10 vodka cocktails that are ordered in bars all over the world
Material 18+. Excessive alcohol consumption is harmful to your health.
Updated
There's a joke that every bartender has probably heard: 'Vodka is what people drink when they don't like the taste of alcohol.' I've stood behind the bar for many years and can say: the joke is unfair. Vodka is a blank canvas. It doesn't argue with coffee, cranberry, or tomato juice, and that's why cocktails based on it are ordered most often — from the airport bar in Singapore to a basement speakeasy in Prague.
Mixing them at home is easier than it seems. You don't need a rare vermouth from a limited edition and you don't need a collection of bitters on the shelf — most recipes from this list can be made with four or five ingredients that you can find in any supermarket. You just need ice without skimping and precise proportions: cold matters here more than an expensive bottle.
All the recipes below are from the catalog 24cocktails.com, with exact measurements and step-by-step assembly. I've added what I usually tell guests across the bar: the character of the drink, when it's appropriate, and where people most often go wrong.
1. Espresso Martini (Espresso Martini)
A coffee cocktail with vodka and liqueur that has turned from a London exotic into a global hit over the past few years: it's ordered both instead of dessert and instead of a fourth cup of coffee. It was invented by London bartender Dick Bradsell in the eighties, and since then the recipe has hardly changed. The thick creamy foam on top is not just a decoration, but a sign that the cocktail is made correctly.
Ingredients
- Vodka — 50 ml
- Kahlúa — 25 ml
- Sugar syrup — 10 ml
- Plus a shot of espresso — it gets added during the preparation
How to make it
- Brew a shot of espresso and let it cool slightly.
- In a shaker with ice, add vodka, Kahlúa, syrup, and espresso.
- Shake vigorously for 15 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled martini glass.
- Garnish with three coffee beans.
Tip: the coffee should be freshly brewed, but not boiling — scalding espresso will melt the ice and dilute the drink. And don’t hold back on the shake: that’s what gives you the froth.
2. Cosmopolitan
An elegant cocktail with vodka and cranberry, the main star of the nineties. After 'Sex and the City', it was ordered so often that some bartenders started to hate the pink color. And that's a shame: a well-made Cosmo is a dry, tart, grown-up drink, where cranberry provides color and a slight bitterness, not sweetness. The strength is modest — about 15 degrees, so it opens the evening nicely.
Ingredients
- Vodka — 40 ml
- Triple Sec — 20 ml
- Cranberry juice — 30 ml
- Lime juice — 15 ml
How to make
- In a shaker with ice, add all the ingredients.
- Shake vigorously for 10–15 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled martini glass.
- Garnish with a lime wedge.
Tip: Chill the glass in advance — put it in the freezer for about ten minutes or fill it with ice while you shake the shaker. A Cosmo is served without ice, and a warm glass will kill it faster than any mistake in proportions.
3. Moscow Mule
Vodka with ginger beer and lime — a formula that’s impossible to mess up. Legend has it that the cocktail was invented in America in the 1940s to boost sales of vodka, which was still unfamiliar to Americans back then — and the copper mug was part of the marketing. It worked for decades: today, people recognize a 'mule' by the mug before they do by the taste. Fiery ginger, sour lime, icy metal in hand — the perfect drink for the heat.
Ingredients
- Vodka — 50 ml
- Lime juice — 20 ml
- Plus ginger beer — it’s added to the cocktail during assembly
How to make
- Fill the copper mug with ice cubes.
- Pour in the vodka and lime juice.
- Top it off with ginger beer.
- Gently stir.
- Garnish with a lime wedge and a sprig of mint.
Tip: Ginger beer is not ginger ale: look for something that really packs a punch. And stir just a couple of times with a bar spoon — otherwise, you'll lose all the fizz, and the cocktail will go flat.
4. Bloody Mary
The only cocktail on the list that’s both a drink and a snack. The modern version is tomato juice, vodka, and a whole array of spices, all served in a tall glass with a celery stalk. It’s most often ordered at a late breakfast: the salty-spicy flavor wakes you up just as well as coffee. Every bartender has their own balance of pepper and Worcestershire — and this is one of those cases where arguing about the 'one true' recipe is pointless.
Ingredients
- Ketel One Vodka — 60 ml
- Tomato juice — 120 ml
- Lemon juice — 15 ml
- Hot pepper sauce (red) — 8 dashes
- Worcestershire sauce — 4 dashes
- Black pepper — 2 turns of the mill
- Celery salt — a pinch
How to prepare
- Mix all the ingredients in a shaker with ice.
- Strain into a glass with ice.
- Garnish with a celery stalk (optional — salt and pepper on the rim of the glass).
Tip: add sauces drop by drop, not 'by eye' — it's easy to overdo it with the pepper sauce, and you won't be able to get the balance back. Eight dashes from the recipe is a guideline for those who like it spicy; start with half and taste.
5. Long Island Iced Tea
A cocktail with a reputation: four strong spirits in one glass and a taste that deceptively resembles iced tea. The strength is about 27 degrees, making it the strongest cocktail on the list, and it deserves some respect. In this version, cola plays an unusual role — just a dash, purely for the color of the 'tea', not for sweetness.
