Almost every classic cocktail is three ingredients arranged in a ratio. Once you know four or five of those ratios you can build most of a drinks menu from whatever’s in the cupboard, without a shaker, a jigger or a trip to buy something you’ll use once.
Here are eight worth knowing, roughly in order of how little effort they require.
Built in the glass, no equipment
1. Paloma
2 parts blanco tequila · grapefruit soda · pinch of salt
Ice, tequila, top with grapefruit soda, squeeze of lime if you have one, small pinch of salt. Lighter and more refreshing than a margarita and it takes fifteen seconds. The salt is what makes it — don’t skip it.
2. Gin and tonic, done properly
1 part gin · 3 parts tonic · garnish
Three things fix most G&Ts: fill the glass completely with ice (more ice means slower melting, not a colder-weaker drink), use a big glass so the tonic doesn’t go flat, and pour the tonic down a bar spoon or the side to keep the bubbles. Garnish with something that matches the gin — citrus for most, cucumber for the softer ones.
3. Dark and stormy
2 parts dark rum · ginger beer · lime
Ginger beer over ice, float the rum on top so it sinks slowly through, lime wedge. Ginger beer, not ale — the difference is significant here.
4. Americano
1 part Campari · 1 part sweet vermouth · soda
Equal parts over ice, top with soda, orange slice. Low in alcohol, bitter, endlessly drinkable in the heat. If you find a Negroni too much, this is the same idea with the gin swapped for soda water.
Worth a quick shake
5. Daiquiri
2 parts white rum · 1 part fresh lime · ¾ part sugar syrup
Shake hard with ice, strain into a chilled glass. Nothing frozen, nothing pink, no strawberries. Done properly it’s one of the best cocktails there is, and it’s three ingredients.
6. Whisky sour
2 parts whisky · 1 part fresh lemon · ¾ part sugar syrup
Same ratio as the daiquiri with different spirit and citrus — which is the point. Learn 2:1:¾ and you have both. Bourbon or Canadian whisky both work.
7. Margarita
2 parts blanco tequila · 1 part orange liqueur · 1 part fresh lime
Shake, strain over fresh ice, salt half the rim so you can choose per sip.
Stirred, for the evening
8. Negroni
Equal parts gin · Campari · sweet vermouth
Stir over ice, orange peel. The easiest ratio in cocktails to remember and the hardest to get wrong. Make it in a jug in advance if you’re hosting — it keeps in the fridge for days and improves slightly.
Sugar syrup, in thirty seconds
Several of these want sugar syrup, which is not a thing you need to buy. Equal parts sugar and hot water, stirred until clear, cooled. Keeps in the fridge for weeks in any bottle.
For a maple version that suits whisky drinks particularly well, use maple syrup straight — no dilution needed.
The four things that actually matter
Fresh citrus. This is the big one. Bottled lime and lemon juice is the single largest difference between a home cocktail and a bar one. It costs almost nothing to fix and it improves every drink on this list.
Enough ice. A half-filled glass melts faster and dilutes more than a full one. Counterintuitive, consistently true.
Cold glasses. Five minutes in the freezer, or fill with ice and water while you make the drink, then tip it out. Free, and it noticeably extends how long a drink stays good.
Shake harder than feels necessary. Ten to twelve seconds. You’re chilling, diluting and aerating all at once, and dilution is an ingredient rather than a flaw.
What to buy if you’re starting from nothing
Four bottles cover everything above:
- Blanco tequila — palomas and margaritas
- Gin — G&Ts and Negronis
- White or dark rum — daiquiris and dark and stormies
- Whisky — sours and old fashioneds
Add Campari and sweet vermouth and you’ve got the bitter end covered too. Sealed spirits keep indefinitely, so none of it is wasted if the summer turns out wetter than planned.
Where to get it in the GTA
Two Ontario-specific things that shape a summer drinks plan.
The spirits rule. Licensed convenience and grocery stores across Toronto and the GTA sell beer, cider, wine and ready-to-drink cans, but not spirits. Everything on this list except the Americano needs a bottle of something distilled, which means the LCBO, a licensed delivery service, or planning ahead. A corner shop at nine on a Saturday will not save a daiquiri.
The 11 p.m. ceiling. Retail sales and licensed delivery both stop at 11 p.m. across Ontario, seven days a week, under AGCO rules. LCBO branches close well before that — often 9 or 10 p.m. on weeknights and around 6 p.m. Sundays, earlier in Scarborough, Brampton and Mississauga than downtown. Check the store locator if you’re cutting it fine.
For mixers, Ontario’s craft soda and tonic makers have caught up considerably — a good tonic changes a gin and tonic more than a more expensive gin does, and it’s the cheaper upgrade of the two.
Patio season, briefly
Toronto summers are short and hot, and the drinks that work here are the long ones. A Negroni is a wonderful thing in October and hard work at thirty degrees with humidity. The built-in-the-glass section above exists for a reason: on a genuinely hot GTA afternoon, volume and ice matter more than complexity.
If you’re drinking outdoors, a note worth remembering — Ontario doesn’t permit drinking in most public spaces, and licensed delivery can only ever go to a residence or private place, never a park or a street. Backyards, balconies and decks only.
Scaling up for a crowd
Stirred drinks batch beautifully — make a jug of Negronis in advance, keep it in the fridge, pour over ice. Shaken drinks don’t; the dilution has to happen per serving. If you’re feeding a group, pick the built and stirred ones and save the shaking for small numbers.
And make one large jug of something non-alcoholic with the same attention. It always goes.
The short version
Learn 2:1:¾ for anything sour, equal parts for anything bitter, and 1:3 for anything long. Squeeze real limes. Fill the glass with ice. That’s a summer’s worth of drinks from four bottles.
Everything here is on the menu, and we deliver across Toronto and the GTA — call or text (416) 988-3623. If you’re stocking up properly, our guide to building a home bar on a budget is a useful companion to this one.
