The 20 Most Popular Cocktail Recipes of 2025
At the end of every year, we like to look back on which cocktail recipes you searched for the most on the Imbibe site and then, for fun, compare this top 20 roundup to those of previous years. In 2025 there were more coffee cocktails, while classics Clover Club and Left Hand dropped off after occupying the list for the past three years. And for the first time, a spirit-free recipe made the list. But what’s perhaps most telling is that a brooding, spirit-forward sipper, which had been hovering around the top, finally seized the No. 1 spot from a tropical classic. Here are the 20 most popular cocktail recipes featured on imbibemagazine.com in 2025—ranked in ascending order of popularity.
20. Flatliner
Indulge in an Espresso Martini-inspired coffee cocktail recipe featuring a creamy texture and cozy baking spices.
19. Great Silence
Liqueurs can influence cocktails in both bold and nuanced ways, such as in this recipe that uses small amounts of a fruit liqueur to accent the brightness of an aperitif liqueur.
Iron Ranger | Photo by Anne Watson
18. Iron Ranger
A 101-proof bourbon sets a bold tone for this tropical recipe from Erick Castro’s cocktail menu at Raised by Wolves in San Diego.
17. Spanish Coffee
Huber’s Café in Portland, Oregon, has become famous for their Spanish Coffee prepared perfectly every time with all of the fire-filled theatrics you’d ever want.
16. Hoodwinked
A vacation libation with a bittersweet edge and mezcal.
15. Wicked Behavior
A complex bourbon and pineapple cocktail that’s bright and refreshing.
14. Twelve Mile Limit
This Prohibition-era recipe made with overproof rum, rye whiskey, and cognac is worth revisiting.
13. Oaxacan on Broken Glass
The beauty of this spicy mezcal cocktail is that the heat doesn’t linger but sticks around long enough to entice another sip.
Le Fatigue | Photo by John VallsOaxacan on Broken Glass | Photo by Kim Yeoh Hundred Acre Wood | Photo by John Valls
12. Negroni Svegliato
This coffee Negroni combines the richness of espresso with sweet vermouth for an extra layer of bittersweetness.
11. Le Fatigue
In this rye whiskey cocktail, whiskey balances out an assertive blend of Angostura bitters and maraschino liqueur.
10. Hundred Acre Wood
Lapsang Souchong tea’s smokiness forms a robust foundation for this tropical spirit-free cocktail from the Maybourne Bar in Beverly Hills.
9. Green Eyes
Chartreuse ups the herbacousness of this gin cocktail, which is similar to the classic Last Word, but with frothy egg whites.
8. Boulevardier
This bourbon-based Negroni relative is a favorite around the world.
7. Chartreuse Swizzle
Few modern cocktails are as iconic—and delicious—as this herbaceous San Francisco classic.
6. Bitter Giuseppe
First featured on an early menu at the Violet Hour in Chicago, Stephen Cole’s Bitter Giuseppe cocktail has become a modern classic over the years.
5. Classic Negroni
A cocktail so iconic that it inspired us to create a week-long global celebration.
Snowcap | Photo by Jeffrey ChanBitter Giuseppe | Photo by Emma Janzen
4. Tomatini
This tomato cocktail with zing, created in 2010 for LPM Restaurant & Bar in Dubai, has gone on to be a favorite around the world.
3. Snowcap
Chai spices balanced by maple syrup and a velvety texture make this whiskey sour recipe ideal for winter-time sipping.
2. Saturn
This fruity combo of gin, passion fruit, orgeat, falernum, and lemon juice is one of the most famous gin-based recipes.
1. Black Manhattan
This brooding Manhattan variation trades out sweet vermouth for Averna—a groundbreaking move when it was created in 2005.
Black Manhattan | Photo by Max Kelly
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