Sex On The Beach

A Sex on the Beach is a fruity vodka cocktail made with peach schnapps, orange juice and cranberry juice, served in a highball glass filled with ice. Those layers of pink, orange and red are impossible to ignore – just like the name.

A Sex on the Beach cocktail is sweet, fruity and unapologetically tropical – peach and orange up front, cranberry bringing a sharp edge that stops it tipping into sweetness, with vodka running quietly underneath it all.

As Rico puts it, “It’s super fresh. Fresh orange juice with the perfect amount of peach schnapps in there. This is a fantastic drink.”

If you’ve ever asked a bartender for something sweet and fruity, this is probably exactly what you had in mind.

As the story goes, the Sex on the Beach cocktail originated in the 1980s when a Florida bartender sought to boost sales of peach schnapps. He named the cocktail after the two primary attractions he believed lured people to Florida to celebrate: “sex” and the “beach.”

Following its peak popularity in the 1980s and 1990s – mainly among younger audiences looking for a sweet and fruity cocktail – this cocktail gradually lost favor as the craft cocktail movement gained momentum in the early 2000s.

Tip: Make a pitcher, it’ll last longer! This is a perfect cocktail to mix up in a big jug when you’ve got friends coming over. Make sure to switch over to Parts in the recipe above to get the ratios right.

The Sex on the Beach has four ingredients, and a couple of them need a little more attention than you’d think.

• Use store-bought cranberry juice
  Cranberries are naturally bitter, so unless you’re blending them with sugar yourself, reach for sweetened cranberry juice from the store.

  When a cocktail calls for cranberry juice, it typically means cranberry juice mix – a blend of cranberry juice, added sugars and other fruit juices that’s less tart and better balanced. This is one of those rare exceptions to the fresh ingredient rule.

• Make your own orange juice
  Cranberry aside, fresh is always best, and nowhere more so than with orange juice. Use a citrus press, juicer or whatever you have at home.

  As Rico says, “you don’t even understand how much using fresh citrus juice in your cocktails really elevates them to world class cocktail bar level standards.” He’s not wrong.

• Shaken or built – it’s your call
  As Rico shows in the video, a Sex on the Beach can be made two ways. Shake it with ice for a colder, more integrated drink where the flavors are fully combined. Or build it directly in the glass over ice and let the layers of cranberry, orange and peach settle naturally, which also happens to look considerably better. Both work. It just depends on what you’re going for.

• Peach on the Beach
  This variation contains the same ingredients as a Sex on the Beach, but amps up the flavor of peach by using peach-flavored vodka. Because life is peachy. Check out our Peach on the Beach recipe.
• Sex on the Beach Mocktail
  Want to create an alcohol-free Sex on the Beach? It’s easy. By leaving out the Vodka and replacing the peach schnapps with peach nectar (or peach juice but we prefer the thickness of nectar), you can create a Sex on the Beach mocktail, often called Cuddles on the Beach or Safe Sex on the Beach.
• Make a “built” Sex on the Beach cocktail
  Some people prefer “building” their Sex on the Beach cocktail instead of shaking it. Try both and see which you prefer. Here’s how to make a Sex on the Beach cocktail using the built method:
  1. Fill a highball glass with ice cubes.
  2. Use a jigger to measure and pour Absolut Vodka into the glass.
  3. Measure and add peach schnapps.
  4. Measure and add cranberry juice.
  5. Top up carefully with fresh pressed orange juice, making sure the layers stay separated.
  6. Garnish with a lime wheel and a cherry.

This is a drink that lives and dies by how it looks. Here’s how to get it right.

• Use a highball glass
  The tall, narrow shape is made for this drink – it shows off those layers of cranberry red and orange and gives the ice plenty of room. Choose the right glass and half the work is already done.
• Let the layers settle, then stir
  If you’ve built the drink properly, the orange juice will sit on top of the cranberry, creating that signature gradient. Give it a stir with a bar spoon and watch those colors blend into a deep peach.
• Garnish with a lime wheel and a cherry
  The classic finish. The lime wheel adds a citrus edge and the cherry is a nod to the drink’s unapologetically 80s roots – embrace it.