Paul Kushner
Layered cocktails are eye-catching drinks that show off beautiful colors and flavors stacked in the glass. By carefully pouring different liquids with varying densities, bartenders create drinks where each layer stays separate, forming a striking presentation. These cocktails can be sweet, fruity, creamy, or bold, depending on the ingredients used, and often highlight liqueurs, syrups, and fresh juices. Popular examples include rainbow shots, layered martinis, and dessert-style drinks. They are perfect for parties and special occasions, adding both flavor and a visual element that guests enjoy. Layered cocktails prove that a drink can be both creative and delicious.
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This rum-based tropical cocktail consists of pineapple juice, blue curacao, and grenadine to create layers of red, yellow, and blue hues. The mixture of orange and pineapple with coconut rum is the ultimate taste of tropical paradise. This cocktail starts with grenadine and ice, followed by a mixture of pineapple and rum, with the final layer of blue curacao and water to top it all off.
Perhaps the most famous layered cocktail of all, a Tequila Sunrise is a simple three-ingredient mixture of tequila, orange juice, and grenadine. Unlike many layered cocktails that require you to assemble each layer separately, the Tequila Sunrise is an easy pour-over method. Pouring the grenadine over the orange juice creates a beautiful fade as it sinks to the bottom of the glass.
This elaborate and dainty gin drink starts out with a pearl-colored mixture of lemon, mint, and pineapple juice. Muddling the mint with lemon and simple syrup brings a tangy freshness that’s the perfect foundation for gin. This cocktail uses Epitaph gin with a distinct blue hue that turns periwinkle when it mixes with the pineapple and lemon juice.
Tom Collins is a classic gin cocktail that’s essentially a gin-spiked lemonade. This layered version is much more elaborate, blending lemon juice and pineapple juice with passion fruit pulp before topping it off with Empress gin. This blue-hued gin adds a blossom of purple that fades from pearl to yellow.
In honor of the reggae legend, this layered rum drink delivers the Rastafarian flag's red, yellow, and green hues. The yellow is a blend of pineapple juice and rum, the green layer blends blue curacao with pineapple, and the red layer is grenadine. A trip to Jamaica may not be in the cards, but drinking a Bob Marley Layered will get you halfway there!
This refreshing and vibrant vodka cocktail pours two luscious smoothies into one delicious frozen drink. This two-layered drink offers a blend of frozen mangoes, lemonade, and vodka for the yellow half, while the red half adds frozen strawberries to the mix. The texture of this frozen lemonade is its best asset.
This beautiful and dainty gin and Aperol spritz fade from light pink to periwinkle. This cocktail has two types of gin, white rum, lemon, and simple syrup. It gets its pink and purple hue thanks to the rose-colored shiraz gin and blue-hued empress gin. The flavor profile is a delightful trifecta of floral, bittersweet, and sour.
The perfect high-maintenance cocktail for a lady’s night, this layered mermaid cocktail has all the neon hues. It is an elaborate and labor-intensive cocktail that will wow your guests. The beverage uses drops of food coloring to achieve its electric green and aqua-green hues. The cocktail itself is a sweet vodka drink with rich vanilla and coconut syrups.
This rainbow-colored vodka cocktail starts with a deep crimson base thanks to a dash of grenadine, followed by a yellowish-orange blend of pineapple and peach schnapps, topping it off with bright blue curacao. The peach schnapps and blue curacao are both intensely sweet, getting a bright tang from the pineapple juice and a bitter finish from the grenadine.
The best centerpiece for a July Fourth spread, this red, white, and blue layered cocktail is as tasty as it is patriotic. Grenadine is responsible for the red, followed by vodka and lemonade for the white, with blue curacao creating the final layer. Lemonade and blue curacao offer a delicious citrus burst that pairs well with a summer barbecue dinner.
