a superhero movie and had six months to get into the best shape of its life—it is angular and imposing, a significant force. It is a Negroni but more bitter, more layered, more intense, and over the years has become my first choice for any bitter cocktail fans who come to the bar looking for something like a Negroni, but different. It was invented at the late Violet Hour in Chicago in 2011, and there it would’ve stayed were it not for my good luck of visiting the bar that November, falling in love with the cocktail, demanding the recipe, and then proselytizing about it for the next 15 years.

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir well for 15 to 20 seconds. Strain up into a coupe or cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel.

The Old Cuban may not belong on this list because it’s decently well known, and most cocktail bartenders could summon the recipe from memory. That being said, it is included here because however well known it may be, it is still criminally under-loved and under-ordered—it tastes way better than it sounds, and it sounds pretty good. This early 2000s Champagne cocktail was invented by Audrey Saunders (of Pegu Club fame) and is very often misunderstood as the union of a Mojito and a French 75, but that’s not right at all. Those cocktails are all brightness and sunshine; the Old Cuban, on the other hand, is a different kind of thrill, the aged rum and bitters moving it “from poolside to inside, as if under a slowly twisting ceiling fan in a smoky room, long narrow beams of light through the wooden shutters,” and has my vote for the best (non-French 75) Champagne cocktail in existence. 

Add all ingredients except wine to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake well for 10 to 12 seconds and strain into a flute or stemmed cocktail glass. Top with wine and garnish with a mint leaf or sprig.

The Michigander is not a one-size-fits-all experience. There are two pre-conditions to its enjoyment: One, you have to be OK with a bit of bitterness, and two (and more pressingly), it really helps to have a bone-deep love of the fall. But if you have these two things, you literally can’t do better than the Michigander, which tastes like how a freshly raked pile of leaves smells. It was created by Jason Schiffer at his bar just south of L.A., a midwestern transplant in Southern California reminiscing on orchards and scarves who created this mix of apple brandy, Cynar, lemon, and honey. 

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Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake for eight to 10 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice and garnish with a grapefruit peel.

The Stork Club is a classic from the 1940s, but nobody ever talks about it. I had never even seen a Stork Club cocktail until the week I decided to write about it, and assumed it would just be a curiosity, important to the history of drinks and drinking but otherwise a dated, one-off novelty. Not so. Yes, the recipe as it was originally written is all those things and boring to boot, but in my tests I rebalanced the Cointreau and juice and found something exuberant in its refreshment, a sunbeam of a drink. It’s the one orange juice cocktail on earth for which you don’t need to offer excuses, and I’ve been making it steadily for guests since I first formed the recipe. 

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake good and hard for eight to 10 seconds and strain up into a coupe or cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange peel.

The Cobra Clutch is a perfect example of this idea, a drink that no one knows but everyone loves. It was created by Christian Siglin in San Diego and is the kind of cocktail that people will order three times in a row, at once delicious and complex, both easy and engaging. There is a hole in the classic cannon where a tropical agave drink should be and the Cobra Clutch is it, the platonic idea of the tiki side of tequila and mezcal and as far as I’m concerned, deserves to be up there with the Margarita and the Paloma as expressions of the tequila’s best self. 

And all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Briefly shake to incorporate the ingredients, then pour into a large rocks glass. Top with more crushed ice, and garnish with a mint sprig.