The Drinks That Raised Us: Iconic TV Cocktails You Need to Make Tonight
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There's a specific kind of nostalgia that hits different when you're rewatching your favorite show with a drink in hand.
Not just any drink though. Their drink.
The one that made adulthood look incredibly glamorous when you were 14 and absolutely not allowed to have one. The one your older sister ordered at a bar and suddenly seemed like the coolest person alive. The one that made you think, one day, I'm going to sit in a fabulous apartment and drink that.
Well. You're an adult now. Your apartment is pretty great. And we'll deliver the ingredients.
Here are the drinks that basically raised us — and how to make them tonight.
🍸 The Cosmopolitan — Sex and the City
Let's start with the one that started it all.
Carrie Bradshaw didn't just drink cosmos. She was a cosmo. Pink, sophisticated, slightly chaotic, and always somehow at the centre of the drama. When SATC premiered in 1998, the Cosmopolitan went from obscure cocktail menu item to the drink of an entire generation almost overnight.
And here's the thing — it's actually delicious. It got so popular that people started dismissing it as basic, which is deeply unfair to a genuinely great cocktail.
Order it at a bar in 2026 and you'll pay $25. Make it at home tonight for a fraction of that.
You'll need:
- Vodka
- Triple sec or Cointreau
- Cranberry juice
- Fresh lime juice
How to make it: Combine 1.5oz vodka, 0.5oz triple sec, 1oz cranberry juice and 0.5oz lime juice in a shaker with ice. Shake hard — like you just found out Mr. Big is getting married. Again. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lime twist and absolutely zero emotional stability.
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☕ The Espresso Martini — Friends
Okay, Friends didn't have an official cocktail. But stay with us.
The espresso martini is the most millennial drink alive and it deserves its Friends moment. It's coffee. It's a cocktail. It's dessert. It's the reason you're simultaneously wired and weirdly relaxed at 11pm on a Saturday. It's basically the Chandler Bing of drinks — chaotic on paper, surprisingly sophisticated in practice, and everyone secretly loves it.
It disappeared for a while in the 2000s and early 2010s, written off as a relic. Then suddenly — like a mid-season plot twist — it came roaring back. Every rooftop bar in Toronto has one on the menu right now. They're charging $22 for it.
Make it at home. Spend the $50 on literally anything else.
You'll need:
- Vodka
- Kahlúa or coffee liqueur
- A shot of espresso, cooled
- Simple syrup (optional)
How to make it: Add 1.5oz vodka, 1oz Kahlúa and one cooled espresso shot to a shaker packed with ice. Shake it aggressively — this is what creates the foam on top, don't skip this step. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Three coffee beans on top if you're feeling fancy. Could you be any more sophisticated?
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🍹 The Margarita — Every 90s House Party Ever
No single character owned the margarita. It owned all of us.
Saved by the Bell, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place — the margarita was the background drink of every poolside scene, every Tex-Mex birthday dinner, every "we're adults now and we make our own decisions" moment of the late 90s and early 2000s.
It's loud. It's fun. It doesn't apologize for anything. And unlike some cocktails that feel dated in retrospect, the margarita has aged like a fine tequila — it's genuinely timeless.
Frozen or on the rocks is a hill worth dying on. We're not getting involved.
You'll need:
- Tequila (reposado for extra smoothness)
- Triple sec
- Fresh lime juice
- Salt for the rim
How to make it: Run a lime wedge around the rim of your glass and dip it in coarse salt. Combine 2oz tequila, 1oz triple sec and 1oz fresh lime juice in a shaker with ice. Shake until your arms genuinely hurt — it matters. Strain over ice into your salted glass. Put on a playlist that includes at least one TLC song. Non-negotiable.
Get the ingredients delivered → booze-run.ca
🍷 Red Wine — Scandal
Not technically a cocktail. An entire personality.
Olivia Pope sitting in her immaculate white outfit, holding a glass of red wine roughly the size of a fish bowl, looking like she simultaneously runs the free world and is completely falling apart — that image defined an era of television.
She didn't sip. She committed. She drank red wine the way she handled political crises: with intensity, elegance, and zero explanation owed to anyone.
Red wine doesn't need a recipe. It needs a good bottle, a big glass, and something dramatic on TV. We can help with one of those things.
Shop red wine → booze-run.ca
🍺 Beer — Cheers, How I Met Your Mother, It's Always Sunny
From the literal bar in Cheers to MacLaren's Pub in How I Met Your Mother to Paddy's Pub in It's Always Sunny, the humble beer has anchored more TV friendships, breakups, bad decisions and legendary nights than any other drink in television history.
It never tried to be fancy. It just showed up, every episode, reliable as ever.
Ontario craft beer has come an incredibly long way since the flat bar draft of 90s TV. There are genuinely world-class beers being made right here in the GTA right now — and yes, we deliver all of them.
Shop beer → booze-run.ca
Make It a Full Episode Night
Pick your character. Order your drink. Start the rewatch.
Everything you need — vodka, tequila, Kahlúa, triple sec, wine, beer and more — is available through Booze Run Canada. Same day delivery across the GTA for a flat $9.99. No service fees, no surprises, no substitutions.
Just your drink, delivered to your door before the opening credits finish rolling.
Booze Run Canada — the run you don't have to make.