29 Festive Fall co*cktails That Celebrate the Spirit(s) of the Season (2024)

When summer ends, we trade fruity, sweet co*cktails for more robust ones, so we're serving up our collection of delicious fall co*cktails. Each showcases autumnal flavors—fresh apples, Turkish coffee, cinnamon, orange zest, and darker spirits—to keep you warm all season long.

We start with three easy-to-make recipes for craft co*cktails—which take a standard favorite and give it an innovative twist—borrowed from top Miami nightspots. Each comes together quickly in a simple shaker: no fancy co*cktail machine or blender needed.

If concocting craft co*cktails isn't you're cup of tea, we have more co*cktail recipes for fall. Try one (or several) to make your autumn awesome.

Craft co*cktail Recipes for Fall

Counterintuitively, we went to three nocturnal hotspots in Miami to find craft co*cktail recipes with distinctly fall flavors. Which is your favorite?

Byblos' Old Fashioned

When you’re in the mood for a bona fide classic, you can always turn to an old fashioned. This timeless masterpiece of mixology is an effortless three-ingredient blend (sugar, bitters, and liquor), which makes it a great contender for recipe variations.

This twist on a classic from Byblos Miami, a restaurant that specializes in Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, is framed with Eastern spices and served over a perfect cube of ice with an expression of orange oils. Boozy, smooth, and sophisticated, Byblos’ old fashioned is just as easy to make as it is to drink.

Ingredients:

• 1½ ounces bourbon
• ½ ounce rum
• ½ ounce Turkish coffee
• 4 dashes orange Angostura bitters
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• Orange zest for garnish (optional)

Directions: Add all ingredients to a shaker and then stir. Serve in a rocks glass over a single large ice cube. Garnish with orange zest.

Sweet Liberty's Baby Bison

This easy-drinking co*cktail from Sweet Liberty Drinks & Supply Co—an award-winning restaurant and bar—combines vodka, apple juice, Aperol, citrus, and cinnamon. It's a small-but-mighty mixture reminiscent of fall.

Ingredients

• 1½ ounces vodka (Sweet Liberty recommends Zu Vodka Bison grass vodka)
• 1½ ounces apple juice
• ½ ounce fresh lemon juice
• ½ ounce Aperol
• Cinnamon stick for garnish (optional)

Directions: Shake all ingredients with ice in a shaker and then strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Lobster Bar's El Cafecito

Gloria Estefan once described Cuban coffee as "very powerful, very sweet, and a little dangerous." That's exactly how we'd describe this coffee co*cktail developed by mixologists at Lobster Bar Sea Grille. Made with coffee liqueur, dark rum, Licor 43, chocolate bitters, and simple syrup, it's best enjoyed while listening to salsa music and playing dominoes.

Ingredients

• 1½ ounces dark rum
• ½ ounce coffee liqueur
• ½ ounce Licor 43
• 1 dash simple syrup
• 2 dashes chocolate bitters

Directions: In a shaker, add all ingredients, shake vigorously, and then pour into a rocks glass with a large ice cube.

More Fall co*cktails

At Real Simple, we have our own collection of fall-forward co*cktails. Peruse our list for seasonal libations to make your fall more festive.

Apple Cinnamon-Spiced co*cktail

This recipe gives a summertime favorite, theAperol spritz, a fruity fall twist by replacing Prosecco and sparkling water with fresh lemon juice,apple cider, and vodka. For more fall flavor, it calls for coating the rim with turbinado sugar, adding cinnamon sticks and star anise, and garnishing with fresh apple slices.

Boozy Apple Cider Slushie

This big batch recipe proves you can develop warm, rich flavors in an icy cold co*cktail. It spikes apple cider (or apple juice) and a sugar-cinnamon simple syrup with bourbon and hard cider for a frozen co*cktail that's a seasonal sensation.

Spiced Hot Toddy Recipe

A hot toddy often evokes images of a bearskin rug by a roaring fire in a ski lodge, but this spicy version is a perfect prelude to winter. Fragrant baking spices and syrupy honey may just turn this warm whiskey co*cktail into your new fall favorite.

Citrusy Cider, Scotch, and Lavender

A beverage doesn't have to be warming to qualify as a fall co*cktail. This refreshing, subtly sweet blend of scotch, apple cider, lemon juice, andsimple syrup makes it perfect for the early days of fall.

Coffee Old Fashioned

This tweak on a classic co*cktail features rum, bourbon, and a touch of potent Turkish coffee. (In a pinch, espresso makes an adequate substitute.) Add orange bitters, dark spirits, and a perfect ice cube for a boozy, smooth, sophisticated sip.

Gingery Cider with Tequila

For a taste of fall on the wild side, try this apple cider-based co*cktail recipe. It calls on freshly sliced ginger for zing. tequila for a kick, and a sprig of mint leaves for a fresh finish.

Cider Shandy

This recipe gives a classic British shandy—customarily beer mixed with lemonade—a fall twist by replacing the summer staple with apple cider. Simple as can be—one part lager and one part cider—garnish it with an orange slice for fall color.

