The terms “dry” is often used to describe a cocktail, and drinks in general and, unless you know what the terms mean and what the sensation is like, it can be confusing.
After all, cocktails (and drinks in general) are made of liquids, and all liquids are wet. So how can you describe a drink as dry?
Let’s look at these terms and figure it out.
What Is A Dry Drink In General?
When figuring out what makes a drink “dry,” it’s probably easier to describe the opposite. The opposite of a dry drink or cocktail is a sweet drink. So, to put the term as succinctly as possible, if a drink is not sweet, it’s dry.
A dry drink obviously doesn’t have sweetness to it, but there are levels of “dryness” and “sweetness.” Grab a sweet drink and a less sweet drink. The less sweet drink can be described as drier. Eventually you’ll find a drink or a cocktail without any sweetness and that’s a dry drink.
Dry drinks often use herbs and spices to get there flavour and, while there may be some sugar or sweetness, it’s not the predominant flavour in the drink or cocktail.
Does Dry Mean Bitterness When It Comes To Drinks?
While many bitter drinks are dry, bitterness is not necessarily the characteristic of a dry drink or cocktail. Bitterness can often leave your mouth feeling dry, but that’s different from the drink itself being described as dry.
If you’re really trying to pin point what a dry drink feels and tastes like, get yourself a good London Dry Gin. There’s virtually no sugar in a London Dry Gin. The flavour of the Juniper Berries used in a London Dry Gin could maybe be described as bitter, but it’s more of a pine and wood flavour than a bitterness. Of course, it’s not the Juniper that’s making the Gin dry, it’s the lack of sweetness.
What’s The Difference Between A Wet And A Dry Martini?
The terms “wet” and “dry” Martini usually refer to the amount of Vermouth present in the Martini. If there’s more Vermouth in the Martini, it’s referred to as “wet.”
However, while this is usually how “wet” and “dry” are used when referring to a Martini, it actually originally referred to the type of Gin being used. While most Gins can be described as “dry,” some are drier than others (and called Dry Gins for that matter). Originally a “Dry Martini” referred to the type of Gin being used, not the amount of Vermouth.
No one is going to call you out on this at a bar though. Most people know what you mean.
What Are Some Sweet And Dry Cocktails?
If you’re after a sweet or a dry cocktail, look no further! There are plenty of great cocktails out there, both sweet and dry. Of course, some of the cocktails recipes that follow are more dry or more sweet than others. Some of the sweeter cocktail recipes are great after dinner, but so are some of the dry ones. And some of the sweet ones are great as a pre-dinner refreshment as well. Try the cocktail and see what you think it’s good for.
Gin Martini: a classic dry cocktail
As already mentioned, the classic Gin Martini is a great introduction to dry cocktails. There’s no sweetness in any of this cocktail! Of course, if the flavour of the Gin is too much for you, try adding a bit more Dry Vermouth to take the edge of. It won’t add any sweetness, but it will make the drink smoother.
What’s more, a Gin Martini is extremely easy to make (but hard to perfect). So if you’re new to making cocktails, a Gin Martini is a good start.
Mai Tai: a great sweet cocktail
The Mai Tai is a Tiki cocktail classic! The Mai Tai cocktail is very well balanced though, sure, there’s sweetness there, but it’s not overly so. The base spirit for the Mai Tai is Rum, which you wouldn’t describe as a dry spirit. With this, like many Tiki cocktails, the Mai Tai is full of fruit juice, particularly citrus. While citrus can often be bitter, it wouldn’t be described as dry because there’s also a sweetness to it.
The Mai Tai has a few more ingredients to it than the Martini, but it’s worth getting all of those ingredients for this wonderful cocktail.
French 75: a semi-dry cocktail
The French 75 is a good example of a semi-dry cocktail. The French 75 has both Gin and Champagne in it, which are typically described as dry, with a little bit of sugar and Lemon Juice, which both add to sweetness. However, the “vibe” of the cocktail leans more towards dryness though, especially because of the base alcohol of Champagne and Gin.
After all, the French 75 is basically just Champagne with added tastiness, but a lot of the dryness is taken away.
Enjoy!
Negroni: a semi-sweet cocktail
The classic cocktail, the Negroni is a good example of a semi-sweet cocktail. And yes, we’d say semi-sweet instead of semi-drt. A Negroni has both Campari (dry) and Sweet Vermouth (sweet) in it, which creates its characteristic sweet and bitter flavour. The Negroni is a great cocktail because it’s all about balance, and the cocktail is neither dry nor sweet. And because of that, we feel since it’s not dry, it’s sweet. But not extremely sweet obviously.
You can make up your mind for yourself!
What’s Your Favourite Dry Cocktail?
Do you have a favourite dry cocktail? What about a favourite sweet cocktail?
We’ve only given a few examples here, but, given there are literally hundreds of cocktail recipes out there, we’ve obviously missed some.
And that’s part of the wonderful world of cocktails. There are so many flavours to choose from. And it goes beyond simple “dry” and “sweet.” There’s fruity cocktails, bitter cocktails, floral cocktails, herbal cocktails, and more. And often a given cocktail recipe will fall into more than one category.
So enjoy the journey.
