The Top 10 Modern Classic Cocktails Every Bartender Should Know!

Hi, Friends of Cocktails, and welcome to the world of modern cocktail royalty! Today, we're shaking things up with the top 10 modern classic cocktails every bartender and cocktail enthusiast should know. From the cheeky Porn Star Martini, to the smoky Penicillin and the iconic Espresso Martini, today we have a day packed with recipes, but also tips and hacks to boost your cocktail game.

First, what exactly makes a cocktail a "modern" classic? We’ve covered classic cocktails in a masterclass in the past, which have managed to remain popular for centuries, but according to Robert Simonson’s “above all, a modern classic cocktail must be popular. People have to order it not just during its initial heyday, but for years afterward”.  

Robert Simonson covered 60 modern classics in his book, but today we’ll take a look at some of my favorites–and as a plus, you don't need special equipment or hard-to-find ingredients to make these drinks. So just make sure you have some quality bar tools on hand, and then we can start with a modern classic that’s the UK’s most popular cocktail, and a drink that has been viewed the most on Difford’s Guide for the 10th year in a row: The Pornstar Martini–it’s Cocktail Time!

Pornstar Martini

● 60mL · 2oz Vanilla Vodka

● 15mL · 0.5oz Passionfruit Liqueur

● 15mL · 0.5oz Vanilla Syrup

● 15mL · 0.5oz Lime Juice

● Pulp from 1.5 Passionfruits

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● Passionfruit-Half Garnish

● Chilled Sparkling Wine Sidecar

Begin by slicing the passionfruits and adding the pulp to the shaker–and remember to keep one half for the garnish. Now add the vanilla syrup, lime juice, vanilla vodka, saline solution, and passionfruit liqueur into the shaker along with plenty of ice, then shake long and hard… It's a Pornstar Martini after all. 

Now double strain into a chilled coupe glass to keep out the passion fruit pulp, garnish with half of a passionfruit and, to serve it like its creator, Douglas Ankrah, add a chilled shot glass filled with sparkling wine. This is a sweet, exotic, and refreshing drink, so it’s no wonder it has remained so popular!

As a quick hack, if you want to make it and can’t find any passionfruit liqueur, you can make it in just a few minutes by combining Liber&Co.’s Tropical Passionfruit Syrup with rum and vodka. Now, next up is a modern interpretation of the Last Word, Sam Ross’ Paper Plane. 

Paper Plane

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Four Roses Bourbon

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Amaro Nonino

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Aperol

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Juice

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● Origami Paper Plane Garnish

Into a chilled shaker add the bourbon, amaro, Aperol, lemon juice, and saline solution–fun fact, when created, Ross used Campari but soon switched to a less bitter Aperol. Then fill the shaker with ice and shake hard, before double straining into a chilled coupe. 

While I’m not a fan of garnishes that are just for looks, I think we can make an exception with the paper plane before enjoying. This is a balanced, herbal, citrusy drink. Reminds me of the Gentleman’s Health drink we made a while back, actually. 

Before we move onto our next drink, a quick note: you'll notice I use saline solution in basically all cocktails. Salt naturally enhances flavor, which you know from cooking, and it’s easy to made by just combining 20g of salt with 80g of water. Just make sure the salt is dissolved before adding the solution to a dropper bottle, and you’re ready for a drink made a few years after the Paper Plane: the Naked and Famous.  

Naked and Famous

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Mezcal

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Yellow Chartreuse

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Aperol

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lime Juice

● 1 dash 20% Saline Solution

Same as before, start with a chilled shaker and add in our 5 components, this time adding a dash of saline solution instead as it will compliment the smoky mezcal. Same as before, add ice, shake and double-strain into a coupe. No garnish for this one, let’s keep it Naked… and famous. 

It’s Smoky, herbal, and bitter-sweet. Interestingly, both the Naked & Famous, and our next cocktail, were created by the same bartender: Joaquín Simó. So it’s time to mix a simple, but bold Jamaican rum twist on the italian classic, the Kingston Negroni.

Kingston Negroni

● 30mL · 1oz Smith & Cross Rum

● 30mL · 1oz Campari

● 30mL · 1oz 9diDante Sweet Vermouth

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● Orange Peel Circle Garnish

This one we’re actually making straight in the glass over a tempered ice block, which is easy to make as we covered in our recent post on ice hacks. So add our 4 ingredients into the glass and stir for the ingredients to mix, chill, and dilute our cocktail.

For garnish I’ll express essential oils from a small circle of orange peel and place that on the ice. The Kingston Negroni is a rich, bitter, and tropical Negroni, but in at number 5 is a cocktail that became a hit after it was given a revamp by Jeffrey Morgenthaler: the Amaretto Sour. 

