The Best New Bartenders of 2025 have different styles of making drinks: Tone Arasa’s style is “heavily influenced by the seasons”, Molly Gajdosik makes “fun and flavorful cocktails,” and Ricardo Rodriguez wants to make his drinks “purposeful” above all. These cocktails are a perfect example of that combination. This collection of recipes includes nostalgic flavours, clever techniques, and odes to the classics. Learn about our class of 2025 by looking at their signature drinks.
Lena
Ricardo Rodriguez | Aberdeen Township, New Jersey
Ricardo Rodriguez is the bar manager at Lita and La Otra. He says, “This cocktail was inspired by my two favorite drinks: A spicy Margarita and Jungle Bird.” He combines tequila, mezcal and Ancho Reyes Verde chilli liqueur with bitter gentian liqueur along with pineapple and lime juices. He says that his background in the kitchen has taught him to appreciate complementary but contrasting flavours. This cocktail is a great example of this.
A mezcal Margarita with a spicy kick meets a Jungle Bird.
Sobacha Fizz
Kenzo Han | Los Angeles
Kenzo Han, of Firstborn in Los Angeles, puts his tea expertise to work across their cocktail menu. Deeply fermented pu-erh green tea stars in a riff on the Kingston Negroni; toasty hajicha powers the nonalcoholic Milk Punch. Earthy sobacha, or toasted Buckwheat, is used to flavour a bourbon-based fizz. Han describes the drink as a “Gold Rush fizz” with bitter citrus notes from Amaro Ramazzotti. A grating of Buckwheat is added to the drink as a finishing touch. Han says that it acts as bitters atop a Whiskey Sour and gives off a toasty aroma.
A bourbon-amaro fizz is flavoured with earthy sobacha, or toasted Buckwheat.
Tierra Verde
Easthampton, Massachusetts
Molly Gajdosik is the assistant manager of Gigantic, and she likes to make drinks that aren’t too serious. After being drawn to bartending through tiki cocktails, they often use tropical flavours for their creations. Gajdosik was inspired by a passionfruit matcha fizz that he had at a local cafe. He combined the two flavours with mezcal and coconut rum, as well as lime juice. It took me a lot more trial and error to find what I was looking for. The result, they say, is “definitely unconventional.”
Mixture of passion fruit, mezcal, rum and matcha.
Chokehold
Becca Petersen | Chicago
Becca Petersen’s cocktail, created at Daisies by Becca Petersen and Kyle Davidson, pays homage to a modern classic that is often overlooked, the Art of Choke. It was originally developed at Chicago’s Violet Hour by Kyle Davidson. Petersen replaces the rum with gin and divides the amaro between CioCiaro, Zucca Rabarbaro, and Cynar. The original cocktail combines lime juice and a mix of rum, Cynar, and green Chartreuse. Petersen says, “I love a stirred drink of gin, amaro and the unexpected.”
A surprising riff on Art of Choke, the modern classic.
Strawberries as a Gift
Tone Arasa | San Francisco
This milk punch is named after a chapter from the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It celebrates the strawberry, which in Indigenous communities is known as “the heart berry”. Tone Arasa, bartender and prep leader at True Laurel, says: “Having that rooted relationship to the strawberry I wanted to create a drink that shared my Indigenous identity while also bringing up a lot nostalgia–a Strawberry Cream Soda.” Strawberry-infused Tequila, strawberry syrup, lime juice and bergamot liquor are all combined with milk punch to create a drink that is both nostalgic and shares my Indigenous identity.
Strawberry cream soda is the inspiration for this milk punch.
One Toucan Can
Denver
Mak Kelly, the bar manager at Lady Jane, says that he wouldn’t be surprised to learn that his love of global cuisine began as a child growing up in Florida. He spent many days with his family at Disney World, specifically Epcot. “A very specific thing usually inspires me–it’s like a project to see how accurate I can be.” The One Toucan Can is a combination of pineapple-infused vodka and spicy green chilli rum, with an extra tropical flair thanks to banana liqueur. Salers and Cocchi Amerino are used in small amounts to add depth and a drying quality to the glass. This drink is meant to remind you of “hot Orlando afternoons with spicy pineapple hotdogs.”
This tropical cocktail combines rum with green chile vodka and pineapple-infused rum.
Double Reverse
Daniel Bareswilt | Tampa, Florida
Daniel Bareswilt, co-bar leader at Alter Ego nightclub in Tampa, Florida, creates a cocktail menu to attract clients who come mainly “because the bar looks beautiful and the music sounds good.” He also makes sure that the drinks are practical, as the venue is high-volume. The fewer bottles picked up, the better. Bareswilt’s pragmatism led him to develop his style of crowd-pleasing minimalistism. He likes “drinks that are tropical, crushable, and aromatic.” The Double Reverse, for example, is a liberal version of a reverse Martini made with Cocchi Americano and passion fruit liqueur, along with your choice of unaged spirits.
Cocktail “tropical and aromatic”, made with the spirit of your choice.
Distant Lover
New Orleans
Mel Tate’s tequila-sour cocktail is named after the Marvin Gaye tune. It combines strawberry syrup with rich orgeat, bright citrus and Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro to give it a subtle smoky taste. This drink channels the classic strawberry-rhubarb flavour combination in an unexpected yet refreshing manner.
This tequila-based sour is a classic combination of strawberry and rhubarb.
Wild Amargo
Washington, D.C.
Lou Bernard, beverage manager at Mita, creates a frothy, tropical sour by combining equal parts of gin and Salers, fino sherry and pineapple liqueur. He also adds lemon, gooseberry syrup and a simple gooseberry syrup. Bernard, a bartender in a restaurant who always works with the kitchen to minimise waste, substitutes aquafaba for egg white here to achieve the desired froth.
Gooseberries are the star of this frothy gin sour.
Golden Daylily
Capucine Prager | New York City
Capucine Prager, bartender of Bar Goto, named this drink after its star ingredient, jinxuan. This Old-Fashioned is a twist on the traditional Old Fashioned. Also called milky oolong tea, Japanese whisky is used to infuse the tea. It’s then sweetened with sugar cane syrup and a little Scotch. Prager explains that the drink was inspired by the idea of calm confidence. It’s a cocktail with a lot of spirit that doesn’t have to shout in order to be heard.
