To celebrate the incredible drinking cultures of Europe, we dove deep into 10 different countries to get to know a little more about what’s in their glasses and how it got there in the first place. Click here to see them all.
Ah, England — it’s a small country but a great one to drink in. It’s the country of dry gin, pub ale, Wimbledon, cold Martinis, David Beckham’s right foot and the annoying yet enduring Christmas rom-com Love Actually. Every single Shakespeare play features alcohol, Churchill was a prolific boozer and Sean Connery had the entire globe ordering their Martinis shaken, not stirred. Even the teens in Harry Potter, like so many English kids before them, grew up hanging in a pub.
In a country where the local pub is a memorable after-school activity for a large part of the population, drinking culture weaves its way through all areas of culture, be it sports, politics, art or simply the art of the dinner party. Much of the sentiment surrounding England’s modern drinking scene traces back to what was happening just before America’s shut down completely during Prohibition in the 1920s. At that time, if you wanted to head out for a tipple, the lower and middle class went to their friendly local pub or inn. Meanwhile, the wealthiest Brits only imbibed what was served by the staff in their homes. If they ever drank outside private estates, it’s because they were traveling, in which case they would drink at the finest hotel bars in London.
At the beginning of the last century, drinking culture was split into two parts that marked the ends of a spectrum: loud pints at the pub used to efficiently erase the toils of the day and refined cocktails at hotel bars used to signify social status. For decades, the ends of this spectrum have been inching closer to each other with luxurious countryside inns, trendy wine bars and mixology-forward restaurants filling the gap between them.
Beer
Beer is so central to the drinking culture in England that it’s almost cliché. In the city, you’re never more than a five-minute walk from a fresh pint. Even the tiniest villages of the English countryside will have at least one pub. High-end cocktail parlors and trendy wine bars will still have at least a beer or two on offer. For many people in England, beer is the first foray into alcohol.
Martyn “Simo” Simpson, owner of Dram Bar in London, says most young people in England will start with some beers or “tinnies” in the park. Once they’re old enough (in England, that’s 18 years old), they’ll head to the local pub where beers are sold by the English pint (which is 4 ounces larger than an American pint), unless you ask for a half-pint serving.
People aren’t too picky about exactly which beer ends up in their glass, and they’ll often order using a general category like lager, ale or bitter. However, there is one beer that does get ordered by name: Guinness. Currently, the Irish stout is the best-selling beer in England, and you’ll see the nearly black pints topped with creamy tan foam at most tables. And like Guinness (4.2% ABV), the beers people order at the pub are lower in alcohol, usually less than 5%. There are the occasional imperial stouts or double IPAs, which are served in snifter glasses for smaller portions.
England is home to the traditional “real ale,” which is pulled by a hand crank rather than pushed by gas pressure. These cellar temperature (52°F/11°C), nearly flat ales have been on a consistent decline during the last decade, but most pubs will still have at least a couple of the time-honored hand cranks behind the bar.
There is a craft beer movement, with breweries around England making flavorful styles including hazy IPAs, Belgian ales, barrel-aged stouts and more. The Bermondsey Beer Mile in London is lined with around 20 craft beer tasting rooms and bottle shops, and there are these types of breweries all over England making imaginative new beers, including Loose Cannon Brewery in Abingdon, Cloudwater Brew Co. in Manchester and Magic Rock Brewing in Huddersfield.
Cider
The UK consumed more than 840 million liters of cider in 2023, making it the world’s top cider drinking nation on a per-capita basis. “Cider’s huge, and it is definitely a summer drink,” Simpson says. “You tend to get a sweeter, fizzy style of cider here in England.”
The English have loved that fizz in their cider since the 1600s. It was not the French monk Dom Perignon who discovered the method for capturing natural carbonation in the bottle to make wines like Champagne sparkle. The same year that Perignon was born, the cider makers in England were already using extra sugar and strong glass bottles to produce a pleasantly bubbly cider.