Amaretto Sour

● 45mL · 1.5oz Amaretto

● 30mL · 1oz Cask Strenght Four roses

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Juice

● 5mL · -0.25oz Liber & Co. Gum Syrup 

● 15mL · 0.5oz Egg White

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● Lemon Peel & Maraschino Cherry Garnish

Here I’ll start by cracking an egg over a hawthorne strainer and letting the egg white separate into the extra shaker. I’ll then quickly whisk it with a milk frother to make it easier to measure. After you chill the shaker, add the rest of the ingredients, and instead of the dry shake you can use the milk frother again to emulsify the drink. 

All that’s left is to add ice and give the cocktail a good, hard shake to chill, dilute and aerate the ingredients even more. Double-strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice, and garnish with lemon peel and a maraschino cherry. This is a nutty, creamy, and actually balanced cocktail, but from a Pacific Coast legend we’re now moving on to a Hamburg legend–and I’m lucky enough to call both of them my friends.

So let’s make the Basil Smash by Joerg Meyer.

Gin Basil Smash

● 60mL · 2oz Malfy Originale Gin

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Juice

● 15mL · 0.5oz Simple Syrup

● Handful of Basil

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● Basil Bouquet Garnish

Into a chilled shaker I’ll first add the basil, alongside the lemon juice, syrup, saline solution and gin before giving everything a good muddle. Joerg likes to make his Gin Basil Smashes with celery gin, but I think this Malfy Gin Originale will add nice citrusy notes to complement the basil. 

Now add ice and shake well, which will pound the basil and release its flavors some more. With this one it’s again important to double strain as we pour it over the clear ice sphere in a lowball stemmed glass. We don’t want small bits of basil in the cocktail, but we’ll add a nice bouquet of basil as garnish.

This is a herbal, zesty, refreshing drink that we’ve covered before on Cocktail Time, but it deserves to be shown again when talking about modern classics. Our next cocktail is one of my all-time favorite sours and one we’ve riffed on multiple times on the channel: the smoky, honeyed creation from Sam Ross, called the Penicillin.

The Penicillin

● 60mL · 2oz Glenlivet 12 Scotch

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Juice

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Honey-Ginger Syrup

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● 1 barspoon Peated Scotch

● Candied Ginger Garnish

Grab a shaker, chill it, then go in with your scotch, saline solution, lemon juice, and honey-ginger syrup–and now our Patreons have access to a calculator to make this syrup available here on kevinkos.com!

Now add the ice and shake hard. Double-strain into a lowball glass over a clear ice block, gently float a bar spoon of peated scotch whisky on top, and add a piece of candied ginger on a cocktail pick. The Penicillin is smoky, honeyed, and rich!

With 7 cocktails in the book I think we need something to wake us up and f**k us up. You probably know I’m talking about one of the most iconic modern classics, created by Dick Bradsell: the Espresso Martini.

Espresso Martini

● 45mL · 1.5oz Vodka

● 30mL · 1oz Fresh Espresso

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Kahlua Coffee Liqueur

● 1 barspoon Simple Syrup

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● Coffee Beans Garnish

To make what’s probably the most famous coffee cocktail, start by brewing fresh espresso, and in the meantime add the ingredients into a shaker. We’ll first froth the ingredients briefly using a milk frother for extra foam. Then add ice and give it a strong shake.

Double-strain into a chilled martini glass, and you’ve probably heard this in every Espresso Martini video ever, but add 3 coffee beans for Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Rich, caffeinated, velvety, and honestly, stunning looking.

We’ve stirred and shaken cocktails today—now let’s swizzle! For that we’ll make a cocktail created in 2002 by Marco Dionysos in San Francisco: the Chartreuse Swizzle.

Chartreuse Swizzle

● 45mL · 1.5oz Green Chartreuse

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Pineapple Juice

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Juice

● 15mL Falernum

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● Pineapple Leaves, Pineapple Wedge & Maraschino Cherry Garnish

This will be built in a long drink glass. So add in the ingredients, and fill the glass about three-quarters with crushed ice or pebble ice. Now, grab a swizzle stick and quickly spin it between your palms to mix and chill the cocktail until a frost forms on the outside of the glass.

We’ll top this off with more pebble ice to create a nice mound, then garnish with three pineapple leaves, a pineapple triangle, and a maraschino cherry. The Chartreuse Swizzle is herbal, tropical, and aromatic, and it perfectly leads us to a final cocktail that was created in 2007 by Philip Ward at New York’s Death & Co–this is of course the Oaxaca Old Fashioned.

Oaxaca Old Fashioned

● 45mL · 1.5oz Aged Tequila

● 15mL · 0.5oz Mezcal

● 2 barspoons Agave Syrup

● 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● Orange Peel Garnish

I’ll make this one in a chilled mixing glass, but feel free to make it directly in the glass as well. So add in the ingredients, then fill the mixing glass with ice and stir to mix, chill and dilute. Strain into a lowball glass over a clear ice block.

Finish by flaming and expressing the essential oils from an orange peel over the glass, to pair with the smoky theme of the cocktail. The Oaxaca Old Fashioned is smooth, complex, and smoky, but now I want to hear from you. What's your favorite modern classic cocktail? Would your top 10 list look any different? Let me know in the comments and until next time, cheers, Friends of Cocktails!