Gin is the most complex spirit to mix with because it arrives at the glass already carrying a full personality. The botanicals in any serious gin are already doing work before a drop of vermouth or Campari gets near them. The best gin cocktails to order are not the ones that disguise the gin — they are the ones that understand it well enough to build something better around it. This guide covers every major gin cocktail worth ordering, from the canonical classics to the drinks that show what the spirit can really do.
The Essential Gin Cocktails
These are the gin cocktails that have earned their permanence through decades of proof. Every serious bar should make all of them. Every serious drinker should know all of them. Start here.
The most important gin cocktail of the 20th century, and the best drink to order at any bar you have not been to before. The Negroni requires a gin with enough presence to hold its own against Campari — a 40% ABV London Dry works, but a higher-proof option is better. The vermouth must be stored correctly. The stir must reach the correct dilution. An orange twist expressed over the top is not optional. When all three elements are correct, this is one of the best 3-ingredient drinks in existence.
Best gin: Tanqueray 10, Beefeater, or Sipsmith London Dry. Higher proof works best against Campari.
The Martini is the gin cocktail with the most strongly held opinions and the most room for personal preference. Gin to vermouth ratio: anywhere from 2:1 to 6:1 depending on your preference for dryness. The only non-negotiable is temperature — a Martini served warm is wrong regardless of the ratio. The best gin for a Martini depends on what you want from it: Hendrick's for a slightly floral, cucumber-forward drink; Beefeater or Tanqueray for something more classic and juniper-forward. Specify what you want and a good bartender delivers it precisely.
Best gin: Beefeater for classic; Tanqueray 10 for a more citrus-forward expression.
The Tom Collins is consistently underrated at serious cocktail bars because it looks easy. When made correctly with fresh lemon and properly chilled soda, it is one of the most genuinely refreshing drinks on this list. The mistake bars make is using a squeeze bottle of lemon concentrate and warm soda. The correct version is built over ice in a tall glass, with freshly squeezed lemon, house-made simple syrup, a good dry gin, and cold soda added last and poured gently to preserve the carbonation. Order it on a warm afternoon at any bar you trust.
Best gin: Plymouth, Beefeater, or Bombay Sapphire. Classic London Dry works best here.
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These cocktails have more components and more opportunity for a bar to distinguish itself. They are not more difficult to order — they are more interesting to receive when a bar does them correctly.
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The Last Word
Gin / Green Chartreuse / Maraschino / LimeEqual Parts / ShakenHerbal / Complex
Prohibition-era from Detroit, revived by the craft cocktail renaissance of the 2000s. Equal parts of 4 very strong flavours, balanced so precisely that removing or adjusting any single element breaks the drink. The gin brings juniper structure. Chartreuse brings herbal complexity. Maraschino brings almond sweetness. Lime brings acidity. Navy-strength gin works best because it has the presence to stand next to 80-proof Chartreuse. A bar with the Last Word on the menu is a bar that takes its canon seriously.
Best gin: Plymouth Navy Strength or Hayman's Royal Dock. The proof matters.
Pre-Prohibition, from Philadelphia's Clover Club gentlemen's club. The Clover Club rewards bars that make their own raspberry syrup from fresh fruit — the difference between house-made and commercial raspberry syrup is immediately apparent in the glass. The egg white gives the drink a silky texture and a foam that holds well enough to take the garnish. A beautifully made Clover Club is pink, frothy, tart, and slightly sweet without being cloying. It is also the gin cocktail most likely to convert someone who claims not to like gin.
Best gin: Hendrick's or any floral gin with rose or elderflower botanicals complements the raspberry.
Named after the French 75mm field gun and invented during World War I. The gin version is the original and correct version — the cognac substitute is a later development that works differently. A good French 75 uses fresh lemon, real Champagne (not Prosecco or Cava), and a dry gin with enough juniper to cut through the bubbles. It is the best gin cocktail for celebrating something or starting an evening with intent. Bars that use sparkling wine are not wrong, but they are making a lesser drink.
Best gin: Tanqueray or Beefeater. Champagne: Brut or Extra Brut. Avoid very dry Champagne, which fights the citrus.
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The Modern Gin Cocktails Worth Knowing
These drinks are recent enough to not yet be canonical but established enough that any serious bar should know them. They demonstrate the range of what gin can do when a bartender approaches the spirit without the weight of 100 years of tradition telling them what it should taste like.
The original Gimlet used Rose's Lime Cordial, which was a preservation technology on Royal Navy ships. The fresh lime version is better in every way except historical accuracy. A good fresh Gimlet is one of the cleanest, most honest gin cocktails: gin, citrus, sugar, nothing to hide behind. The gin must be juniper-forward enough to hold up to the fresh lime's acidity. This is not a drink that suits new-wave floral gins as well as it suits a proper London Dry. The ratio should be tart enough that the gin remains the point.
Best gin: Beefeater or Tanqueray. Their juniper profiles work best with fresh lime.
A Prohibition-era cocktail that used honey to cover the flavour of bathtub gin — which means the best modern version needs a gin good enough that the honey does not need to do that work anymore. House-made honey syrup diluted 2:1 with warm water is the only correct approach. Commercial honey syrup from a bottle carries a different sweetness profile that reads as artificial in a finished drink. A correctly made Bee's Knees with a good London Dry gin and fresh lemon is one of the most approachable and well-balanced cocktails on this list.
Best gin: Sipsmith London Dry or Hendrick's. Floral gins work well here with the honey.
The gin sour sits slightly in the shadow of the whiskey sour in terms of how often it is ordered, which means bars that have it on the menu and do it correctly are expressing a genuine commitment to the category rather than responding to demand. The dry-shake for egg white is mandatory. The lemon must be fresh. The gin should have enough character to carry through the citrus and foam without disappearing. A very good gin sour is one of the quieter revelations on a serious cocktail menu.
Best gin: Tanqueray 10 or Roku Japanese Gin. Both have enough character to register through the sour structure.
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The best gin cocktails to order depend on what you want from the evening and what the bar's gin selection looks like. If the bar has 3 gins and one of them is Hendrick's, you are at a bar that has made a gin selection decision based on recognisability rather than depth. Order a Negroni and see what Campari and vermouth can do with what is available. If the bar has 20 gins and a bartender who can tell you what each one does in a cocktail, you are somewhere worth spending time with. Ask what they would make with their favourite gin. That question alone tells you what you need to know about the bar.
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Our complete ranking of the classic cocktails worth ordering, and what they reveal about the bar making them.
