Entertaining

8 Gorgeous Cocktails You Can Make at Home

While any pink drink is worthy of an Instagram post, the rosy Melancia is especially eye-catching. Created by Damien Del Rio of Loosie Rouge in Brooklyn, this watermelon-flavored take on a frozen Caipirinha combines the summer fruit with grassy cachaça, zesty lime and sweet vanilla syrup. All blended up and topped with an edible flower, this icy drink looks as enticing as a bowl of juicy watermelon on a hot summer’s day.

Turmeric’s intense, orange-yellow shade gives cocktails a vibrant hue, but it also adds a tremendous depth of robust flavors. Inspired by the bold taste of North African cuisine, the Casablanca by Ray Sakover of New York’s Slowly Shirley pairs turmeric juice with gold rum, gin, honey, and a date-demerara syrup made with harissa spice. A cinnamon stick, mint sprig and lemon twist-wrapped date make up an intricate garnish that resembles a palm tree in an oasis.

This tiki-style cocktail from Johnny Livanos of Greek restaurant Ousia in NYC was inspired by the dazzling Aegean sea, so you know it has to be stunning. Bright blue curaçao is offset with naturally vivid garnishes, such as green mint, an orange wedge and red Peychaud’s bitters. Inside the glass, you’ll find a thirst-quenching blend of pisco, overproof rum and mastiha, plus a splash of coconut water syrup for an extra burst of hydration.

Butterfly pea flower tea is as close as we’ll ever come to truly magical fairy dust. This trippy tea, found in this cocktail by Cody Goldstein of NYC’s Horny Ram, turns bright blue when steeped in water, but transforms into a dreamy purple when mixed with lemon juice. Gin, lavender syrup and club soda are also incorporated into the spritzer, which ends up looking like a drinkable mood ring. And if you add even more lemon juice, you can turn the drink a shocking shade of pink.

The classic Martini may look elegant, but it’s certainly not a visual showstopper with its humble olive or lemon twist for garnish. This take from the namesake Sauvage in Brooklyn ups the wow factor by serving the Martini alongside blossoms, juniper sprigs, lemon twists and caperberries, which you can use to garnish as you see fit. Use a moscato-based dry vermouth, juniper-forward gin and three dashes of orange bitters to make sure the cocktail tastes as alluring as its adornments.

Much like a black tie affair, this cocktail is striking with its duality of classic shades: pitch black and pillowy white. Created by Adam Nystrom of E.P.&L.P. in West Hollywood, California, this cocktail mixes Southeast Asian flavors like coconut and lychee with gin and amaro, along with activated charcoal powder to achieve the ebony coloring. Egg whites create a cloud of white foam, which holds more charcoal powder for dusting; it’s the classiest cocktail around, even without a bowtie.

This isn’t the hot chocolate you drank as a kid to warm up after playing in the snow; this boozy hot chocolate is spicy, creamy and downright sexy. Lana Gailani of NYC’s Seamstress mixes tequila with chocolate-chile liqueur, coconut milk, galangal syrup and chai masala. In case that wasn’t decadent enough, the cocktail turns sinful with a giant roasted marshmallow garnish and a dark-chocolate-dipped spoon covered in chai spices, which melts into the winter warmer as you stir.

Sometimes, the most beautiful cocktail is also the simplest. The Myoga by Rick Zouad of Sushi Seki in New York infuses vodka with myoga (Japanese ginger), and mixes the infusion with sudachi juice (a sour Japanese citrus) and ginger beer. The clear drink looks mystifying over a king cube, like misty fog, and the garnish of mygoa looks almost like an orchid is blooming from the glass. It’s simply lovely, inside and out.