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98 free Cocktails trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
27 free cocktails trivia questions with answers. Are you a cocktail connoisseur or just a casual drinker? Our 98-question cocktails trivia quiz will test your knowledge of classic drinks, famous cocktail recipes, and mixology history. From margaritas to mojitos, see how much you really know about the world of mixed drinks!
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Q 01What spirit is typically the base for a Mojito?
Rum
Rum is the Mojito's base: white Cuban rum over muddled mint, lime, sugar and soda. Havana's La Bodeguita del Medio claims the drink, though biographers doubt the Hemingway inscription on its wall.
Q 02Legend places the Manhattan's birth at an 1870s banquet hosted by the mother of which future British PM?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie Jerome, supposedly threw the party for presidential candidate Samuel Tilden, though records suggest she was in England, pregnant, at the time.
Q 03What specific type of bitters is a key ingredient in an Old Fashioned?
Angostura
Angostura aromatic bitters are the Old Fashioned standard, dashed over a sugar cube before the whiskey. The name dates to the 1880s, when drinkers asked for cocktails made 'the old-fashioned way'.
Q 04The Sazerac, rinsed in absinthe or Herbsaint, is the official cocktail of which city?
New Orleans
New Orleans got the Sazerac as its official cocktail from the Louisiana Legislature in June 2008, only after a bill to make it the state cocktail was voted down.
Q 05Which three-piece cocktail shaker, the type most home bars own, has a built-in strainer and a small cap on top?
Cobbler shaker
The cobbler shaker is the three-piece home favourite: its middle cap holds a built-in strainer, and the small top cap doubles as a rough measure for the next pour.
Q 06Which orange-flavored liqueur is a common ingredient in a Margarita?
Cointreau
Cointreau's own 'original' Margarita recipe runs 2 parts tequila to 1 each of Cointreau and lime; brothers Adolphe and Édouard-Jean Cointreau founded the Angers distillery behind the liqueur in 1849.
Q 07Orgeat syrup, made from almonds, is a classic ingredient in which tiki cocktail?
Mai Tai
The Mai Tai takes its name from Tahitian maita'i, meaning 'good', and its almond orgeat, scented with rose or orange-blossom water, is what sets it apart from the rum-and-juice crowd.
Q 08A classic Martini is often garnished with an olive or what citrus peel?
Lemon
A lemon twist is the Martini's other classic garnish; the peel is squeezed over the gin and vermouth so its oils spray across the surface.
Q 09Tonic water was originally mixed with gin to make which bitter antimalarial drug more palatable?
Quinine
Quinine, the bitter cinchona-bark antimalarial, was what British colonials in India cut with gin, sugar and water. Modern tonic holds far less quinine and is sweetened, so it offers no malaria protection.
Q 10The Kentucky Derby's mint julep is traditionally served in a cup of silver or which other metal?
Pewter
Silver or pewter cups are held only by the top and bottom edges so frost can form on the outside; the Derby's premium versions have come in gold-plated cups with silver straws.
Q 11Which cocktail typically includes both gin and green Chartreuse?
Last Word
The Last Word — equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime — first appeared on the Detroit Athletic Club menu around 1916, then vanished until Seattle bartender Murray Stenson revived it in 2004.
Q 12Adding an egg white to a Whiskey Sour gives a variant named after which US city?
Boston
A Boston sour is the egg-white version; the New York sour is floated with red wine instead, and the Ward 8 adds orange juice and grenadine.
Q 13Which New Orleans fizz is famous for its long shake and orange flower water?
Ramos Gin Fizz
The Ramos Gin Fizz was created by Henry C. Ramos at his Imperial Cabinet Saloon in New Orleans in 1888; its egg white, cream and orange flower water need a long shake to build the famous foam.
Q 21Merchant Antonio Benedetto Carpano introduced the first sweet vermouth in 1786 in which city?
Turin
Turin, in Piedmont, is where Antonio Benedetto Carpano sold the first sweet vermouth in 1786; the sweet style carries roughly 10-15% sugar, which is why it anchors a Manhattan.
Q 22What type of alcoholic beverage is vermouth classified as?
