Adam Aaronson:

The International Bartenders Association, or IBA, maintains a list of official cocktails, ones they deem to be “the most requested recipes” at bars all around the world. It’s the closest thing the bartending industry has to a canonical list of cocktails […]

As of 2025, there are 102 IBA official cocktails, and as of July 12, 2025, I’ve had every one of them.

The journey has taken me to some interesting places, and now that it’s done, I have a little story to tell for each cocktail. I’m not gonna tell you all 102 stories, but I do want to debrief the experience. Drinking all 102 cocktails turned out to be unexpectedly tricky, and for reasons you’ll soon understand, I might be one of the first people in the world to do it.

This is my kind of project, and I’m disappointed that I didn’t think to do it myself.

I’ve tossed back a mere 43 of the current 102 IBA cocktails, a disappointing showing for a self-described cocktail enthusiast. This, of course, must and will be corrected. Many of the cocktails I’m missing are variations on a theme, with ingredients I have or can easily procure. The rest will require dedication—though I’m unsure if I’ll be able to achieve a 100% completion any time soon, considering the challenges Aaronson describes for his “final boss” cocktail: the IBA Tiki, which requires a pair of Cuban rums unavailable—legally, anyway—in the U.S.

Aaronson catalogs each cocktail by name recognition (well-known, medium, obscure) and by ingredient availability (easy, medium, hard) to identify which ones you’re likely to find at any halfway decent cocktail bar, and which ones you’ll have to hunt for—a very handy cheat-sheet!

One takeaway from Aaronson’s exercise: I need to start keeping lists.

(Via Nick Heer at Pixel Envy.)