Updated September 2026
Most cocktail recipes quietly assume you own three syrups, a jigger and a bottle of something you will use exactly once. These seven do not. Every one is four ingredients or fewer, counting the ice, and none needs a piece of bar equipment you cannot improvise with a spoon and a jam jar.
They run from least to most effort, so the first is genuinely two bottles and a glass.
The shortest useful shopping list
One bottle of vodka, one of white rum and one of tequila, plus limes, orange juice, cola and ginger beer, covers five of the seven drinks below with no second trip. That is the point of starting here: a small shelf that stretches across a lot of evenings.
Screwdriver
Two ingredients, no technique, and the drink most people accidentally make first. Worth doing properly once: fresh orange juice instead of carton turns it from student fare into something you would hand to a guest.
What goes in: 50ml vodka · Orange juice · Ice
The short version: Fill a tall glass with ice, pour the vodka, top with orange juice and stir.
Cuba Libre
A rum and coke becomes a Cuba Libre the moment real lime goes in, which costs nothing and changes everything. The classic three-bottle-shelf drink.
What goes in: 50ml white rum · Cola · Lime wedges · Ice
The short version: Fill with ice, squeeze in two lime wedges, add the rum, top with cola and stir gently.
Kyiv Mule
Vodka, lime and ginger beer in a copper mug. The mug is not decoration: it frosts over and keeps the drink colder than glass, which is most of the appeal on a warm evening.
What goes in: 50ml vodka · 15ml lime juice · Ginger beer · Ice
The short version: Fill a copper mug with ice, add vodka and lime, top with ginger beer and garnish with lime and mint.
Tequila Sunrise
The easiest drink to make look impressive. The gradient is not a trick, it is grenadine being denser than juice, so it sinks on its own. The only rule is that you must not stir it.
What goes in: 50ml tequila · 100ml orange juice · 15ml grenadine · Ice
The short version: Fill with ice, add tequila and orange juice, then pour the grenadine slowly down the side and do not stir.
Malibu Sunrise
The same sinking-grenadine trick with coconut rum and pineapple instead. Sweeter and more forgiving than the tequila version, and the one to make for people who say they do not like cocktails.
What goes in: 50ml Malibu rum · 100ml pineapple juice · 15ml grenadine · Ice
The short version: Fill with ice, pour the rum and pineapple juice, then add the grenadine slowly so it settles at the bottom.
Caipirinha
Brazil's national drink and the only one here that asks you to muddle something, which takes about fifteen seconds. Cachaça is the one bottle on this page you may not already own, and it is worth the shelf space.
What goes in: 60ml cachaça · 1 lime, cut into wedges · 2 teaspoons sugar · Crushed ice
The short version: Muddle the lime wedges with the sugar in the glass, fill with crushed ice, add cachaça and stir well.
B52
Three ingredients and the only genuinely fiddly one on the list, because the layers have to be floated. Pour each over the back of a spoon held just above the surface and they stay separate.
What goes in: 20ml Kahlúa · 20ml Baileys Irish Cream · 20ml Grand Marnier
The short version: Pour the Kahlúa first, then float the Baileys and the Grand Marnier over the back of a spoon and serve at once.
Now 56 recipes to explore
The book has grown by 22 recipes: try a bright Cosmopolitan, a floral Hugo Spritz, a sparkling French 75 or a peachy Bellini. For a richer evening drink, explore the Boulevardier, Sazerac or Amaretto Sour. BUNZE and PIXEL are our own creations, named after the app creators.
Looking for a place or a period? On supported devices, Cocktail AI can suggest recipes by flavor, ingredients, occasion, origin or era, and share a short backstory. If the book has no exact match, it says so and can offer a clearly labeled alternative. AI can make mistakes; check the recipe and drink responsibly.
The other recipes are in the app
The drinks above are the ones worth planning an evening around. The rest of the shelf — a Negroni, a Dry Martini, an Espresso Martini, a Penicillin and more, 56 in total — sits in Cold Ones with the full numbered steps, the right glass, the garnish and a photo of what it should look like when you get it right.
- 56 cocktail recipes, with alcohol-free ideas where suitable in English, German, Spanish and French, each with step-by-step instructions rather than the one-line summaries above.
- Tell it what you already own. The ingredient picker groups spirits, mixers, fruit and garnishes into easy-to-find choices. Tick what is actually in your kitchen and the app shows only the drinks you can make right now, instead of sending you to a shop at 9pm.
- An AI cocktail assistant. Ask for something in plain language — "citrusy but not too sweet, and I have gin" — and it narrows the list. It runs on your own phone on supported devices, so the conversation is not sent anywhere.
- Eight party games in the same download: Truth or Dare, Never Have I Ever, Paranoia, Impostor, Trivia, They're a 10, But…, Party Mode and a spin-the-wheel Roulette. The drinks are rarely the whole evening.
Free on iPhone and Android, with no ads and no account needed to open a recipe.
Frequently asked questions
What is the easiest cocktail to make at home?
A Screwdriver: vodka, orange juice, ice. No technique at all. A Cuba Libre is barely harder and tastes considerably better than a plain rum and coke because of the squeezed lime.
What cocktails can you make with 3 ingredients?
A Screwdriver, a Vodka Energy and a layered B52 use exactly three. Add a fourth and you unlock a Cuba Libre, a Kyiv Mule, a Caipirinha, a Tequila Sunrise and a Dry Martini.
What do you need to start making cocktails at home?
Less than people think. One bottle each of vodka, white rum and tequila, plus limes, orange juice, cola and ginger beer, covers most of the drinks on this page. A jam jar works as a shaker and a spoon handles the rest; a jigger is nice but a measured shot glass is fine.
How do you get the layers in a Tequila Sunrise or a B52?
Density does the work. Grenadine is heavier than juice, so poured slowly it sinks on its own — the only rule for a Tequila Sunrise is not to stir it. For a B52 the liqueurs are close in density, so pour each one over the back of a spoon held just above the surface to slow it down.
Can you make these cocktails without alcohol?
Several, yes. A Tequila Sunrise and a Malibu Sunrise work as juice-and-grenadine mocktails with the same gradient, and a Kyiv Mule is good with just lime and ginger beer. The app marks which recipes work without alcohol.