Most pubs will have a tap or two reserved for slightly sweet, not all too interesting, 4 to 5% ABV ciders (Strongbow, Aspall and Magners are some of the most common brands). But just like craft breweries, farm-driven cideries are making memorable ciders around England. “If there’s one fruit we’re known for in this country it’s apples,” Simpson says. “Citrus, not so much. But we have some incredible apple farms.”
West Country (including Devon, Dorset, Herefordshire and Somerset) is known for orchards and unique cider styles. The “scrumpy ciders” in this region are higher in alcohol and have a rustic, sharper flavor than the simple ciders at the pubs. Traditionally, scrumpy was made from apples that had fallen to the ground; now, they use rustic production methods and skip the modern techniques of filtering the cider or adding extra sweeteners.
Gin & Tonic
There are very few places in England that can’t serve you a Gin & Tonic. Gin became the drink of the working class in the 1700s because taxation made imports like French brandy too expensive, and at just a few pennies for a pint, gin packed way more buzz than a beer. Even after last call, if you have the right innkeeper who’s in the right mood, you may be able to order one final G&T, though you’ll likely be pouring the tonic for yourself.
For decades, bar goers would simply ask the bartender for a Gin & Tonic, but that’s not the case any longer. “Hendricks and Fever Tree, that’s when everything changed,” says Ryan Chetiyawardana, the multi-award-winning owner of many fantastic bars, including Lyaness in London. “Both those brands really pushed it into people’s mindset that they could explore different gins.”
Now there are dozens of regional gins throughout the country. Cotswolds Distillery makes some particularly lovely ones, as does The Lakes Distillery and The Bath Distillery. Each gin uses its own bouquet of botanicals in addition to the juniper that’s required by law to classify a spirit as gin. For Anthony Callegari, bar manager at The Punch Room at the Edition Hotel, Gin & Tonic is the first drink that comes to mind when thinking of an English tipple, especially because you find them throughout the country.
Dry Martini
In England, the gin is dry and so are the Martinis. The extremely dry version of the cocktail was created when Salvatore “The Maestro” Calabrese was confronted with a particularly finicky bar guest; travel columnist Stanton Delaplane liked his Martinis extremely dry and extremely cold. “The problem was if I mixed it on ice long enough to make it cold, it had too much water to be dry,” Calabrese says.
The solution came to him via a tiny freezer behind the bar that was just large enough for a bottle of gin and a Martini glass. The near-frozen gin was so cold that it didn’t need to be diluted with ice. He added to that just a dash of vermouth, a garnish of a fragrant lemon peel and served it to Delaplane. “At first he just took it and walked away, but then a few hours later, he comes down and tells me he’s a writer and he enjoys my Martinis so much he had to write a piece,” Calabrese says.
The writing in question was one line in Delaplane’s syndicated column: “We went over to the Dukes Hotel in St. James’ Place for lunch. (Salvatore, the barman, makes the best martini in England.)” But those 20 words were enough to cement the dry Martini as a London icon. It was such a sensation that Calabrese mixed it for Her Royal Highness herself. Calabrese left Dukes Bar in 1994, but his freezing cold, exceedingly strong Martini still enjoys near-mythic status at the bar. And you can still get a perfect, very cold Martini from Calabrese at his elaborate bar Velvet in the Corinthia Hotel.
Many bars and bartenders have added their own special touch to the Martini. At The Connaught Bar, Martinis are served via tableside cart, and guests can select their own flavor of premium bitters (I’m partial to the tonka bitters). The Spy Bar at Raffles London at The OWO (Old War Office) serves Vesper Martinis shaken, just as Bond ordered them, with an actual Aston Martin that was used in the Bond films embedded behind the bar.
And the dry Martini is a staple far beyond London City limits. Wine writer and author Hannah Crosbie says she noticed a certain affinity around the classic cocktail on many stops during her book tour. “I remember in Manchester, they have a real community there,” she says. “And there’s a sense of ‘Why not buy the £20 Martini?’ Because I’m happy now I’m here with my friends, there’s a certain excess in this togetherness.”
