On nightcaps

😙 This time - why we opt for just one more, and what to drink

🍸 Last time - martini bars for a bad day

For as long as humans have drunk alcohol, people have wanted to round the night off with just one more drink.1

As the first drink of the night is different to those that follow, so is the nightcap a drink apart. It is not simply the last drink of the night but the one you sneak in after that — perhaps on your own, but more likely with someone special, someone to whom you’re not quite ready to say goodbye or goodnight.2

A nightcap is both the drink and the occasion that surrounds it. All we have in life, ultimately, is time. So to opt for a nightcap is to place extra weight on the time spent drinking it and, retrospectively, on the time that led up to it. A nightcap means the evening was so good you can’t allow it to end just yet — or so bad you need to put it right immediately.

To enjoy one alone says you value time alone with your thoughts. To invite someone else confers status upon them. You have chosen them to take part in an intimate ritual and admitted them, if only for a short while, to your inner circle.

No surprise then that we often reach for something a bit special. The drinks we choose as nightcaps are often carry more weight, more flavour, more age, more alcohol… more oomph. They make an emphatic end point for the night’s consumption. But it doesn’t have to be this way; in fact if you value a good night’s sleep it’s worth considering a lower-ABV option.3

Your choice of nightcap — always deeply personal and dependent upon the moment, your mood, your company, what you have to hand — is no place for rules. But I do have some suggestions.

• A different drink. This isn’t a continuation of your evening but a coda that puts a cap on it. One more of whatever you’ve been having all night doesn’t count. This nightcap is its own occasion so demands its own drink — but perhaps not one that’s too different. (More on that in a moment.)

• A drink somewhere else. For the same reason, I don’t consider one last drink at the same bar to be a nightcap. That’s one for the road, which is a different proposition. No, nightcap drinking happens at least at a different bar but is best at home, just before bed (but not necessarily sleep).

• A drink you can linger over. This occasion is more about the connections made than the booze lubricating them. If you’re alone it’s about reconnecting with yourself, tuning into and perhaps regulating your emotional state. If you have company, you’re doing one of two things: cementing a friendship or opening the way for romance. These are not scenarios you want to rush.

• A drink that builds on what went before. Been drinking beer all night? Then I suggest finishing on an imperial stout or barleywine. Been on the cider? Try an apple brandy. Wine? Port or PX sherry or perhaps. Spirits? Go darker, older, browner: aged brandies, rums and whiskies. Cocktails? Go simpler, darker, stirred and spirit-forward. Plus you can never go wrong with a neat amaro.

• A drink you can prepare with minimal fuss. Much of the time you’ll simply pour a slug from one of your better bottles, perhaps over ice.4 If you opt to make a cocktail this probably means no shaking — that’s too up when you’re looking to bring things down. I’ll go further and suggest you forego any drink that requires more than two or three ingredients. This is not the time to be faffing about.

Goodnight cocktails

Note: I’ve used ‘measure’ below because really it’s the ratio of ingredients that’s important. These recipes are based on 30 ml measures. If your jigger is 25 ml don’t worry about it too much. You could start with just one dash of bitters where a recipe says 2 then taste it to see if you really want to add the second one, but that kind of attention to detail is more for earlier in the evening, don’t you think?

Stinger

First a recommendation from David Wondrich for the Stinger, which is usually shaken (bit of a faff) but makes up for it by being otherwise admirably simple. I reckon you could get away with simply making this in a rocks glass with some ice and swirling it around a bit.

• 1½ measures cognac (VSOP or XO if you have it)
• ½ measure white crème de menthe

Manhattan

Simple, classic, fits the bill, delicious - what more do you need? This is usually served up in a coupe. Stir it all together and garnish with a cherry.

• 2 measures whisky (usually rye or bourbon)
• 1 measure sweet vermouth
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Rum Old Fashioned

Any earlier in the evening and I’d be getting out the mixing glass, but for a nightcap I think just build it in the glass. Stir together over ice and garnish with some orange — twist, wheel, or wedge, depends how fancy you feel.

• 2 measures dark rum
• 1 tsp sugar syrup
• 1 or 2 dashes orange bitters

Adonis

This equal-parts mix of sherry and sweet vermouth cuts out the spirits altogether so it’s a slightly lower-ABV option than those already mentioned. It’s usually stirred and served up in a coupe. Garnish with an orange or lemon twist.

• 1½ measures dry sherry (amontillado, palo cortado or oloroso)
• 1½ measures sweet vermouth

Nightcap-erac

An alcohol-free option5 which comes courtesy of Derek Brown who published it on Substack in 2024. Coat a rocks glass with the absinthe. Stir everything else together and pour into the glass, add a large ice cube and garnish with lemon peel.

• 2¼ measures Three Spirit Nightcap

• ¼ measure rich simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water)

• 3 dashes All the Bitter New Orleans Bitters. (If you can get it; maybe Peychaud’s if you can’t.6)

• Lyre’s “Absinthe”

When did you last have a nightcap?7