Few people can say that a cocktail was created in their honour and David Bowie is not one of them. In his case, at least 19 drinks have been dedicated to him—so many were counted by Amanda Schuster in a 2019 article for the Alcohol Professor website. A couple more can easily be added to that list. Many are Martini variations, one of the White Duke’s preferred drinks. The garnish is often a lightning-shaped lemon twist, a clear reference to the cover of the album Aladdin Sane (1973).
David Bowie, a Timeless Legacy of a Drink Lover
On 10 January 2026, ten years will have passed since the death of David Bowie. In the meantime, the world has changed, in some areas quite radically. The artistic and cultural legacy of Bowie, however, remains very much alive. The amount of writing devoted to David Bowie makes it easy to identify the drinks he favoured. There were essentially two: Vodka Tonic and Martini.
Vodka Tonic
The Vodka Tonic is a variation of the Gin & Tonic that gained ground around the mid-twentieth century, when vodka came to global prominence and became a staple in the recipes of most bars. As the name suggests, it is a highball made by topping the spirit with tonic water and garnishing with a slice of lemon or lime. Ratios are flexible: some prefer a stronger drink, others a lighter one. How David Bowie liked it remains unknown.
Martini
The Martini is one of the great classics of mixology. Its origins are debated, but they date back to the second half of the nineteenth century, or at the latest the years around the turn of the twentieth. As with the Vodka Tonic, only two ingredients are required: gin and dry vermouth, stirred in a mixing glass and then strained into a coupe, garnished with an olive or a lemon twist—or both.
2 Cocktails Inspired by David Bowie
At least twenty cocktails have been created to pay tribute to David Bowie. Two stand out in particular.
Ziggy Stardust takes its name from the 1972 song and from the stage persona introduced by Bowie the year before. The drink bears the signature of Gary Regan, a key figure of the cocktail renaissance. His version combined gin, triple sec and an herbal liqueur, prepared with a stir-and-strain technique. Regan specified that it should be served in a plastic cup, referencing a line by Bowie from a Rolling Stone interview: “I wasn’t at all surprised Ziggy Stardust made my career. I packaged a totally credible plastic rock star.”
In 1971, the album Hunky Dory was released. The fourth track on the LP is titled Life on Mars?, and bartender Frederic Yarm drew inspiration from it to create the cocktail Life on Mars—without the question mark. For a couple of years it appeared on the drink list of the now-closed Loyal Nine in Boston, with part of the proceeds supporting cancer research, the disease that claimed the life of David Bowie. The recipe calls for gin, aromatised wine, bitters, pear liqueur and spices, stirred in a mixing glass filled with ice, strained into a coupe and garnished with a lightning-shaped lemon twist or a star-shaped orange peel.
A Drink List Dedicated to David Bowie
Why dedicate just one cocktail to the White Duke when an entire drink list can serve as a tribute? That was the idea behind the project by Nicole Kanev and Wesley Straton of BKW in New York City. The year was 2018, and at the time the Brooklyn Museum was hosting an exhibition devoted to David Bowie. The collaboration between the museum and the bar resulted in seven cocktails by Kanev and Straton, available only for the duration of the exhibition.
Three of them remain particularly memorable. First, Ziggy Stardust—sharing the name of the Gary Regan drink, but with a different recipe: sparkling wine, gin, clarified lemon juice, thyme syrup and an orange jelly star as garnish. Then Aladdin Sane, made with rye whiskey, Aperol, amaro, lemon juice and egg white, finished with a lightning-shaped lemon twist. Finally, Major Tom, built on mezcal infused with citrus wood charcoal, two different Scotch-based liqueurs, grapefruit juice and honey.
David Bowie, a Significant Anniversary
Ten years after his passing, David Bowie continues to exert an influence that extends beyond music and into the world of cocktails. The drinks dedicated to him reflect a clearly defined personal taste, a preference for essential structures and an imagery capable of translating into tangible gestures. From the Vodka Tonic to the Martini, and on to drink lists conceived as time-bound projects, the connection remains intact: Bowie stands as a cultural reference whose language finds a natural extension in the cocktail—open, evolving and still relevant.
