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24 Colorful Cocktails You Will Love

Discover a rainbow of colorful cocktails that please the eyes before they tickle the taste buds.

Pink Lady Cocktail with 3 Cherries

Colorful cocktails get a bad rap.

It’s easy for hardcore mixologists to look down upon cocktails notable for their fun colors. Often, colorful drinks are gender-coded as ‘girlie’ – especially when the color is a pastel shade of pink, blue or green.

To this, we say foul! It’s as unfair to judge a cocktail by its color as it is to judge the taste of durian (the stinkiest fruit in the world) by its smell.

As for us, we appreciate the aesthetics when tasty cocktails are as vivid as a peacock’s plumage. There’s simply nothing wrong with satisfying multiple senses at the time.

What Are Colorful Cocktails?

Hurricane at Pat OBriens in New Orleans
Drinking this colorful Hurricane in New Orleans inspired us to craft the colorful cocktail at home.

Colorful cocktails run the gamut from sweet and fruity summer sippers to complex, herbaceous drinks crafted with liquors like cognac and green chartreuse. Some are shaken and some are stirred while others are simply poured into a glass.

There’s not just one type of colorful cocktail. These eye-catching drinks multi-task by spanning the pigments of the rainbow while featuring a range of liquors including bourbon, cointreau, gin, rum, tequila and vodka.

Mixologists have been crafting colorful cocktails for over a century. And, while some pre-date prohibition, others originated during the past few decades.

Crafting Colorful Cocktails at Home

Crafted Old Pal Cocktail with Bottles and Lemon
You’re the boss when you craft colorful cocktails at home.

Crafting colorful cocktails at home creates a wow factor. And, while it’s fun to serve show stopping drinks to friends and family, an added benefit is that you can choose to craft your cocktails with top quality ingredients.

Unlike bars and restaurants which may use processed juices loaded with sugar and food colorings, you can create drinks using real fruit. The difference is astounding.

Crafted Hurricane Cocktail with bottles
Crafting Hurricanes at home results in superior cocktails.

There’s nothing like drinking a Hurricane made with freshly squeezed passion fruit juice. The fresh juice brings an earthy dimension to the drink that’s not overly acidic or sweet. Doing so elevates the Mardi Gras cocktail from frat boy swill to something truly special.

These are our favorite colorful cocktail recipes to craft at home:

24 of the Best Colorful Cocktails

Hurricane Cocktail with White Background

Hurricane Cocktail

Yield: 1
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes

The Hurricane cocktail is big, boozy and fruity-tooty. If made right, it can also be surprisingly complex. Make one at home with two rums, four juices, grenadine and simple syrup.

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces white rum
  • 2 ounces dark rum
  • 2 ounces passion fruit juice
  • 1 ounce orange juice
  • 1/2 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1/2 ounce grenadine
  • 1/2 ounce simple syrup
  • 1 maraschino cherry
  • orange peel
  • ice cubes

Instructions

  1. Combine white rum, dark rum, passion fruit juice, orange juice, lime juice, grenadine and simple syrup a shaker.
  2. Add ice and shake vigorously for approximately 20 seconds until the drink is properly chilled and blended.
  3. Strain into a hurricane glass filled with ice.
  4. Add a maraschino cherry and orange twist as garnish.

Notes

  • You can use a highball glass if you don't have a hurricane glass.
  • We made our juices from fresh fruit but you can use juice from the grocery store.

Colorful Cocktail FAQs

What are colorful cocktails?

Colorful cocktails are cocktails that reflect the colors of the rainbow.

What are the best colorful cocktail?

The best colorful cocktails contain fresh juices. Our favorites include the Tequila Sunrise, Pink Lady, Fuzzy Navel and Hurricane.

Where is the best place to drink colorful cocktails?

The best place to drink colorful cocktail is at home since you craft them with fresh juice and other natural ingredients.

When is the best time to drink colorful cocktails?

It’s always a good time to drink colorful cocktails.

About the Authors

About the Authors

Daryl & Mindi Hirsch

Saveur Magazine’s BEST TRAVEL BLOG award winners Daryl and Mindi Hirsch share their culinary travel experiences and recipes on the 2foodtrippers website and YouTube. The married Food and Travel content creators live in Lisbon, Portugal.

Disclosures

Article Updates
We update our articles regularly. Some updates are major while others are minor link changes and spelling corrections. Let us know if you see anything that needs to be updated in this article.

Funding
We purchased the ingredients and tools used to craft these cocktails.

Original Publication Date: April 29, 2023

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