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<p>These are the best cocktails, the drinks that make the end of the day worth looking forward to, as voted on by the Ranker community. Anyone can add to this real-time ranking of mixed drinks that follow the words: "Bartender, I'd like a..." Rank the best cocktails you love to sip at the bar, swirl coyly with a straw or pour into a supersize slurpee cup and saunter around a BBQ with.</p>Also, to beat the heat, check out this list of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/most-delicious-summer-cocktails/chef-jen">most delicious summer cocktails</a>.

The Best Cocktails Ever Mixed

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Margarita

The margarita is a cocktail consisting of tequila, triple sec and lime or lemon juice, often served with salt on the rim of the glass. The drink is served shaken with ice, blended with ice, or without ice. Although it has become acceptable to serve a margarita in a wide variety of glass types, ranging from cocktail and wine glasses to pint glasses and even large schooners, the drink is traditionally served in the eponymous margarita glass, a stepped-diameter variant of a cocktail glass or champagne coupe somewhat resembling an inverted sombrero.

Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters then adding alcohol, such as whiskey or brandy, and a twist of citrus rind. It is traditionally served in a short, round, 8–12 US fl oz tumbler-like glass, which is called an Old Fashioned glass, named after the drink.
The Old Fashioned, developed during the 19th century and given its name in the 1880s, is an IBA Official Cocktail. It is also one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.

Daiquiri

Daiquiri is a family of cocktails whose main ingredients are rum, citrus, and sugar or other sweetener.
The daiquiri is one of the six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. In the book, he also suggests some variations.

Mojito

Mojito is a traditional Cuban highball.
Traditionally, a mojito is a cocktail that consists of five ingredients: white rum, sugar, lime juice, sparkling water, and mint. The original Cuban recipe uses spearmint or yerba buena, a mint variety very popular on the island. Its combination of sweetness, refreshing citrus, and mint flavors is intended to complement the potent kick of the rum, and has made this clear highball a popular summer drink. The cocktail has a relatively low alcohol content.
When preparing a mojito, lime juice is added to sugar and mint leaves. The mixture is then gently mashed with a muddler. The mint leaves should only be bruised to release the essential oils and should not be shredded. Then rum is added and the mixture is briefly stirred to dissolve the sugar and to lift the mint leaves up from the bottom for better presentation. Finally, the drink is topped with whole ice cubes and sparkling soda water. Mint leaves and lime wedges are used to garnish the glass.
The mojito is one of the most famous rum-based highballs. There are several versions of the mojito.

Piña colada

The piña colada is a sweet cocktail made with rum, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. It may be garnished with a pineapple wedge, a maraschino cherry, or both. The piña colada has been the national drink of Puerto Rico since 1978.

Screwdriver

A screwdriver is a popular alcoholic highball drink made with orange juice and vodka. While the basic drink is simply the two ingredients, there are many variations. Many of the variations have different names in different parts of the world. The International Bartenders Association has designated this cocktail as an IBA Official Cocktail.

Long Island Iced Tea

A Long Island Iced Tea is a type of alcoholic mixed drink typically made with, among other ingredients, tequila, vodka, light rum, triple sec, and gin. It is so named because of the resemblance to the color and taste of iced tea. A popular version mixes equal parts vodka, gin, tequila, rum, and triple sec with 1½ parts sour mix and a splash of cola, which gives the drink the same amber hue as its namesake.
Most variants use equal parts of the main liquors, but include a smaller amount of triple sec. Close variants often replace the sour mix with lemon juice, replace the cola with diet cola or actual iced tea, or add white crème de menthe; however, most variants do not include any tea. Some restaurants substitute brandy for the tequila. Some variants of the drink have alternative names such as Texas Iced Tea, Georgia Iced Tea, Tokyo Tea, Three Mile Island, and Adios Mother Fucker.
The drink has a much higher alcohol concentration than most highball drinks due to the relatively small amount of mixer. Long islands can be ordered "extra long", which further increases the alcohol to mixer ratio.

Gin and tonic

A gin and tonic is a highball cocktail made with gin and tonic water poured over ice. It is usually garnished with a slice or wedge of lime. The amount of gin varies according to taste. Suggested ratios of gin to tonic are 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, and 2:3.
In some countries, gin and tonic is marketed pre-mixed in single-serving cans. In the United States, most bars "use soda out of a gun that in no way, shape or form resembles quinine water", according to bartender Dale DeGroff. To get a real gin and tonic, DeGroff recommends specifying bottled tonic. Alternatively, one can add tonic syrup to soda water.
It is commonly referred to as a "G and T" in the UK, USA, Canada and Ireland. In some parts of the world, it is called a "Gin Tonic". Some brands will replace the word "gin" with their own brand or initial in recipes. For instance, "Sapphire and Tonic" for Bombay Sapphire, "Hendrick's and Tonic" for Hendrick's Gin, or "T&T" for Tanqueray.

Rum and Coke

Mai Tai

The Mai Tai is an alcoholic cocktail based on rum, Curaçao liqueur, and lime juice, associated with Polynesian-style settings.

