Vodka Drinks to Order at a Bar, From Vodka Soda to the Espresso Martini
A friend of ours goes blank every time a bartender asks what she’s having. She likes vodka, she knows that much, and then the word “vodka” just hangs there while the line behind her grows. So last month, over a pot of chili and a bowl of cranberries we were meant to be turning into sauce, we wrote her a cheat sheet. This is that sheet, cleaned up a little.
Vodka is the easiest spirit to order because it tastes of so little. It takes on whatever you pour beside it, which means the mixer is really the drink, and almost every bar in the country has the same handful of mixers. Learn nine orders and you can walk into a hotel lounge or a corner bar and get something you like.
First, what “well vodka” means
Every bar keeps a speed rail, a metal shelf of house bottles where the bartender can grab them without looking: one each of the house vodka, gin, rum, tequila and whiskey. If you say “vodka soda” and nothing else, that’s what you’ll get. It’s the cheapest pour in the building, and in a drink with juice or ginger beer it’s usually fine. When a new bottle shows up at our house, we plug it into CocktailBuilder to see which of these it can already make.
Naming a brand (“Tito’s soda”) is called ordering a call drink. It costs a few dollars more. We pay it happily in drinks where vodka has nowhere to hide, like a vodka soda or a martini, and skip it in a Screwdriver, where orange juice covers everything. Our piece on what to mix with vodka goes deeper into which mixers forgive a rough pour.
Nine vodka drinks any bartender knows
| Say this | What you get | How it tastes |
|---|---|---|
| “Vodka soda, lime” | Vodka Soda: vodka, soda water, lime | Cold and almost tasteless, in a good way |
| “Vodka cranberry” | Vodka Cranberry: vodka, cranberry, dash of lime and orange | Tart, a little sweet |
| “Cape Codder” | Cape Codder: vodka, cranberry, lime | Like the above, sharper |
| “Moscow mule” | Moscow Mule: vodka, ginger beer, lime | Spicy and fizzy |
| “Screwdriver” | Screwdriver: vodka, orange juice | Breakfast juice with a kick |
| “Sea Breeze” | Sea Breeze: vodka, cranberry, grapefruit | Tart, with a bitter grapefruit edge |
| “Lemon drop, sugar rim” | Lemon Drop: vodka, triple sec, lemon, sugar | Lemon candy |
| “Cosmo” | Cosmopolitan: lemon vodka, Cointreau, cranberry, lime | Sweet-tart, very pink |
| “Espresso martini” | Espresso Martini: espresso, vodka, Kahlúa, crème de cacao | Cold mocha with foam |
The first six go in a tall glass with ice and take a bartender about ten seconds. The last three are shaken and strained, so they cost more and take longer. On a packed Saturday we save those for the second round, once the crowd at the bar thins out.
When you want it simple and dry
Vodka soda is the one we order when we just want something cold in hand. With three good squeezes of lime it tastes like sparkling water that went to a party. A vodka tonic is the next step up, slightly bitter and slightly sweet, since tonic water carries both quinine and sugar.
Plenty of men who say they want “something simple” end up here, or at a mule, and that’s about all there is to the “vodka drinks for men” question. There’s no such thing as a men’s drink, and we’ve watched plenty of big guys at our parties go straight for the Cosmos.
The Moscow mule deserves a word of its own in November. Ginger warms you on the way down, and the copper mug looks lovely on a bar on a dark evening. If the bar has run out of copper, the drink is identical in a highball glass. For different spins on it, we keep a short list of Moscow mule variations.
When you want it fruity or sweet
This is cranberry season, and at our table the Cape Codder and the Sea Breeze come out the week of Thanksgiving with almost no discussion. The Cape Codder is vodka, cranberry and lime, about an ounce and a half of vodka to three of juice. The Sea Breeze adds grapefruit, which makes it drier and more grown-up than it looks. If you like the color but not the bitterness, ask for a Bay Breeze, which swaps the grapefruit for pineapple.
What’s the difference between a vodka cranberry and a Cape Codder? Honestly, it depends on the bar. Our vodka cranberry recipe adds a dash of orange juice along with the lime, while the Cape Codder sticks to lime. Many bartenders treat them as the same drink, and you’ll rarely be disappointed either way.
For something properly sweet, the Lemon Drop is the friendliest choice on the list. It tastes like a lemon candy dissolved in something cold, and the sugar rim makes every sip a little different. The Screwdriver is sweet too, in a softer, orange-juice way, and it’s the one to order at a dive bar where nobody owns a shaker.
The after-dinner one
The espresso martini has become the drink of the late evening, the one people order when dessert is done but nobody wants to go home. Ours is vodka, fresh espresso, Kahlúa and a little white crème de cacao, shaken until a pale foam forms on top. It needs a real espresso machine to be any good, so we order it in restaurants and skip it at bars that only have a drip pot behind the counter. We went through how much coffee liqueur it really needs in our Kahlúa espresso martini post.
What to actually say
Our friend asked for the short version, so here’s what’s taped inside her phone case:
- Lead with the drink name, not the spirit. “Moscow mule,” not “vodka with something gingery.”
- Add a brand only if you care. “Tito’s soda” or “Grey Goose soda,” otherwise the well is fine.
- Say “tall” or “long” if you want it weaker. You’ll get more mixer in a bigger glass.
- Say “up” for a chilled glass with no ice, “rocks” for ice. That matters for a Lemon Drop or a Cosmo.
- If they don’t have what you asked for, fall back to a vodka soda or a Screwdriver. Every bar can make both.
She still forgets point four. Last week she got a Lemon Drop on the rocks in a pint glass, drank it anyway, and said it was very good.
Last modified on November 8, 2026