Martha Stewart's 12 Favorite Cocktails

Martha Stewart needs no introduction. A television personality, chef, author, and media empire owner, her name is synonymous with lifestyle, cooking, and entertaining. So it may come as a surprise to hear that Martha, a maven in the food and drink spaces, actually isn't that big a drinker herself. In interviews, she's often said she prefers to stick to a glass or two of wine at dinner time and otherwise keeps her drinking on the lighter side.

But when Stewart does indulge, she has her preferences. From tried-and-true classics to personalized riffs, her taste in cocktails is just as refined as the rest of her work. Even for the simple, straightforward recipes that are a hit with her audience, she focuses on quality, using top-tier products and fresh, seasonal ingredients.

A cocktail doesn't need to be overly complicated to impress, which is why many of Stewart's cocktails are easy to replicate at home, with her choice of ingredients or using your own personal preferences. Plus, who wouldn't want to step into the shoes of this expert on all things entertaining by enjoying one of her favorite drinks? From signature creations to seasonal sips for different holidays and times of the year, these 12 cocktails are among Martha Stewart's favorites.

A sweet, citrusy concoction made with vodka, simple syrup, triple sec, and lemon juice, the Lemon Drop is a favorite of fruity cocktail fans. Since being invented at a San Francisco bar in the 1970s, it's ascended to the upper echelons of lifestyle entertainment, becoming a go-to libation for the likes of Martha Stewart herself. Stewart has frequently championed the Lemon Drop as one of her all-time favorites in interviews and in her publications, but she gives it her own signature twist with her choice of lemons.

Stewart prefers to use Meyer lemons for her take on a Lemon Drop. A cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, Meyer lemons are less acidic and more on the sweet side flavor-wise. There's still a touch of tartness, but the flavor is more well-rounded. Along with lemons — which Martha uses both as freshly-squeezed lemon juice and to make a lemony simple syrup to further enhance the flavor — the recipe also calls for Cointreau and Belvedere vodka, which is one of Martha's preferred top-shelf brands.

You can also garnish the cocktail glass with a sugar rim for extra sweetness and even add yellow food coloring to the sugar for a matching effect. Martha says it's well worth the effort to add the sugar rim, both for flavor and to achieve the right look, so we'll take her word for it. So, if you're looking to emulate Martha, making her signature Meyer Lemon Drop is the right move.

Along with lemons, Martha Stewart is also a fan of limes, particularly in the form of a caipirinha. Brazil's national cocktail, the caipirinha is a zingy, refreshing blend of cachaça (a sugarcane-derived liquor), sugar, and lime. Similar to a mojito, the limes are muddled to bring out the fresh juice and flavor, with the muddled mix of liquor, sugar, and limes served on ice.

Stewart has often talked about her love for caipirinhas in interviews, even telling Thrillist they're probably her favorite cocktail. But in true Stewart form, she also adds her own twist to the traditional cocktail. On her website, her caipirinha recipe calls for the addition of ginger, which brings hints of spice and sweetness to the lime, sugar, and cachaça. Since the muddling can take some time and effort, she also recommends making a big batch to cut down on prep time and ensure there's plenty to go around.

For culinary and lifestyle personalities like Martha Stewart, Thanksgiving is one of the biggest events of the year. Not only is there a tremendous amount of food and drinks to plan, shop for, and prepare, but there's also the hosting aspect, with table settings, decorations, and themes to be considered. Although wine is usually the go-to drink to pair with Thanksgiving dinner, it's always nice to start with an aperitif cocktail to whet the appetite. If you want to be like Stewart and be the ultimate host and entertainer on one of the biggest food days of the year, use her favorite Thanksgiving cocktail recipe: the Apple Cider Bourbon Sour.

With its bourbon base, a bourbon sour is already a nice choice for a fall-themed cocktail. But this rendition fits the theme even more with the addition of apple cider. For this, Stewart likes to use Michter's Kentucky Straight Bourbon, mixed with apple cider and some fresh lemon juice. An optional but fun add-on is rimming the drinking glasses with brown sugar as well, which really elevates the presentation and can wow your Thanksgiving guests.

