We don’t need an excuse to dress up and drink cocktails with friends, but we’ve found one anyway with these iconic cocktails.
It’s no secret that we love a cocktail party over here – we’ve already gushed about DIY Negroni stations, batching cocktails for a crowd and hosting an outdoor do (feat. Spritz bar). But it means that we’re always on the lookout for a fun new theme, and we reckon we’ve got ourselves a doozy.
See, cocktails swing in and out of fashion across the decades just like music, hairstyles and dog breeds (it’s all about the cavoodle in 2025, BTW). We think if you take a few of the most iconic cocktails of the decades and base a cocktail party around its related nostalgia, it’s going to be a fun time.
Structure-wise, it’d be easy enough to draw up some DIY menus and serve a couple of cocktails in chronological order over the night (or encourage guests to mix up their own as they please). Otherwise, if you want to really theme the occasion, you could get guests to dress according to their favourite era and ask them to provide the ingredients for a corresponding cocktail (which will save you some financial hassle, for sure). Decade-specific playlists are essential.
However you prefer your themed cocktail party, consider our picks below as a starting point, but feel free to come up with some decade-defining cocktails of your own.
The 1920s was one of the most fascinating times in cocktail history. In the US, making and selling alcohol was illegal thanks to a little thing called Prohibition, but the decade still managed to be a time of endless cocktail creativity and invention. One of the era’s most iconic and delicious cocktails was the Sidecar, which was most likely invented in Paris (where drinking continued unimpeded, clearly).
It’s fallen a little out of favour but we still love a Sidecar – it’s a little Margarita-like with the whack of citrus and triple sec, with some real depth from the dry, complex Cognac. The image of sipping a Sidecar from a coupe glass really fits with the flapper fashion of the Roaring Twenties, so queue up some raucous big-band jazz (Benny Goodman or Duke Ellington would do nicely) and see if this cocktail doesn’t get the party started.
Cuba is a tiny island, relatively speaking, but it has done so much for cocktail culture. Particularly in the 1920s, Prohibition encouraged American bartenders and involuntary teetotallers to flee to boozier shores and, for the next couple of decades, Cuba happily obliged them. The island became particularly known for its rum-based cocktails, with none more famous than the Daiquiri. While there are plenty of riffs on this classic, the OG recipe is a simple blend of white rum, lime juice and sugar.
The Daiquiri wasn’t actually invented in the 1930s, but famed American author and acclaimed drinker Ernest Hemingway started visiting Cuba during this time, before settling there permanently in the 1940s, and he absolutely loved himself a Daiquiri. Hemingway even had his own beefed-up version made for him (called the Papa Doble). Pop on a tropical shirt, some Buena Vista Social Club and mix up the most iconic cocktail of the 1930s.
Look, the Old Fashioned isn’t from the 1960s, but it’s definitely become inseparable in our minds thanks to a little show called Mad Men. The image of Jon Hamm as ad man Don Draper, impeccable in his conservative business suit, sipping his go-to Old Fashioned, is era-defining. The guy had taste, you can say that for sure.
Like so many old cocktails (it was likely invented sometime in the 19th century), the Old Fashioned is super simple – it’s just bourbon (or sometimes rye) whiskey, sugar syrup and bitters with a little orange peel garnish. A little tip: you can easily change up an Old Fashioned by subbing the base spirit for something else. Smoky mezcal, rich dark rum, brandy – it’s all fair game.
You’re doing it – we know you are – you’re singing the song in your head. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) is (in this writer’s opinion) an unholy earworm that, through some dark magic, seems to populate a brain with little more than the mention of the titular cocktail. The Rupert Holmes song came out in 1979, topped the US charts that year and the year after, and gave everyone a reason to start thinking about (and drinking) the Piña Colada cocktail for the whole of the 1980s.
Fortunately, the cocktail is actually much better than the song (absolutely put it on your party playlist, though) and easily slots in alongside the decade’s pastel-coloured Miami Vice fashion. A Piña Colada is a great change-up from stronger cocktails, considering its main ingredients are rum, coconut cream and pineapple juice, making for a creamy, sweet and tropical drink that is as easy-going as a cocktail gets.
When TV show Sex and the City blew up in the late 1990s, the Cosmopolitan came along for the ride. The show’s New York quartet of Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda started sipping the pink-hued drink in season two and, from then on, the Cosmo has been inextricably linked with the show. And fair enough, too – it’s a delicious blend of cranberry and lime juice, vodka and triple sec that looks great and makes us feel like bar-hopping New York City urbanites.
The Cosmo is ideal for a cocktail party, themed or not, because it’s dead simple to make (and hard to mess up), not too full-on (the juices help temper the spirit underneath) and you can even make a big batch if you like. In the context of our themed do, stick on some late-90s pop music and make time for the goss.
Aperol reckons its iconic Spritz was invented in 1919, but the origin story isn’t what’s important here. What’s important is that, since the 2010s, it has been impossible to go to a sunny beer garden, wedding reception or bar in a holiday town without seeing an endless procession of sparkling orange cocktails. It’s the Aperol Spritz’s world, and we’re just living in it.
The Spritz is rightly popular – it’s fresh, it’s colourful, it’s easy to make and it reminds us of poolside holidays in European summers. You could easily make the argument that the Aperol Spritz is the cocktail of this decade, too, but that’s just a testament to its enduring popularity. All you need for this contemporary classic is a bottle of Aperol, prosecco and soda, although you can definitely sub Aperol for a range of bitter red liqueurs. Go on, live in the now.
