The Stadium XV Cocktail Primer-Drink Families

Welcome to The Stadium XV Cocktail & Bar Glossary—your ultimate cheat sheet for thriving behind the bar at XV. This guide is all about making your life easier, ensuring that every cocktail you serve is consistent, cohesive, and crafted to perfection. Sure, there are a million cocktail definitions and techniques out there, but this is the only guide you need for our bar.

Use this as your religious text. Study it. Memorize it. Love it. Consistency is key, and it all starts here. Now, let's dig into everything you need to know to work your magic behind the bar.

PART 1: Cocktail Families

Understanding drinks becomes a breeze when you organize them into families. Cocktails fall into styles of flavor, service, and presentation—and knowing these categories is essential for mastering the art.

Highballs

The Highball is the OG simplicity cocktail. Originally a blend of whiskey and soda, this category now includes all "this-and-that" combos. Highballs are built directly in a glass, usually over ice.

Popular Highball Examples

• Tito’s and Soda – Pair it with lime, and you’re golden.

• Gin and Tonic – The refreshing classic. Bonus points for a lime wedge. (Our house version gets an orange wheel and a rosemary sprig

• Cape Codder – Vodka, cranberry juice. We’re not reinventing the wheel here.

• Cuba Libre – Rum, Coke, lime wedge.

• Garibaldi – Campari, orange juice. Dreamy!

Oh, and every so often, you’ll encounter the legendary multi-request order, like, “Tito’s soda splash pineapple splash Sprite with 2 limes one lemon.” Smile. Crush it. Making these and making folks happy is what it’s all about.

TIP: When in doubt, garnish with a lime. For drinks like a Bay Breeze (vodka, cranberry, pineapple), use a flag garnish (orange and cherry).

Spritz Cocktails

Think of these as Highballs with a sophisticated twist—often made with wine or a bitter aperitif liqueur. They’re bubbly, light, and endlessly crowd-pleasing.

Popular Spritz Examples

• Aperol Spritz – Aperol, Prosecco, club soda.

• Campari Spritz – A more bitter take with Campari, Prosecco, and soda.

• Limoncello Spritz – Limoncello, Prosecco, club soda.

• Hugo Spritz – Elderflower liqueur, Prosecco, lemon, mint, club soda.

Spritz cocktails are effortlessly chic and super quick to build directly in a glass.

Sour Cocktails

Sours are cocktails with a base spirit, fresh citrus, and sugar—shaken with ice and traditionally served up. They’re the rockstars of the cocktail world, and their versatility makes them unbeatable.

At Stadium XV, we serve all sours down on the rocks, not up.

Popular Sour Examples

1. Whiskey Sour – Bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup. A forever classic.

2. Daiquiri – White rum, lime juice, simple syrup. Simple, bright, divine.

3. Gimlet – Gin (or vodka, if they prefer), lime juice, simple syrup.

   
   

The Daisy Subgroup

A "Daisy" is just a Sour with a little pizzazz—sweetened with a liqueur, not just sugar.

• Sidecar – Cognac, lemon juice, triple sec.

Margarita – Tequila, lime juice, triple sec. Important note here, team—GUESTS MUST REQUEST A RIM! We only salt rims if they specifically ask.

• Cosmopolitan – Vodka, lime juice, triple sec, cranberry juice. Loud and proud, we’re here for a good Cosmo.

  
  

Aromatic Cocktails

The purest form of a cocktail. These feature balanced combinations of spirit, sugar, bitter, and water. They tend to emphasize the natural characteristics of the base spirit.

How Aromatics Are Served

• Stirred Down

  • Old Fashioned – Bourbon, simple syrup, Angostura bitters, orange twist, cherry garnish.

  • Negroni – Gin, Campari, sweet vermouth. Straight-up sultry.

  • Boulevardier – A whiskey lover’s version of the Negroni, swapping gin for bourbon or rye.

    
    

• Stirred Up

• Manhattan – Rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, orange bitters, stirred and served in a coupe. Quintessential.

• Martini-gin or vodka, dry vermouth (on rare occasions), orange bitters (on even rarer occasions)

  A long rant Martinis and Their World-THIS IS IMPORTANT- A classic Martini at XV isn’t just a drink. It’s an experience. It also is a controversial topic that can take up way too much of your time and cost you money with your tables.

• Our classic martini is made the only way a real martini is made-with gin, dry vermouth, and orange bitters. Stirred until icy cold, strained into a coupe, with a lemon twist,

But what do guests usually mean by a Martini?

Hot take—they just want cold vodka in a glass.

• Dirty Martini – Vodka, olive brine, served as cold as humanly possible.

  At XV, we STIR every Martini (unless the guest demands shaken). Stir like you’re trying to break the ice.

  
  

• Why go through all this trouble?

  if you stir a vodka martini the proper way, the guest will not be happy.

  If you shake anything behind my bar that does not include fruit, juice, coffee or cream, your beverage Director will be upset. Very upset. He is I. I am him.

  
  

Another situation where the person working on the front lines and trying to deal with their guest is presented with a bullshit problem and not enough answers.

I don’t want that. If you’re reading this, it means you deal with guests far more often than I do, and I want to make that a successful experience. I also don’t want to be embarrassed by one of my peers in the industry who sees my bartender, shaking martinis… which I assure you is happening.

Our people want the coldness of a shaken cocktail, so just fake it till you make it and use the bar spoon like a blender and bust up the ice in the mixing glass.

Outlier Categories:

Sparklers

Tiki -Mai tai is an example from our menu

Island

Frozen -our pumpkin pie slushy, kind of

Techniques to Remember

1. Built Cocktails-Simple, quick drinks made directly in the serving glass. Think Moscow Mule, Dark & Stormy, and Highballs.

2. Shaken Cocktails-Shaken or anything with juice—shake to balance flavors and chill thoroughly.

3. Stirred Cocktails-Stir spirited, aromatic drinks to preserve texture and clarity.

4. Garnishing-This is the easiest way to improve a drink’s appearance. Lime wedges, flags, twists—use what makes sense but always stay consistent.

Final Notes

This glossary isn’t just a collection of cocktail descriptions; it’s your key to bar flow nirvana. Consistency and precision keep customers happy, and when you know your stuff inside and out, it shows. Use this guide, rely on it, and make every cocktail a work of art.

And when someone orders that wild Tito’s combo with a smile, just remember—you’re not just making drinks, you’re making memories. Cheers!