Truly great Martinis are in no short supply no matter the city — Below Stairs in Leeds, Hummingbird in Liverpool, The Bath Distillery Gin Bar and Fox & Chance in Birmingham are great spots, for starters.
There isn’t a specific day or occasion that brings everyone in England out for a drink. Sure, they have their traditional holiday beverages like mulled cider and Hot Toddies, and everyone will raise a toast for the New Year. There’s also London Cocktail Week, which is a buzzing event for a certain kind of crowd. But when it comes to country-wide imbibing, there’s no specific ritual.
That is, unless, you consider football season a festival of its own kind. Sports are synonymous with drinking in England — pint after pint during football season, Pimm’s Cups at Wimbledon and lager at the cricket pitch. Around big games or tournaments, there is always an uptick in bar activity.
The other time that everyone reaches for a drink is anytime the sun comes out. “The British psyche owes a lot to the weather,” Crosbie says. “The fact we have so few sunny days means that when the sun is out, that’s a reason to celebrate.” She says the drinking in parks, out on terraces or at rooftop bars starts immediately, and any outdoor place is a place that’s good enough to share a bottle of cheap rosé or a few tinnies.
“When I first came to London, I was surprised,” Calabrese says. “There was no food! In Italy, where I’m from, there is aperitivo culture. You’re always serving food to your guests. There is always something to eat alongside drinks.”
He’s right. In pubs around the country, the most common snack ordered with a drink is nothing. Of course, there are plenty of stellar restaurants that also have thoughtfully-curated drinks lists. But to be a great bar or pub, a food menu isn’t required. There are many bars that have just two options to choose from: bar nuts or crisps. Bars that have more depth to the menu serve English classics like sausage rolls and Scotch eggs.
“Speaking generally, when you go out getting really wasted, eating is an afterthought,” Crosbie says. “When you’re on the way back at three in the morning, you’re like, ‘oh my god, I haven’t eaten.’” Crosbie says England is spoiled with cuisines from all over the world to cure late-night cravings. Turkish döner kebabs are popular, as is Indian food or a stop at the ubiquitous chicken shop for fried chicken and chips. The internationally adored “Chicken Shop Date” YouTube series takes place over a typical late-night meal of nuggets and chips in British chicken shops.
At many pubs, crisps (potato chips, as we know them stateside) will be your only option for food. The shiny bags or “packets” of crisps are typically in a basket or hanging on a wall behind the bar. Simpson says that a way to know you’re in for a solid bar night is by spotting a disposable display board with crisps hanging from it. “They buy them already stocked and just pop it up behind the bar,” he says. “When the crisps are gone, they go buy a whole new board.”
Crisps flavors in England are truly wild. Typical American flavors like nacho cheese or dill pickle can’t hold a candle to some of the more pedestrian English choices like prawn cocktail or lamb and rosemary. Monster Munch is a crisp-like baked corn puff that’s beloved as an after-pub snack. The crunchy, monster-shaped bites come in flavors like roast beef, and pickled onion. Other crisp-like snacks like scampi fries and pork scratchings are more popular in bars in the North of England.
In America we call them French fries, but in England, you ought to call them chips. Smothered in any one of an assortment of classic sauces, they make for a typical drinking snack. “Here [London], you’ll have cheesy chips, and up North, you’ll find curry sauces and chips,” Simpson says. “But really, they’re a staple of the diet here, so they come with everything — fish and chips, pie and chips, döner kebab and chips.”
Your Local Pub
“The pub is the real church for the non-religious of the UK,” Chetiyawardana says. “It’s the social meeting point. It’s where everybody gathers, where you have post-work conversations, all those things.”
For many Brits, the most iconic bar is their local pub. There are more than 40,000 pubs in the UK, which is quite a lot for a country that is just 94,000 square miles (and that number is down from almost 70,000 pubs in 1980). Still, the pub is central to English life.
