Woo Woo
A Woo Woo is 40ml of vodka, 20ml of peach schnapps and 90ml of cranberry juice, built over ice in a highball and stirred once, finished with the juice of a lime wedge and the wedge itself. About 2.0 UK units. The Oxford Companion says it became popular in the mid-1980s, like the Fuzzy Navel and Sex on the Beach, after peach schnapps was launched in the American market, and describes the standard Sex on the Beach as a Woo Woo with orange juice. The Woo Woo is the plainest of the family: no orange juice, only peach sweetness against the sharpness of cranberry. Two parts vodka to one of schnapps keeps the peach in its place, and the cranberry does the balancing. A free hand with the schnapps is how most Woo Woos go wrong. Everything should be cold before it goes in, because there is no shake to chill it.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Lime wedge
Ingredients
40ml
A plain vodka at 40% ABV. It brings the strength and stops the schnapps tasting like cordial. Measure it: the ratio is all the structure there is.
20ml
Clear peach liqueur, usually around 20% ABV, and nearly all the sugar in the glass. Hold it at 20ml.
90ml
A carton of cranberry juice drink, cold from the fridge. It is sweetened already, which the recipe allows for; in our view pure unsweetened cranberry makes the drink sour and harsh.
Instructions
Fill a highball glass with ice.
Add the vodka and peach schnapps.
Top with cold cranberry juice and stir once.
Squeeze the lime wedge over the top and drop it in.
Expert Tip
Measure the schnapps. Peach schnapps is sweet and one-note, and past 20ml it takes over; the cranberry cannot pull it back. Chill everything first. There is no shaker here, so the fridge does the cooling. Cranberry from a warm carton makes a flat, syrupy glass however good the ratio. Keep the lime. A squeeze over the top dries the finish and cuts the peach, and it costs nothing.
Behind the Woo Woo
Flavour Profile
The Origin
The Oxford Companion says the Woo Woo became popular in the mid-1980s, like the Fuzzy Navel and Sex on the Beach, after peach schnapps was launched in the American market by companies such as DeKuyper and National Distillers. It says the precise origin is unclear, though some evidence points to the singles bars of New York City’s Upper East Side.
The Lean Build
Two parts vodka to one of schnapps, with 90ml of cranberry, is the balanced version. The cranberry brings acid and colour; the lime squeeze dries the finish.
The Family Tree
Three drinks came from the same moment, each one ingredient from the next. Add orange juice to a Woo Woo and you have Sex on the Beach. Take the vodka out of that and you are close to a Fuzzy Navel, peach schnapps and orange juice.
The Woo Woo is the sharpest of the three. It keeps the edge of cranberry that Sex on the Beach softens with orange, and the vodka backbone the Fuzzy Navel lacks.
One Glass or a Jug
A Woo Woo for one and for six
Vodka
- One glass
- 40ml
- A jug for six
- 240ml
Peach schnapps
- One glass
- 20ml
- A jug for six
- 120ml
Cranberry juice
- One glass
- 90ml
- A jug for six
- 540ml
Lime
- One glass
- One wedge
- A jug for six
- One wedge per glass
UK units
- One glass
- About 2.0
- A jug for six
- About 12.0 in the jug
| Ingredient | One glass | A jug for six |
|---|---|---|
| Vodka | 40ml | 240ml |
| Peach schnapps | 20ml | 120ml |
| Cranberry juice | 90ml | 540ml |
| Lime | One wedge | One wedge per glass |
| UK units | About 2.0 | About 12.0 in the jug |
The Cranberry Question
Cranberry is the only balance in the glass. Peach schnapps is mostly sugar with a flavour attached, and without an acid under it the drink is cloying within two sips.
This is a drink where the carton is right. Cranberry juice drink is sweetened, and the recipe expects that; pure cranberry turns it austere. What matters is that the carton is cold and recently opened; in our experience it goes flat as it sits.
How to Serve It
Cold and tall, over plenty of ice, with the lime squeezed in. It is a party drink and makes no claim to be anything else.
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. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 its minimum is 37.5% ABV and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin; our recipes count it at 40%. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Woo Woo?
Where does the name come from?
Woo Woo or Sex on the Beach?
How strong is a Woo Woo?
Should I use pure cranberry juice?
How do I make a jug of Woo Woos?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (David Mahoney), “Woo Woo” (secondary source: popular in the mid-1980s after the launch of peach schnapps in the American market (DeKuyper, National Distillers); precise origin unclear, evidence points to New York’s Upper East Side singles bars; vodka, cranberry juice and peach schnapps).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Rosie Schaap), “Sex on the Beach” (secondary source: the standard recipe is a Woo Woo with orange juice).
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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. Its history is disputed. VinePair reports the story usually told: a Fort Lauderdale bar in 1987, at a distributor’s contest to sell a new peach schnapps. Mental Floss calls that story probably untrue and finds a recipe in a 1982 American Bartenders School book. 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.
Cosmopolitan
A Cosmopolitan is 40ml of citrus vodka, 15ml of Cointreau, 15ml of fresh lime juice and 30ml of cranberry juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with an orange twist. About 2.2 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. The Oxford Companion says the Cosmopolitan has a confused and contested history, that most claims lack supporting evidence, and that the recipe served worldwide was most likely formulated in 1988 by Toby Cecchini at the Odeon in New York, with Absolut Citron, Cointreau, fresh lime and cranberry, after a cruder San Francisco drink of the same name that the San Francisco Chronicle called “a Kamikaze with cranberry juice” in 1987. Cecchini told Punch the same year, 1988. Under the colour it is a sour: vodka, orange liqueur and lime, with cranberry for tint and a little extra acid. Made with fresh lime and served very cold, it is tart and dry, a long way from the sweet pink drink of its reputation.
Moscow Mule
A Moscow Mule is 45ml of vodka and 10ml of fresh lime juice over ice in a copper mug, topped with 120ml of cold ginger beer and stirred once, with a lime wedge. Those are the IBA’s measures. About 1.8 UK units, all from the vodka. It is usually dated to 1941 and credited to John G. Martin of Heublein, which had bought Smirnoff and was left with a surplus of vodka, and Jack Morgan of the Cock ’n’ Bull in Los Angeles, who was pushing his own ginger beer, VinePair reports. The Oxford Companion gives other accounts: that Morgan and Martin devised it in New York, or that the Cock ’n’ Bull’s head bartender, Wes Price, did. The ginger beer decides the drink. At 120ml it is two thirds of the glass, so a soft, sugary one gives a soft, sugary Mule. Use the fieriest you can find, and keep the lime short: good ginger beer brings its own bite.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026