Cocktail · Medium strength
Tequila Sunrise
Tequila, orange juice, grenadine — a sunrise you can drink at sunset.
How to order it: Pour the grenadine last and let it sink. Don't stir; the gradient is the point.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- 2 oz blanco tequila
- 4 oz orange juice
- ½ oz grenadine, poured last
- Build over ice; don't stir
- Orange slice, cherry
The story
There are two of them. The original, from the 1930s-40s American Southwest border-resort circuit, mixed tequila with crème de cassis, lime, and soda. The one the world knows — tequila, orange juice, grenadine sinking into dawn — was built in the early 1970s at the Trident in Sausalito by bartenders Bobby Lozoff and Billy Rice, and got its rocket boost when the Rolling Stones drank them at their 1972 tour kickoff party, carrying the order across America. The Eagles' 1973 song finished the job. Mockery followed; the drink never noticed. It endures because it is the rare cocktail engineered for the eye first — and nostalgia drinks in color.
Adjacent pours