15 Cocktails With 3 Ingredients or Less (That Actually Taste Good)
Tips & Tricks · 2026-08-10 · 7 min read · by Jake
Some of the best cocktails in history use three ingredients or fewer. The Old Fashioned? Whiskey, sugar, bitters. The Negroni? Equal parts gin, Campari, sweet vermouth. Simple doesn't mean boring — it means every ingredient has to earn its place.
Here are 15 cocktails that prove you don't need a bar full of obscure liqueurs to make something worth drinking.
Spirit + Sweet + Bitter (The Classics)
1. Old Fashioned — 2oz bourbon, 1 sugar cube, 2 dashes Angostura bitters. The original cocktail. Muddle the sugar with bitters, add ice and bourbon, stir. Done.
2. Negroni — 1oz gin, 1oz Campari, 1oz sweet vermouth. Stir with ice, strain into a rocks glass, orange twist. Three ingredients, perfect balance.
3. Manhattan — 2oz rye whiskey, 1oz sweet vermouth, 2 dashes Angostura. Stirred, strained, cherry garnish. Elegant and strong.
4. Boulevardier — Same as a Negroni but swap gin for bourbon. Warmer, richer, perfect for winter.
Spirit + Citrus + Sweet (The Sours)
5. Daiquiri — 2oz white rum, 1oz lime juice, 0.75oz simple syrup. Shaken hard, strained into a coupe. Nothing like the frozen slushie version.
6. Gimlet — 2oz gin, 0.75oz lime juice, 0.75oz simple syrup. Clean, sharp, refreshing. Some people use Rose's lime cordial instead.
7. Whiskey Sour — 2oz bourbon, 1oz lemon juice, 0.75oz simple syrup. Add an egg white if you want to get fancy.
8. Margarita — 2oz tequila, 1oz lime juice, 0.75oz Cointreau. Salt rim optional. Fresh lime is non-negotiable.
Two-Ingredient Wonders
9. Gin & Tonic — 2oz gin, 4oz tonic water. Sounds basic until you try a quality gin with Fever-Tree tonic. Night and day difference.
10. Dark & Stormy — 2oz dark rum, 4oz ginger beer. Pour the rum over the ginger beer so it floats on top. Looks dramatic, tastes spicy.
11. Aperol Spritz — 3oz Aperol, 3oz prosecco, splash of soda. Build in a wine glass with ice. The official drink of summer.
12. Rum & Coke (Cuba Libre) — 2oz rum, 4oz cola, squeeze of lime. The lime makes it a Cuba Libre. Without it, you're just drinking rum and coke.
The Minimalist's Favorites
13. Paloma — 2oz tequila, 4oz grapefruit soda (Jarritos or Squirt), pinch of salt. Mexico's actual favorite tequila drink — not the Margarita.
14. Moscow Mule — 2oz vodka, 4oz ginger beer, 0.5oz lime juice. Copper mug optional but it does keep it colder.
15. Highball — 2oz Japanese whisky, 4oz soda water. The Japanese elevated this to an art form. Use good whisky and very cold soda.
Every single one of these is available to practice in our Virtual Bar. Pick one you've never made and try it tonight.