Entertaining

The 7 Best Cocktails to Drink on a Work Night

Sometimes, after a really long day, you just don’t have enough energy to do anything more than pour straight whiskey into a lowball glass and call it an evening. But if you can muster one iota of effort, you should seriously consider making an Old Fashioned. A touch of sugar and bitters makes whiskey (or your preferred base spirit) all the more comforting, and muddling the sugar cube can actually feel quite therapeutic. Just make sure your lowball glass is thick enough to stand up to a Monday’s worth of stress before digging in with your muddler.

If the rest of the world is asleep by the time you finally drag yourself home from the office, you don’t have a ton of time to spend fixing a cocktail (let alone making a proper dinner). Get a cocktail assist from past you by pre-mixing and bottling a Martini and storing it in the freezer. Your drink will be ready before you can say, “takeout again.”

The only thing worse than waking up on Wednesday is waking up hungover on Wednesday. Avoid this grim scenario by choosing a low-ABV cocktail for your Tuesday tipple. The Bamboo uses sherry, dry vermouth and bitters to create an intense, palate-coating flavor without a heavy base spirit. It has the feel of a potent, stirred cocktail with none of the guilt.

Sometimes it can feel as if one weeknight simply bleeds into the next morning. Give up attempts to establish healthy work-life balance and lean into the fluidity of your work week by making a breakfast-appropriate cocktail at night. While even the best cereal in the world, Lucky Charms, can’t quite make mornings bearable, this cereal-topped take on Milk Punch will certainly make your evening more enjoyable. Given the sugar content of Lucky Charms, this is more appropriate as dessert than a daytime sipper anyway.

Decision fatigue is real. You already spent all day reviewing proposals, setting meetings, running around town on errands, or doing whatever other busy work is required to keep a roof over your head. And then, when you get home, you’re faced with the entire Netflix catalogue. Don’t add yet another decision to your long list by forcing yourself to choose between wine or a cocktail. Pick both with this white wine variation on a Siesta. It’s tequila, it’s wine, and it requires zero decision power.

If you actually spend your weeknights responsibly recovering and rejuvenating for the day to come, then one, congratulations because you’re more responsible than us, and two, you need to take a load off (just a little). This extremely green avocado drink is more healthy smoothie than cocktail, but it does have enough Champagne to qualify as a bit of weeknight celebration. It’s R&R incarnate.

Work hard, play hard, amiright? This extra boozy take on a Piña Colada is weeknight drinking done right—i.e., full force imbibing. Don’t let The Man deny you a frosty hurricane glass of rum-heavy slush. The next morning may be rough, but that just means your evening was glorious.