“Growing up, you do feel safe in your local pub,” Chetiyawardana, who grew up in Birmingham, says. “Everyone knows you, even if they know sometimes you’re underage. People keep an eye on the kids.”
There are great pubs and there are good pubs, and even though they all follow a similar template — blackboard behind the bar, taps at the front, varied seating around the room, sometimes a dart board — each one has its charm. And because they’re central hubs of the community, occasionally you’ll find yourself flopping down on a couch only to find out you’re sitting in Harold’s spot (Harold isn’t there quite yet, but he’ll be here soon).
Pubs run differently in the UK than they do in America. They’re more similar to what Americans would consider a brewery tasting room for a specific brand. On the intricate wood signs that hang outside, you’ll notice a brand name like Fuller’s, Sam Smiths, Greene King or Young’s. That pub will only pour the portfolio of that brewery, with maybe a couple of ciders and Guinness thrown on tap. The Mill Inn in Cheltenham pours only Sam Smiths, so if you ask for a bitter, you’ll get a pint of Old Brewery Bitter; The Dove in Hammersmith is a Fuller’s pub, so you’ll get a pour of Fuller’s HSB. If you’re a particular fan of one brand, you might seek out a specific pub. But for the most part, pub goers take whatever is on offer.
Every pub in England has its character, but it’s worth taking in the historic essence of the Princess Louise in London’s Holborn. It’s one of the last remaining pubs in the country that still has original snob screens. These devices, made from beautifully etched glass, obscured the middle class seated in private booths from the rabble-rousers gathered in the front area of the pub. The screens are uniquely positioned so the snobs behind them can see what’s happening in the rest of the bar, but the un-posh are not able to see beyond the screen.
The Princess Louise maintains many other Victorian-era charms like tiled murals on the walls, a solid wood bar top that wraps around the entire space and a looming grandfather clock that doesn’t exactly keep time any longer. Finally, a large selection of gravity-pulled cask ales complete the time travel effect.
There are many reasons Gordon’s is iconic. For one, it is a true wine bar — if you’ve come to Gordon’s, you’ll be drinking wine (and good wine that). There’s nowhere else in London that feels like such an instant reprieve from the bustle on the streets. The bar is housed in a cellar with stone walls and tables that sit in a space dotted with candlesticks, making it feel more like a cavern than a room. Above ground, the outdoor terrace makes for some of the best people watching in London. Flowers from the Victoria Embankment Gardens are also in view.
Gordon’s claims the title of the oldest wine bar in London, serving customers since 1890. It’s hard to ignore the history here, as the walls are filled with newspaper clippings from the length of the bar’s existence. The announcement of the Queen’s wedding is framed next to an article that mentions the wine bar, and the only wall without eclectic art or news clippings is the one behind the bar, which features a stack of Port and sherry barrels. The leather-bound menu is arranged to help you easily find what you’re craving, but if you don’t want to peruse the massive list, the friendly staff can point you in the right direction.
The American Bar at The Savoy Hotel is the longest-surviving cocktail bar in London. In fact, The Savoy is home to many famous “firsts” in London, including the oldest electric elevator in the city, dubbed “The Red Lift” because of its striking interior. Sometimes oldest translates to dated, but when it comes to the American Bar, the layers of history come together with a modern aesthetic to make the space all the more iconic. An eye-catching black grand piano sits at the entrance to the bar, and the soft tunes usually cascading from its keys are enough to put even the most haggard traveler at ease.
Lyaness won the title of World’s Best Bar at the 2022 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, and the team — led by Ryan “Mr. Lyan” Chetiyawardana — certainly put in the creative work to get there. Lyaness represents a newish cocktail philosophy spreading through England, one that combines science and hospitality to create conceptual drinks. Chetiyawardana has a background in science, and many members of his team come from industries other than hospitality. During a visit to Lyaness, you may sip a cocktail made with enzymatically fermented potato or a creamy syrup made from mallow root. But even if you don’t need to geek out on the methods used to create a drink, they all taste fantastic. Lyaness has massive windows overlooking the Thames and a serene powder blue bar room. It’s an ideal place to relax, and if you’re not up for one of the signature esoteric sippers, the bar team can happily make your favorite familiar classic cocktail.