Martha Stewart may make a mean frozen margarita, but she's got other ice-cold, frozen drink recipes up her sleeve. In a clip from her cooking show, "The Martha Stewart Show," she shared a favorite vodka slushy recipe of hers called the Basil Lillet Slush.

In the video, Stewart and her guests add simple syrup, lemon juice, basil leaves, vodka, and Lillet — a French wine-based aperitif — to a blender filled with ice. As any bartender will tell you, using the right kind of ice for your cocktail can make all the difference in terms of taste, texture, and appearance. Blending it up, the slushy mixture gets poured into prepared glasses rimmed with salt and sugar. A sprig of basil tops the whole thing for a nice flourish. With its icy texture, sweet Lillet, and minty, peppery basil, it's a cooling, refreshing drink that's perfect for summer.

Do you like Aperol spritzes? Turns out you're in good company, as Martha Stewart also loves a nice wine-based spritz. When asked in an interview with Thrillist if she ever uses wine in her cocktail recipes, Stewart answered in the affirmative, citing this classic Italian aperitif: "Oh, all the time. You can make a sparkling wine spritzer, which I think is very nice. You can take a sparkling wine and make a wonderful sparkling Aperol drink with it. Take a little of a rosé or a beautiful Moscato and put a little bit of Aperol in that with a good slice of orange."

The traditional Aperol spritz recipe, which Stewart shares on her website, calls for Prosecco, Aperol, and soda water, served over ice and garnished with an orange wedge. But as she mentioned above, you can also get experimental and swap out the Prosecco with some rosé, a different white wine, or a different type of bubbly.

We all love a good margarita. But sometimes you want to shake things up a bit and try something new. In an article on her website, Martha Stewart agrees: "I remember a time when it seemed like everyone sipped the same old drinks: Bloody Marys for Sunday brunch, Whiskey Sours with orange juice and a squeeze of lemon, and margaritas made from a prepared mix and a frozen container of lemonade. Thankfully, those days are long gone, and we're more adventurous for it." Then, she segues into talking about some of her favorite riffs on summertime cocktails, including a margarita made with yellow watermelon and elderflower liqueur.

Prepared with sunshine-yellow watermelon, Stewart's Yellow Watermelon Margaritas are an eye-catching take on the classic. Along with the seedless yellow watermelon, the recipe calls for white tequila, sugar, lime, and an elderflower liqueur like St. Germain. This cocktail is a bit more labor-intensive, requiring the sugar, lime peels, and water to be boiled down into a syrup and the chopped-up watermelon to be pureed, but the end result is a sunny, yellow summertime success. It's also not a margarita without a salt rim, and Stewart opts for coarse or Himalayan pink salt for this recipe.

Sangria is another quintessential summertime cocktail, and with Martha Stewart's love for fruit-forward cocktails and wine, naturally, a sangria riff ranks as one of her favorite cocktails for the summer. Usually, sangria falls into two categories: red or white sangria, made with either red or white wine. Stewart's take on the classic sangria offers the best of both worlds by using rosé, which Martha called the "unofficial wine of summer" in her recipe.

Along with rosé, Stewart's Rosé Sangria mixes in vodka and sugar. But it's not a sangria without fruit as well. In lieu of some of the more traditional fruits used for sangria like oranges, lemons, and apples, Martha mixes in fresh strawberries and sliced nectarines. "It's a seasonal superstar best enjoyed poolside or on a picnic blanket," she said of her creation.

Even though this recipe first came out in the 1980s in Martha Stewart's coveted and highly sought-after first book, "Entertaining," this take on a boozy eggnog went viral, stepping back into the spotlight. And it's easy to see why. Watching the video, which racked up hundreds of thousands of likes on Instagram, Stewart adds a dizzying amount of alcohol to the creamy cocktail mix, which she pours into a massive punch bowl for serving. Signing off with a "one per person" call for portion control and drinking responsibly due to the potent nature of the drink, naturally, the comment section is full of jokes about "one bowl per person" and stories of holiday parties gone awry from too much imbibing.