Ingredients
- Vodka — 1/2 oz (15 ml)
- Tequila — 1/2 oz
- White rum — 1/2 oz
- Gin — 1/2 oz
- Cola — 1 dash
- Lemon peel — twist
How to prepare
- Fill the highball glass with ice.
- Add vodka, tequila, light rum, and gin.
- Gently stir.
- Add a dash of cola for color.
- Garnish with lemon or lime zest.
Tip: there should be plenty of ice — right to the rim of the glass. In a cocktail where almost everything is strong, ice is the only thing that takes care of dilution and drinkability. Half a glass of ice is a mistake, not a savings.
6. White Russian
A classic with vodka and coffee liqueur, topped with cream — a drink for lovers of all things creamy. Its second life is thanks to 'The Big Lebowski': after the movie, even those who had only been drinking beer for years started ordering it. This is a slow evening drink — sweet, enveloping, almost dessert-like. It comes together right in the glass, no shaker needed, in a minute.
Ingredients
- Vodka — 2 oz (60 ml)
- Kahlúa — 1 oz (30 ml)
- Heavy cream — 60 ml
How to make it
- Pour the vodka into an old-fashioned glass.
- Add the coffee liqueur.
- Fill the glass with heavy cream.
- Serve immediately.
Tip: use drinking cream, 10–20 percent — the heavy ones sit on top and don’t mix. If you want a nice layered effect, pour them slowly over a bar spoon on top of the rest.
7. Black Russian
The older brother of the White Russian — the same duet of vodka and coffee liqueur, but without the cream. It came first, and the creamy version is just a variation of it. This is a straightforward strong digestif with two ingredients: bitter coffee, the sweetness of the liqueur, and icy cold. When a guest asks for 'something simple, strong, and flavorful,' I almost always suggest this one.
Ingredients
- Ketel One Vodka — 60 ml
- Coffee liqueur — 22.5 ml
How to make
- Mix all the ingredients with ice.
- Strain into a glass filled with ice.
- If desired, garnish with a slice of lemon and a Luxardo cherry on a skewer.
Tip: in a two-ingredient cocktail, the quality of the ice is a third of the flavor. Large, dense cubes made from pure water melt slowly; cloudy ice chips from the freezer will turn the drink into watery coffee in five minutes.
8. French Martini
A refreshing cocktail with fruity notes, born from the bar trend of 'flavored martinis': they added raspberry liqueur and pineapple juice to the classic glass shape. No vermouth, despite the name, is in it. The signature detail is the fluffy white foam that pineapple juice gives when shaken vigorously. A great choice for a party: it looks impressive and goes down easy.
Ingredients
- Vodka — 4.5 cl (45 ml)
- Raspberry liqueur — 1.5 cl
- Pineapple juice — 1.5 cl
How to make
- Fill a shaker with ice cubes.
- Pour in the vodka, raspberry liqueur, and pineapple juice.
- Close the shaker and shake vigorously for 15 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
- Express the oil from a lemon peel over the cocktail.
Advice: The foam will only appear from real juice, preferably freshly squeezed — the clarified nectar from a carton won't give you that effect. And shake it all for 15 seconds, honestly, without cutting corners.
9. Orgasm (Orgasm)
A cocktail with a rich sweet flavor and a name that still makes guests smile when they order it. A classic of the creamy bar wave: cocoa, almond amaretto, a hint of orange triple sec, and cream bound with vodka. Essentially — a liquid dessert, and it’s best to order it in that role: after dinner, instead of tiramisu.
Ingredients
- Creme de Cacao (white) — 15 ml (1/2 oz)
- Amaretto — 1/2 oz
- Triple Sec — 1/2 oz
- Vodka — 1/2 oz
- Light cream — 1 oz (30 ml)
How to prepare
- Combine all the ingredients in a shaker with ice.
- Shake well.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
- Serve immediately, garnished with chocolate shavings if desired.
Tip: "serve immediately" is not just a formality: creamy cocktails separate and warm up faster than any others. Make it — straight into your hands, not on the table "for later".
10. Alabama Slammer
A drink from the American South, which is more often found as a shot or a long drink, but here is the "straight" version: chilled, without ice, in a martini glass. Vodka and Southern liqueur provide a sweet, spicy base, orange juice adds freshness, and grenadine gives a sunset color. It turns out more festive and refined than the boisterous bar original.
Ingredients
- Ketel One Vodka — 45 ml
- Southern-style liqueur (like Southern Comfort) — 22.5 ml
- Freshly squeezed orange juice — 30 ml
- Giffard grenadine syrup — 7.5 ml
How to make it
- Mix all the ingredients with ice.
- Strain into a chilled glass.
- Garnish with orange zest.
Tip: only use freshly squeezed orange juice — the boxed stuff will give you a cloying and murky taste. And don’t go overboard with the grenadine: 7.5 ml is really all you need for color and a hint of sweetness.
Ten recipes are, of course, just the tip of the iceberg. Vodka has a light character: it gets along with almost any juice, liqueur, and syrup, so you can experiment with it endlessly — as long as you have a reliable guide with the right measurements.
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