The Swift bars are a perfect example of a middle ground between a casual pub and a fancy hotel bar. The drinks are excellent and mixed with precision, but the vibe is fun and casual. Upstairs bar goers can be seen flirting over a pint or a (very good) Irish Coffee in equal measure. Downstairs is designed for guests who want to stick around for a while, whether it’s to bop to live music performances, order from the long list of signature cocktails or see who else is gathered in the dimly-lit red leather booths.
And the creative cocktails perfectly executed by highly-trained staff are just the beginning — the long menu also includes no- and low-alcohol options and a whiskey selection that stretches to more than 200 bottles. Its approachable but stylish aesthetic is the reason this group has opened three Swift locations in just six years.
- Any excuse is a good excuse to meet up for a cheeky pint.
- If you join the sesh, you must be down for the sesh. (Switching to half pints will earn you a side eye, quitting altogether isn’t an option.)
- If the sun is out, we’ll be drinking outside. Don’t forget to bring your own tinnies.
- Buy a round, not a drink. Each person takes a turn buying a drink for the whole group. And my goodness, if everyone else has ordered a Guinness, don’t go ordering a glass of Prosecco!
- There is only one way to properly open a bag of crisps: split the top, bottom and middle seams of the bag completely so it lays flat under the crisps and everyone can easily reach in to share.
- Most any word can be used to mean “drunk,” including wasted, gutted, dressed, washed, rinsed, wellied, sloshed, loaded, pissed, angled, floored and mangled. Get as creative as you’d like!
The Pimm’s Cup
If it’s a chic English summer you want, it’s a tall sparkling Pimm’s Cup you’ll need. More than 270,000 of these fruity English concoctions are poured at Wimbledon each summer, and they make an ideal match for the favorite snack of Wimbledon spectators: strawberries and cream. Fun fact: though the Pimm’s Cup increases in price year after year, a punnet with 10 strawberries has run £2.50 since 2010.
In this quintessentially English drink, the ingredients are strictly mandatory — using a gin-based liqueur other than Pimm’s doesn’t make sense, and subbing lemon juice and soda water for a true English lemonade (which is carbonated) won’t cut it. It’s a classic for a reason.
Cucumber, sliced into rounds
Lemons, sliced into rounds
Strawberries, sliced
2 oz. Pimm’s No. 1
6 oz. English lemonade
Mint sprigs, for garnish
Whole strawberries, for garnish
Add a few pieces of fruit to a highball glass. Top with ice. Add Pimm’s No. 1 and then a few more pieces of fruit. Top with English lemonade and stir briefly with a bar spoon to mix. Garnish with mint sprigs and a whole strawberry on the rim.
Hanky Panky
The Hanky Panky is a recipe from an iconic cocktail book, created by an iconic bartender for an iconic English bar. So the fact that it only requires three easy-to-find ingredients makes it an ace for impressing your friends. Ada “Coley” Colman created the Hanky Panky while she was employed as the lead bartender at the American Bar. She believed in customizing cocktails to fit the cravings of her many famous guests, including the Prince of Wales, Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain. The story goes that she served this mixture to British actor Sir Charles Hawtrey when he needed something stiff that could wake him up a little. After a sip he blurted, “By jove! That’s a real hanky panky!” The name and the cocktail were forever commemorated by Coley’s trainee and successor Harry Craddoc when he published The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930. This is the cocktail recipe exactly the way it was printed in the original edition of the book.
2 dashes Fernet Branca
.5 oz. Italian vermouth
.5 oz. dry gin
Orange peel, for garnish
Add the liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a coupe glass. Express an orange peel over the drink and garnish.
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