The recipes
Mixxing has 223 drinks. 102 of them are the official cocktails of the International Bartenders Association, as listed on iba-world.com in October 2026, in its three categories: The Unforgettables, Contemporary Classics and New Era. For those, the ingredients and amounts are the IBA’s, and each one is marked “IBA official”.
The other 104 are classics the IBA doesn’t list: modern bartenders’ drinks, older classics and popular bar calls. For each we use the creator’s own recipe where one is known; for older drinks with no known creator, the earliest printed recipe; and for drinks with no single origin, such as the Gin and Tonic, a standard recipe from a well-regarded source. Every one is checked against a second, independent source, and both are named on the drink’s page.
The descriptions and the step-by-step methods are written for Mixxing, and the families, glasses and cousins are our own groupings.
- Two of the IBA’s pages run lines together or drop a unit: on Three Dots and a Dash, the allspice dram (7.5 ml) and the lime juice (15 ml) are two lines; on the IBA Tiki, the pineapple (90) and lime (30) are in ml. We show them that way.
- The IBA’s Porn Star Martini is listed here as the Passion Fruit Martini, the name many bars use for it.
- Ounce measures are converted at 30 ml to the ounce and rounded to the nearest quarter ounce; small amounts are shown in teaspoons. Switch to ml on any recipe for the IBA’s own measures.
How we work out the numbers
Every figure is an estimate for one drink made to the recipe, as it would be served. Brands, pours and ice all change the real numbers, so treat them as a guide.
- Ingredients. Juices, syrups, sodas, cream and eggs use USDA FoodData Central values, converted from weight to volume with the USDA’s own portion weights. Spirits, liqueurs and wines are worked out from their alcohol: 0.789 g of alcohol per ml at 7 calories a gram, plus sugar and other carbohydrate at 4 calories a gram. Labels don’t give sugar for liqueurs and vermouths, so those are estimates for the style. Strengths are typical for the style: 40% for most spirits, 45% for bourbon and rye.
- Dilution. Shaking or stirring with ice melts some of it into the drink, and stronger drinks melt more. We add water equal to 25% of the drink plus 1.6 times its starting strength when shaken (at most 75%), and 20% plus 0.85 times its strength when stirred (at most 60%). That matches two measured examples from Dave Arnold’s cocktail science: a shaken Whiskey Sour took on about two-thirds of its volume in water and a stirred Manhattan about half (Cooking Issues). Drinks built over ice get 25%, highballs 10%, crushed ice 35%, swizzles 50% and blended drinks 60%. Toppings added after mixing (soda, sparkling wine, a float of wine or whisky) aren’t diluted.
- Strength is the alcohol divided by the final volume. Standard drinks use the U.S. measure of 14 grams of pure alcohol (NIAAA). Calories and sugar don’t change with dilution.
- For example, a Daiquiri works out to about 169 calories, 17% alcohol and 1.35 standard drinks.