Campari Soda With Orange

Need a drink to match your Halloween décor, or perhaps the leaves falling onto your lawn? We have just the thing. Starting with Campari—an Italian alcoholic liqueur—just add club soda, orange juice, and a strip of orange zest for a color-coordinating co*cktail.

Spiked Hot Apple Cider With Molasses

This is just the thing to serve on a cool fall night. It's spiked with rum, but it's the molasses, freshly peeled ginger, and cinnamon stick garnish that gives this warming co*cktail its fall flavor.

Smoke and Spice Cider

In this cozy co*cktail, the smoke comes from mezcal—an agave-based Mexican spirit—and the spice comes from jalapeño slices. The result is a deep, rich, boozy version of apple cider.

Cherry Manhattan

The Manhattan is a co*cktail that's been around a while, yet never gets old. This recipe gives it a burgundy twist with the addition of sweet-and-sour cherry juice and real dark-hued Maraschino cherries.

Spiked Cider Tea

Ramp up apple cider with black tea, vanilla, and gin for this warm, cozy drink that's perfect on a crisp fall evening. Serve with a roaring fire and sip under a woolly throw.

Cider and Pomegranate Margarita

The end of summer doesn't mean it's the end of margarita season! Swap the customary tropical juices with apple cider and pomegranate to give this classic co*cktail a decidedly fall flavor.

Classic Amaretto Sour

The ingredients of this classic co*cktail capture the colors of fall leaves in a rocks glass. Amaretto liqueur and simple syrup are joined by lemon juice, an orange slice, and a maraschino cherry in this super-easy recipe.

Cider Dark and Stormy

A traditional dark and stormy co*cktail combines dark rum (the "dark") with ginger beer (the "stormy") served overiceand garnished with a slice oflime. This version adds apple cider to the mix for a flash of festive fall flair.

Cider Bellini

This recipe takes a classic Bellini (named after a 15th-century Venetian artist) and swaps its peach puree (or nectar) with apple cider for a refreshingly crisp, bubbly co*cktail. Serve in an elegant champagne flute with a sprig of rosemary.

Fall Cider Sangria

Sangria makes a great party punch any time of year, but this apple cider-based version is perfect for any autumn soiree. To maximize the fall flavors, let freshly sliced apples, pears, and oranges chill with the apple brandy and white wine for at least 4 hours (or overnight).

Tarragon French 75 co*cktail

A fall co*cktail doesn't have to include "cider" in its title. Case in point: This big-batch recipe mates a tarragon-infused simple syrup with cognac, lemon juice, and sparkling wine to create a warming, sophisticated blend.

Gin-Cider Punch

Conjure up a pitcher of this refreshing co*cktail (pictured on the left) garnished with crisp slivers of Honeycrisp apple. Besides the titular ingredients, it calls for tonic water, elderflower liqueur, and fresh lemon juice.

Rum and Pineapple Punch

No, we didn't mistakenly list a summer drink among our fall co*cktails. This make-ahead, apple cider-based punch spiked with brandy and rum is just the thing to deliver pure fall refreshment for a crowd.

Spiced Apple Kombucha co*cktail

In case you haven't heard, kombucha—the fermented tea drink touted as a probiotic super-beverage—has become a trendy co*cktail mixer. In this fall-forward concoction, apple-flavored kombucha mixes with apple cider, spiced rum, and lemon juice.

Frozen Spiced Apple Snowball

If you live in a place where fall is synonymous with snow-shoveling season, this co*cktail is for you because its distinctive ingredient is snow—yes, from right outside your front door. Mix it with apple brandy, Bénédictine D.O.M. (a French herbal liqueur), a cinnamon-clove simple syrup, and Angostura bitters for an adult-only, fall-flavored slushie.

Sweet-and-Spicy Mulled Wine

The aroma of this big-batch mulled wine wafting through the house will put an end to any lingering despair over the end of summer. Flavored with peppercorns, orange peels, fresh ginger, cinnamon, and star anise, it delivers warm spices to counter cool evenings.

Chai Hot Toddy

Chai—the popular black-tea beverage featuring Indian spices—is a flavor that takes you from the first nip in the air of fall through the depths of winter. Spiked with rum, sweetened with honey, and served steaming hot, this creamy co*cktail warms your heart and soul.

Bekaa Highball

If you're looking for a sparkling libation that will wow a crowd, try this recipe for a Bekaa Highball. A mixture of white grape juice, Lillet Blanc, apple brandy, tonic, and Champagne create a fruit-forward flavor. Frozen grapes used in place of ice make this co*cktail extra special.

Coffee Spritz

It's not quite cold enough for a hot coffee, but it's not quite warm enough for a frappe. So how about an iced coffee spritz for the fall? This recipe mixes cold brew coffee with coffee liqueur, bourbon, a splash of orange juice, and club soda. It's like an espresso martini on ice for a refreshing and rejuvenating pick-me-up.