Our Best New Bartenders of 2025 describe their drink-making styles in different ways: Tone Arasa is “heavily inspired by the seasons”; Molly Gajdosik’s cocktails are “fun, approachable and full of flavor”; Ricardo Rodriguez wants his recipes to be “purposeful,” above all else. The cocktails they’ve shared with us exemplify that mix, and more. In this collection of recipes, there are nostalgic flavor combinations, clever techniques and odes to the tried-and-true classics. Here, get to know our class of 2025 through their signature drinks.
Ricardo Rodriguez | Aberdeen Township, New Jersey
“This cocktail is inspired by two of my favorite drinks: a spicy Margarita and a Jungle Bird,” says Ricardo Rodriguez, bar manager of Lita and La Otra. Here, he combines both tequila and mezcal with spicy Ancho Reyes Verde chile liqueur and the bitterness of gentian liqueur alongside pineapple and lime juices. “My kitchen background has taught me to appreciate contrasting but complementary flavors, and this cocktail achieves that balance in an approachable way,” he says.
Leña
A spicy mezcal Margarita meets a Jungle Bird.
Kenzo Han | Los Angeles
At Firstborn in Los Angeles, Kenzo Han puts their tea expertise into practice across the cocktail menu: Deeply fermented green pu-erh tea stars in a Kingston Negroni riff; toasty hojicha drives the nonalcoholic milk punch. Here, earthy sobacha (toasted buckwheat) flavors a bourbon fizz. Han describes this drink as “essentially a Gold Rush made into a fizz,” with Amaro Ramazzotti bringing some bitter citrus notes to the drink. The finishing touch is a grating of buckwheat over the top of the drink. “It functions as the bitters on top of a Whiskey Sour,” says Han, “and provides a delicious toasty aroma.”
Sobacha Fizz
Earthy sobacha (toasted buckwheat) flavors a bourbon and amaro fizz.
Molly Gajdosik | Easthampton, Massachusetts
Molly Gajdosik, assistant manager at Gigantic, likes to create drinks that don’t take themselves too seriously. Having been drawn into bartending by tiki drinks, they often turn to tropical flavors in their own creations. Inspired by a passion fruit matcha fizz served at a local coffee shop, Gajdosik brought those two flavors together, along with mezcal, coconut rum and lime juice. “It took a lot of trial and error before I landed on what I [was] looking for.” The result is, in their words, “definitely unconventional.”
Tierra Verde
A “definitely unconventional” mix of mezcal, rum, passion fruit and matcha.
Becca Petersen | Chicago
This cocktail from Becca Petersen, bartender at Daisies, pays homage to an unsung modern classic, the Art of Choke, created by Kyle Davidson at Chicago’s Violet Hour. Where the original combines rum, Cynar and green Chartreuse alongside a small measure of lime juice, Petersen swaps the base spirit for gin and splits the amaro quotient between CioCiaro and Zucca Rabarbaro. “I’m a lover of a stirred gin drink, of amaro, and of the unexpected,” says Petersen.
Chokehold
An unexpected riff on the Art of Choke, a modern classic.
Tone Arasa | San Francisco
Named for a chapter in the book Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, this milk punch celebrates strawberry, a plant that is sometimes known as the “heart berry” in Indigenous communities. “Having that rooted connection to the strawberry, I wanted to create a cocktail that shares my Indigenous identity as well as brings up a lot of nostalgia—a strawberry cream soda,” says True Laurel prep lead and bartender Tone Arasa. Strawberry-infused tequila is complemented by strawberry syrup, bergamot liqueur and lime juice, all clarified using the milk punch technique.
Mak Kelly | Denver
“I wouldn’t be surprised if my love for global cuisine started as a kid growing up in Florida, spending so many days at Disney World—namely Epcot—with my family,” says Mak Kelly, bar manager at Lady Jane. “Usually I am inspired by something really specific—it becomes kind of like a science project to see how true to the original material I can be.” The One Toucan Can combines pineapple-infused rum and spicy green chile vodka, with extra tropical flair courtesy of banana liqueur and pineapple amaro. Small measures of Salers and Cocchi Americano bring depth and a drying effect to the glass for a drink meant to evoke “hot Orlando afternoons and spicy pineapple hot dogs.”
One Toucan Can
Pineapple-infused rum and spicy green chile vodka meet in this tropical drink.
Daniel Bareswilt | Tampa, Florida
At the nightclub Alter Ego in Tampa, Florida, co–bar lead Daniel Bareswilt creates a roster of cocktails to win over clientele that he admits mostly come “because the bar is beautiful and the music is good.” The drinks must be practical for the high-volume venue—the fewer bottle pickups, the better. This pragmatism has led Bareswilt to hone his own brand of crowd-pleasing minimalism. In his words, he likes to “make drinks that skew tropical, crushable and aromatic.” The Double Reverse is a liberal interpretation of a reverse Martini, made with Cocchi Americano, passion fruit liqueur and your choice of unaged spirit.
Double Reverse
A “tropical, crushable and aromatic” cocktail made with your spirit of choice.
Mel Tate | New Orleans
This summery tequila sour from Mel Tate, bartender at Dovetail, is named after a Marvin Gaye song. In it, strawberry syrup comes together with bright citrus, rich orgeat and Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro, which lends a subtly smoky flavor and added depth to the cocktail. The result is a drink that channels the classic flavor combo of strawberry and rhubarb in an unexpected, yet refreshing way.
Distant Lover
This tequila sour channels the classic flavor combo of strawberry and rhubarb.
Lou Bernard | Washington, D.C.
In this frothy sour, Lou Bernard, beverage director at Mita, layers herbaceous, slightly savory and tropical flavors by marrying equal parts gin, Salers and fino sherry, complemented by pineapple liqueur, lemon and an easy gooseberry syrup. As a bartender working within a restaurant, Bernard always tries to work with the kitchen to reduce waste; here he subs aquafaba in lieu of egg white to create the requisite froth.
Wild Amargo
A frothy gin sour that spotlights gooseberries.
Capucine Prager | New York City
This drink from Capucine Prager, bartender at Bar Goto, takes its name from the translation of its star ingredient, jin xuan tea. Also known as milky oolong, the tea infuses Japanese whisky as the base of this unconventional Old-Fashioned riff, which is modified with a small measure of Scotch and sweetened with cane syrup. “This drink is inspired by the idea of calm confidence,” Prager says. “It’s a spirit-forward cocktail that doesn’t need to shout to be heard.”
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