Top 20 Citrus Cocktails to Try

This deliciously fresh citrus cocktail is a twist on the classic Moscow Mule. In addition to the lime, ginger beer, and vodka, this cocktail has you add homemade citrus juice. The citrus juice consists of three sweet varieties of oranges, giving it a lovely pinkish-orange hue. You can easily turn this recipe into a pitcher, or save the extra citrus juice to enjoy with your morning coffee.

Perhaps one of the most famous citrus cocktails, the lemon drop martini is zesty, sweet, and elegant. This version is a unique take, adding muddled fresh raspberries to infuse the vodka and lemon juice. It also adds lemon-lime soda to the cocktail shaker for a refreshing bubbly finish.

This beautifully presented vodka cocktail layers grapefruit, cranberry, and lime juice in equal amounts, assuming the hue of a tropical sunset. Although it looks professional, this cocktail is easy to assemble and easy to make a pitcher's worth, as you use the same amount of each ingredient. It’s the perfect drink for a fall brunch.

Citrus and cranberry are beloved pairings for winter or fall cocktails. This straightforward, three-ingredient vodka citrus and cranberry cocktail is the height of elegance. Blending fresh cranberry juice with lemonade and vodka in a shaker, you get just the right amount of sweetness and tartness. The author of this recipe has done the work of scaling the measurements for you, so you can choose if you want to make enough for one or a crowd.

If you’re looking for a tequila cocktail that’s a bit more involved than a margarita, this recipe is a crowd-pleaser. Instead of grapefruit soda, this cocktail calls for grapefruit-flavored sparkling water. However, the real game-changer is the fresh-squeezed orange and lime juice that adds sweetness to the spiciness of silver tequila.

This elaborate cocktail is a zesty and bright gin sour, using three freshly juiced citrus fruits in conjunction with botanical gin. In addition to citrus juices, you get added citrus flavor thanks to Grand Marnier. Plus, you get fizz from the club soda, and froth from egg white. This citrus cocktail wins my vote for the best texture profile!

While the light citrus paloma cocktail reduced the bitterness of grapefruit, this sophisticated cocktail accentuates it. Blending both grapefruit juice and grapefruit bitters with vodka, this recipe gets a burst of sweetness from white cranberry juice. It’s as refreshing and light as they come and perfect for those who don’t like overly sweet cocktails.

Here is another great option for fans of bitter and herbal flavor profiles. Gin and tonic is a bitter and botanical cocktail on its own, but this recipe enhances both flavors with elderflower liqueur and freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.

If you’re up for a challenge, this exotic vodka soda cocktail will wow your most demanding guests. It involves various pro-mixologist methods including, muddling, infusing, and layering. Passion fruit is tart and sweet, just like citrus fruit. You use the luscious pulp both to infuse a simple syrup and in the drink itself.

There have been countless versions of tequila’s most famous beverage, but this margarita recipe gets points for originality. Blending deep red blood oranges with cream of coconut to the classic three-ingredient margarita recipe turns this cocktail into a periwinkle taste of the tropics. There’s no better combination for the sweet and nutty cream of coconut than tart and sweet citrus.

“Smash” describes the way you combine all the ingredients, muddling citrus zest and juice with fresh herbs and aromatics to maximize flavor infusion. This tequila cocktail covers all the flavor bases, with sweet and sour citrus, cooling mint, spicy ginger, and a bubbly finish.

Italy is famous for its cuisine, and one of my favorite Italian liqueurs is limoncello, a luscious blend of lemon, lemon peel, and sugar. This delicious gin cocktail is a refined yet highly alcoholic recipe that blends Lillet Blanc and limoncello with gin for a sweet, floral profile with a dry finish.

Another elaborate recipe, this cocktail has you make it in parts. First comes the clementine lemonade, a wonderfully refreshing drink by itself. The second part is creating beautiful citrus and mint brulee for the ultimate garnish. If you don’t have a torch, you can broil these sugared citrus slices into a crisp candy. Finally, you assemble this boozy lemonade by spiking it with St. Germaine and vodka in a cocktail shaker.

Mezcal is the ultimate smokey spirit, and there’s no better way to complement smoke than with bitterness. That’s why this grapefruit-infused Mezcal sour is so good. Blending homemade grapefruit syrup with grapefruit juice and an egg white, this frothy bittersweet drink will become an instant favorite.

This Paloma recipe adds only one extra ingredient to the classic trifecta of lime, tequila, and grapefruit soda. Rosemary simple syrup adds sweetness and a distinct aromatic essence for the perfect fall or winterized tequila cocktail. Bittersweet grapefruit, rosemary, and tequila deliver a combination of floral, bitter, and zesty with a spicy alcoholic finish.

The "bee’s knees" has a double meaning in the case of this cocktail. It refers both to the honey simple syrup and the popularity this simple cocktail will have amongst friends. This recipe is best when shared, thus you should prepare to make multiple batches of this easy three-ingredient cocktail! 

While the classic gin and tonic cocktail usually gets a zesty finish with a squeeze of fresh lime, this concoction swaps lime juice for fresh blood orange juice. That adds both a beautiful coloring and a bright sweetness to this floral and bitter classic.

This delicate cocktail has you make a thyme simple syrup to blend with freshly squeezed clementine juice and a shot of vodka. Earthy sweetness is the flavor duo you never knew you needed, and this cocktail is the proof!

This lovely, hot pink sparkling winter cocktail is a simple blend of lime-infused sparkling water, blood orange juice, and vodka. It takes a few minutes to prepare, throwing all the ingredients into a shaker, and topping with a slice of blood orange. This perfectly simple cocktail has a subtle sweetness from the blood oranges diluted with refreshing bubbly soda.

In case you can’t get enough blood oranges, this elegant cocktail will quickly become a go-to fall-inspired brunch favorite. It offers a floral gin mixed with a sweet, bubbly rose. The dash of fresh blood orange juice is the cause for its sweet crimson name. I love the dry and floral finish that the rose and gin supply.