Whiskey sour

The whiskey sour is a mixed drink containing whiskey (often bourbon), lemon juice, sugar, and optionally, a dash of egg white. With the egg white, it is sometimes called a Boston Sour. With a few bar spoons of full-bodied red wine floated on top, it is often referred to as a New York Sour. It is shaken and served either straight up or over ice.
The traditional garnish is half an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.
A variant of the whiskey sour is the Ward 8, which often is based on bourbon or rye whiskey, and includes both lemon and orange juices, and grenadine syrup as the sweetener. The egg white sometimes employed in other whiskey sours is not usually included.

Martini

The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. 
H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet" and E. B. White called it "the elixir of quietude".

Sangria

Sangria is a typical beverage from Spain and Portugal. It normally consists of wine, chopped fruit, a sweetener, and a small amount of added brandy. Chopped fruit can include orange, lemon, lime, apple, peach, melon, berries, pineapple, grape, kiwifruit and mango. A sweetener such as honey, sugar, syrup, or orange juice is added. Instead of brandy, other liquids such as Seltzer, Sprite or 7 Up may be added. Sangria is steeped while chilled for as little as minutes or up to a few days.
The use of the word sangria in labels is now restricted under European law. Only sangria made in Spain and Portugal will be allowed to be sold under that name after the European Parliament green-lighted new wine labeling in January 2014.

Bloody Mary

A Bloody Mary is a cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and combinations of other spices and flavorings including Worcestershire sauce, hot sauces, garlic, herbs, horseradish, celery, olives, salt, black pepper, lemon juice, lime juice and/or celery salt. In the United States, it is usually consumed in the morning or early afternoon, and is popular as a hangover cure.
The Bloody Mary was invented in the 1920s or 1930s; there are various theories as to the origin of the drink, as well as the origin of its name. It has many variants, most notably the Red Snapper, the Virgin Mary, the Caesar, and the Michelada.

Tequila Sunrise

The Tequila Sunrise is a cocktail made of tequila, orange juice, and grenadine syrup and served unmixed in a tall glass. The modern drink originates from Sausalito in the early 1970s, after an earlier one created in the 1930s in Phoenix, near Scottsdale. The cocktail is named for its appearance when served, with gradations of color resembling a sunrise.

Moscow mule

A Moscow mule, also known as a Vodka buck, is a buck made with a high quality vodka, a spicy ginger beer, and lime juice, garnished with a slice or wedge of lime. It is usually served in a copper mug. The cocktail became popular during the vodka craze in the United States during the 1950s. The name refers to the popular perception of vodka as a Russian product.

White Russian

A White Russian is a sweet cocktail classically made with vodka, coffee liqueur, and cream served with ice in an Old Fashioned glass. In modern times, many establishments have substituted milk for cream.

Mimosa

A mimosa cocktail is composed of champagne (or other sparkling wine) and chilled citrus juice, usually orange juice unless otherwise specified. It is traditionally served in a tall flute at brunch, at weddings, or as part of business or first class service on some passenger railways and airlines.  The mixing ratio of the "classic mimosa" differs based on the source.



Manhattan

A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whisky, sweet vermouth and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is usually stirred then strained into a cocktail glass and garnished with a Maraschino cherry. A Manhattan may also be served on the rocks in a lowball glass.
The whiskey-based Manhattan is one of five cocktails named for a New York City borough. It is closely related to the Brooklyn cocktail, which uses dry vermouth and Maraschino liqueur in place of the Manhattan's sweet vermouth, and Amer Picon in place of the Manhattan's angostura bitters.
The Manhattan is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.

Cosmopolitan

A cosmopolitan, or informally a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice.

Sex on the Beach

A Sex on the Beach is an alcoholic cocktail containing vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice and cranberry juice. The cocktail is usually consumed during summer months. It is an IBA Official Cocktail.
There are several stories claiming to describe the origin of the Sex on the Beach. One claims that the cocktail originated in Florida, USA in the spring of 1987 coinciding with the introduction of peach schnapps. A bartender at Confetti's Bar devised the drink and gave it the name in a nod to the many tourists visiting Florida's beaches each spring. Technically the drink is a mix of a Cape Cod (vodka and cranberry juice) and a Fuzzy Navel (peach schnapps and orange juice) and hence gives another clue as to the origin of the name.

Caipirinha

Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça, sugar and lime. Cachaça is Brazil's most common distilled alcoholic beverage. Although both rum and cachaça are made from sugarcane-derived products, specifically in cachaça, the alcohol results from the fermentation of fresh sugarcane juice that is afterwards distilled, while rum is usually made from by-products from refineries, such as molasses.
The drink is prepared by smashing the fruit and the sugar together, and adding the liquor. This can be made into a single glass, usually large, that can be shared amongst people, or into a larger jar, from where it is served in individual glasses.

Irish coffee

Irish coffee is a cocktail consisting of hot coffee, Irish whiskey, and sugar, stirred, and topped with thick cream. The coffee is drunk through the cream. The original recipe explicitly uses cream that has not been whipped, although drinks made with whipped cream are often sold as "Irish coffee".

Cuba Libre

The Cuba Libre is a highball made of cola, lime, and dark or light rum. This highball is often referred to as a Rum and Coke in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand where the lime juice may or may not be included.

Cranberry Vodka

These are the best cocktails, the drinks that make the end of the day worth looking forward to, as voted on by the Ranker community. Anyone can add to this ...