The Most Mind-Blowing Cocktails Tasting Table Staff Have Ever Ordered

While it's fully possible to make an amazing drink at home, there's just something special about going to a nice bar and ordering an over-the-top cocktail you would never in a million years think up on your own. And it makes sense, bartenders are trained professionals who spend hours upon hours honing their craft — even the most devoted at-home mixologist can't compete. And that's before you start to consider all the unique ingredients these bars either create themselves or source from far and wide for their concoctions. (While we love seeking out high-quality, specialty ingredients, there is nothing worse than splurging on that "have-to-have-it" bottle for a single cocktail, only to realize you really don't like it — or worse, love it and then forget about it, discovering during your next big clean the ingredient spoiled before you could get your money's worth.)

Of course, the best cocktails don't have to be fancy, and sometimes that unassuming spot you popped into on a whim serves up the best martini you've had in your entire life. Or maybe it's not even the cocktail, per se, but the whole experience that really makes a drink stand out in your mind.

From Venice to New York, Long Beach to Mexico City, and everywhere in between, Tasting Table staff shared the most mind-blowing cocktails they've ever had the pleasure to drink.

In always-humid Bangkok, a refreshing Thai Iced Tea hits the spot. While sipping the ubiquitous drink, I'd often wonder if someone in the city produced a boozy interpretation. Finally, on a night out in the happening Sukhumvit neighborhood, my craving was quelled.

Meet the Born & Raised cocktail, crafted by playful bar Sugar Ray: You've Just Been Poisoned. Reinterpretation doesn't aptly summarize the drink; it's more of a wild reimagination of the street-side classic. The cocktail builds off a Thai tea-infused gin, which the team concocts through a clarified milk punch — a technique they've nailed down in much of the menu. Atop the gin base, the drink is spritzed up with mandarin and lime, before a touch of pandan syrup rounds out the sweetness. Despite only a few components, the result is beguiling: The drink doesn't sip like other strong punches, but rather bright flavors hit in delineated waves. Right when I thought I'd tasted every note, another hint of spice would appear. When I asked the friendly bartender how it was done, he grinned, "It's all in the infusion," then cheekily winked. Late-night sensory playfulness at its best.

By rights, I should be writing about Negronis right now. That's the reigning genus at Dante, where aperitifs made the bar's reputation as a brilliant, fresh, and light place to start your Greenwich Village adventure. And it's true that I can't ever set my mind firm on whether Dante or the Mermaid Oyster Bar best represents the promise of a summer evening in New York City, just starting to cool after work: bars that have style without pretension, character without intrusion. But this isn't a summer story.

I took a friend to Dante on a rainy autumn afternoon, stomachs full of a rich RH lunch, and discovered something firmly in the realm of digestifs: the Honey Bee. A mixture of tequila, sherry, chocolate bitters, and salted honey cream, it's a quintuple-threat appetite-ender whose secret weapon is Mr. Black coffee liqueur (vanilla edition, if you please). The Australian alcohol is cold brewed to preserve coffee's volatile compounds. All I can tell you is that this drink — this wonderful, beautiful drink — was a revelation in need of a prophet, and I will proselytize its praises till my grave.

Like Dante, the Honey Bee is quietly perfect: easy to mistake its extra effort for natural grace. Sweet, salty, bitter, thick, nutty, dark — the best drink at the best bar. Good drinks vanish before you know it; great ones linger as you savor the smallest taste of them; perfect cocktails never really leave you.

There's nothing I love more than an after-dinner drink, and while I tend to choose a strong cup of coffee paired with a slice of chocolate cake, every so often I'll opt for a nice, cool cocktail — especially when bourbon is the main spirit. If you add black coffee to it, I'm all in!

While perusing the dessert menu at Rex in Redondo Beach, I came across the Coffee & Cigarettes. All I needed to see was bourbon, coffee, and orgeat and I knew I had to try it. Oh. My. God. The first sip was absolutely spectacular. It was smooth and rich, full of those delicious caramel and vanilla flavors that you tend to get from a nice bourbon, and the addition of the sweet orgeat syrup really made the nutty notes blossom.

The ingredient that pushed this cocktail from the good category into amazing was the Scotch spritz. Now, I'll be honest, I'm not a Scotch fan. As a matter of fact, it's my least favorite liquor, so I was a little apprehensive about trying this cocktail. But that spritz gives the whole drink a wonderful smoky flavor that reminded me of sipping bourbon in the woods by a campfire. It was seriously the best drink I've ever had.

There's something to being the first. It's almost unbelievable in the vast expanse of history when one breaks new ground, but it happens all the time in unexpected ways. That's what happened when bartenders Lily Wang and Joe Briglio opened the doors of Nine Bar, the first cocktail bar located in Chicago's vibrant Chinatown. The space once housed Wang's family restaurant Moon Palace, for years run by her parents. When she took it over, Moon Palace converted to a takeout/delivery counter under the moniker Moon Palace Express, with Nine Bar filling the space behind, giving it a speakeasy vibe that fits with Chicago's infamous past.

While it's hard to go wrong with any of Nine Bar's tipples, The Good Fortune called out to me from the cocktail list informed by Asian flavors and ingredients (think baijiu, Calpico, and Sichuan peppercorn). The drink is an homage to an old fashioned, spirit-forward and stirred for a silky chill. The Good Fortune combines Suntory Haku vodka, local Rhine Hall plum brandy, Japanese barley tea, Medjool date syrup, and Angostura bitters. The tea is actually infused into the cocktail using the cold brew method leading to unexpected, complex flavors akin to whiskey, while the date syrup sweetens in a pleasantly rich way that contributes to the overall mouthfeel. Vodka skeptics should reserve their judgment here, as the first sip will silence haters with a sultry depth that upends mixological norms and will leave them asking, "To what do I owe The Good Fortune?"

As much as Oliver Reed was known for his acting roles, he also earned himself a reputation for his big personality. The man could put back drinks, and evenings didn't always turn out pretty. The Donovan Bar managed to capture all of this in a glass, and admittedly, I was not prepared. To this day, I still think about the Reed Between the Lines, a cocktail made in honor of all that Reed represented.

A sucker for an expertly-made old fashioned, I placed my order after reading the drink's description. The bartender had a playful smirk as he began to assemble my request, and later I discovered the bar's description of the cocktail: feisty. That's exactly how the evening turned out.

Bartenders first fat-wash Dewar's Illegal Smooth whisky with butter, giving the drink a smooth texture that complements the sweetness of the barley wine reduction. Fresh lemon juice and Angostura bitters are added, and the drink is shaken, poured, and garnished with a single wheat stem.

I adore perfectly proportioned ice cubes, but the temperature and complexity of this drink command attention. A single sip delivers rich nuances of smoky, sweet, and salty flavors: Everything you could want in a cocktail without it being overpowering. If Reed got his hands on the drink, I'm sure he'd order a second — just as I did.