Fortified wine
Vermouth is an aromatized, fortified wine, meaning it's a wine that has been strengthened with distilled alcohol and flavored with various botanicals.
Q 23The "Tom" in the Tom Collins cocktail is thought to refer to a specific style of which spirit?
Gin
The "Tom" in Tom Collins likely refers to "Old Tom" gin, a slightly sweeter style of gin that was popular when the cocktail gained prominence.
Q 14The Clover Club cocktail takes its name from a club in which US city?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is right: the Clover Club was a men's club that met at the city's Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, and its namesake drink shakes gin, lemon, raspberry syrup and egg white.
Q 15What is the main spirit in a White Russian cocktail?
Vodka
The White Russian is a creamy cocktail made with vodka, coffee liqueur (like Kahlúa), and heavy cream, often served over ice.
Q 16The Aviation cocktail gets its subtle purple hue from which floral liqueur?
Crème de Violette
Crème de Violette vanished from the Aviation in Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book and was hard to find in the US until 2007; Hugo Ensslin's 1916 recipe had it with gin, maraschino and lemon.
Q 17Which cocktail is made with white rum, pineapple juice, grenadine, and Maraschino liqueur?
Mary Pickford
The Mary Pickford — white rum, pineapple juice, grenadine and maraschino — was reputedly created in 1920s Havana for the silent-film star during a Cuban trip with Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin.
Q 18Which mixologist created the Old Cuban, a 2001 blend of aged rum, mint, lime, bitters and sparkling wine?
Audrey Saunders
Audrey Saunders created the Old Cuban in New York in 2001, before opening Pegu Club; the IBA lists it with a 60 ml brut Champagne top, essentially a mojito crossed with a French 75.
Q 19One theory links the word "cocktail" to a French word for what common item?
Eggcup
One popular theory suggests the word "cocktail" might be a mispronunciation of "coquetier," a French word for an eggcup, in which mixed drinks were allegedly served.
Q 20What do you call a dry drink served before a meal to whet the appetite?
Aperitif
An aperitif 'opens' the meal, from the Latin aperire, to open, and is usually dry or bitter rather than sweet, unlike the digestif poured after dinner.
Q 24A Collins, such as the gin-based Tom Collins, is a spirit, lemon juice and sugar lengthened with what carbonated mixer?
Club soda
Club soda tops the Collins, which makes the Tom Collins essentially a fizzy gin sour served tall over ice.
Q 25In what year did the first known printed definition of a 'cocktail' appear in the US?
1806
The first known definition of an alcoholic "cocktail" appeared in The Balance and Columbian Repository in Hudson, New York, on May 13, 1806.
Q 26The sidecar combines cognac and lemon juice with which third ingredient?
Orange liqueur
Orange liqueur — Cointreau or triple sec — completes the sidecar with cognac and lemon; the drink caught on in Paris and London in the early 1920s and is often served with a sugared rim.
Q 27The Penicillin, an IBA official cocktail, is built on which spirit?
Scotch whisky
Scotch whisky is the Penicillin's base: Sam Ross created it at New York's Milk & Honey in 2005 with blended Scotch, honey-ginger syrup and lemon under a float of smoky Islay malt.
Q 28Gosling Brothers claims the dark 'n' stormy was invented just after World War I on which island?
Bermuda
Bermuda is the Dark 'n' Stormy's home: Gosling's of Hamilton says the drink was first mixed from its Black Seal rum and local ginger beer just after World War I, and it holds a trademark on the name.
Q 29The Negroni was created around 1919–20 in which Italian city?
Florence
Florence is the Negroni's birthplace: at Caffè Casoni around 1919, Count Camillo Negroni reportedly asked bartender Fosco Scarselli to swap the soda in his usual Campari-and-vermouth for gin.
Q 30In a Negroni sbagliato, or "mistaken Negroni", what replaces the gin?
Sparkling wine
Sparkling wine, usually prosecco, replaces the gin; sbagliato means 'mistaken' in Italian, the story being that Mirko Stocchetto at Milan's Bar Basso grabbed the wrong bottle in the early 1970s.