On her website, Martha says she makes this Classic Eggnog recipe each year for her holiday party. Along with eggs, heavy cream, superfine sugar, and milk, it calls for three different types of booze: a heady mix of bourbon, dark rum, and Cognac. For specific brands, Martha recommends Maker's Mark for bourbon, Mount Gay for dark rum, and Remy Martin Grand Cru for Cognac. Creamy and smooth with notes of freshly-zested nutmeg on top, it's delectable, but you should proceed with caution due to its high alcohol content.

It's the height of a summer afternoon. The sun is beaming down, temperatures are soaring, and all you want is a nice, refreshing drink that requires the least amount of effort possible to make. In that case, take a page from Martha Stewart's book and make this super-easy libation, which she told Veranda magazine was one of her favorite cocktails for summertime. Sure, she has plenty of other fruity favorites that will also hit the spot on a hot summer's day, from caipirinhas to margaritas. But this tequila and grapefruit concoction is extremely low-maintenance while also tasting great.

The recipe also couldn't be simpler: Squeeze out fresh grapefruit juice to get the best flavor possible and mix it with a tequila of your choice to your liking. Stewart said an extra squirt of lime juice also brings a bit more zest and brightness to the drink. Served over ice or chilled, it'll help keep you cool during the summer with almost zero effort.

From her partnership with Pure Leaf Iced Tea to make-at-home recipes, Martha Stewart's love for black iced tea as a dinner drink is well-documented. Finding it "extremely refreshing," as she told the Daily Meal in an interview about the partnership, Stewart has been a tea enthusiast since childhood. So it's no surprise that she also enjoys it in cocktail, or rather, mocktail form. If you're looking for a non-alcoholic drink option, you can follow her lead with a simple but refreshing iced tea mocktail at the end of the day.

As evening rolls around, Stewart likes to pour black tea (either Pure Leaf or homemade) over ice for a mocktail hour libation, with some added lemon to liven up the flavor. "I often use it [for] cocktail time. Last night I had it with dinner because I don't drink a lot of alcoholic beverages," Stewart said in her Daily Meal interview. "It is very refreshing." But, since it is evening, she recommends serving it in a nice glass or goblet to elevate the look and make an end-of-the-day iced tea feel more like an occasion.

With some of her favorite cocktails like the Lemon Drop featuring vodka, it's no surprise that when it comes to a classic martini, Martha Stewart opts for vodka over gin. For her signature Martha-tini — which is featured as a specialty cocktail at her Las Vegas restaurant, The Bedford by Martha Stewart – she calls for a very particular brand of vodka in keeping with her preference for top-tier Polish vodka. Infused with a specific type of bison grass from Poland, Żubrówka is a Polish vodka brand with a history dating as far back as the 8th century. Along with being Martha-approved, this brand and specific type of vodka is a bartender's favorite, prized for its high quality and unique taste.

Along with the Żubrówka bison grass vodka, the Martha-tini also calls for dry vermouth and a lemon twist. While you can easily make your own Martha-tini at home, it's worth the trip to try it at her Las Vegas restaurant. Designed after her 1925 farmhouse, it'll feel like having a Martha-tini with Stewart herself in her own home.

Along with her namesake Martha-tini, Martha Stewart has a soft spot for another martini variation: the French Martini. She's shared that this rendition is a reader favorite, ranking above classic martinis and margaritas as her most-popular cocktail recipe. High praise, indeed. But it's not just a favorite of her readers; Stewart also enjoys this fruity riff on the timeless martini, calling it a "classic" on her website.

Despite its name, the French martini was invented stateside at a New York City bar in the 1980s. For her recipe, Stewart calls for vodka, pineapple juice, and Chambord, which is a black raspberry liqueur hailing from France. With the mix of raspberry and pineapple, this fruit-forward twist on the martini may be more appealing for those who prefer sweet over savory cocktails. It's also easy to make: measure out the ingredients per Stewart's instructions, shake in an ice-filled cocktail mixer, strain into a glass, and garnish with a lemon twist.