Sex on the Beach
Sex on the Beach is 40ml vodka, 20ml peach schnapps, 40ml fresh orange juice and 40ml cranberry juice, built over ice in a highball and garnished with half an orange slice. It works out at about 2.0 UK units, made to the measures on the IBA’s Contemporary Classics list. It belongs to the peach schnapps boom of the mid-1980s. The story usually told puts it in a Florida bar during spring break in 1987, at a promotion for the new schnapps; it is repeated everywhere and documented nowhere. Equal orange and cranberry is what holds it together. Orange alone with peach schnapps is soft and sweet, cranberry alone is thin and sharp, and between them the drink stays upright.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Orange slice
Ingredients
40ml
Clean, unflavoured vodka at 40% ABV, for strength and a little dryness; a flavoured one only brings more sugar.
20ml
Clear peach liqueur, usually around 20% ABV, and the main source of sugar here, so measure it; free-poured, it takes over.
40ml
Juiced that day for body and the sweet side of the fruit; carton juice makes the drink taste of concentrate.
40ml
A carton of cranberry juice drink is fine. It brings the acid, the colour and the dryness that stop the orange and peach running sweet.
Instructions
Squeeze the orange juice the same day, ideally just before you build.
Fill a highball glass with cubed ice.
Add the vodka, peach schnapps and orange juice, and stir once.
Pour the cranberry juice slowly over the back of a bar spoon so it drifts down through the orange.
Garnish with half an orange slice.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification, with the cranberry poured last for the gradient; method ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Squeeze the orange. Carton orange juice is where most of the cloying sweetness people remember comes from, and fresh juice is the single change that improves the drink most. Cranberry from a carton is fine. Hold the schnapps at 20ml. If the drink tastes flat, it wants more cranberry or a squeeze of lime, not more schnapps. For the sunset look, build the vodka, schnapps and orange first and pour the cranberry last over the back of a bar spoon so it drifts down through the orange. The IBA builds everything at once over ice, and the drink tastes the same either way.
Behind the Sex on the Beach
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Sex on the Beach came out of the peach schnapps boom of the mid-1980s, along with the Woo Woo and the Fuzzy Navel.
The story usually told is specific: a Florida bar, spring break 1987, and a bartender running a promotion for a newly launched peach schnapps who named the drink after what his customers had come for. No contemporary record of it has surfaced, so the details are best treated as tradition rather than record.
The Juice Balance
Equal measures of orange and cranberry do the balancing. Orange with peach schnapps is soft and sweet; cranberry is thin and sharp; together each covers the other’s weakness.
At 40ml each against 20ml of schnapps, the drink is shorter and drier than many bar versions. A flat-tasting glass wants cranberry or a squeeze of lime, never more schnapps.
The Schnapps Family
Sex on the Beach and the Woo Woo compared
Sex on the Beach (IBA)
- Spec
- 40ml vodka, 20ml peach schnapps, 40ml fresh orange, 40ml cranberry
- Strength
- About 2.0 UK units
Woo Woo
- Spec
- 40ml vodka, 20ml peach schnapps, 90ml cranberry
- Strength
- About 2.0 UK units
| Drink | Spec | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Sex on the Beach (IBA) | 40ml vodka, 20ml peach schnapps, 40ml fresh orange, 40ml cranberry | About 2.0 UK units |
| Woo Woo | 40ml vodka, 20ml peach schnapps, 90ml cranberry | About 2.0 UK units |
Without the orange, the drink becomes a Woo Woo, sharper and simpler, with all of its length in cranberry.
Go the other way, dropping the vodka and the cranberry, and what is left is a Fuzzy Navel: peach schnapps lengthened with orange juice. All three live or die on whether the orange was squeezed.
The Reputation
Nothing in the IBA spec explains the reputation. The way it was often poured does: carton orange, sweetened cranberry, a heavy free pour of schnapps and the cheapest vodka, in a plastic glass.
Every one of those choices pushes it sweeter. Made to the measures with fresh orange, it is a tart, fruity highball.
How to Serve It
Tall, over plenty of ice, with half an orange slice, and outdoors if the weather allows.
For a crowd, mix the vodka, schnapps and orange by the jug and chill it, then pour each glass over ice and add the cranberry to order. Each drink keeps its gradient.
Make it at home
The Spirit
VodkaVodka is spirit made from a farmed crop, usually grain or potatoes, distilled and refined so that the taste of that crop is deliberately reduced. Its legal minimum is 37.5% ABV, most bottles are 40%, and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Sex on the Beach?
What is the difference from a Woo Woo?
Can I make it less sweet?
Why pour the cranberry last?
How strong is Sex on the Beach?
Is there an alcohol-free version?
Is Sex on the Beach an IBA cocktail?
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026