Tales Spirited Awards 2026: Top 10 Best International Cocktail Bars

Ranked #21 on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2024 and #47 in Top 500 Bars for 2025, Caretaker's Cottage occupies a converted 19th-century caretaker's residence on Little Lonsdale Street. The bar's reputation rests on two anchors: a freezer-cold signature martini made with custom-commissioned gin, and what many consider Australia's definitive boilermaker pairing. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 4pm.

Bar Mauro at Tabasco 149 in Roma Norte is one of Mexico City's most decorated cocktail bars, ranked #14 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2025 and #54 globally. With a 4.8 Google rating across 220 reviews, it sits in a peer set that has reshaped what serious drinking looks like in CDMX, combining precise technique with the neighbourhood's low-key, walkable character.

Ranked #18 on Top 500 Bars and #39 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2024, Bar Nouveau brings the Art Nouveau movement to life across two floors at 5 Rue des Haudriettes in the Marais. A six-cocktail menu split between pre-industrial and modern techniques mirrors the bar's two-level design philosophy. No reservations are taken, so arriving at the 3pm opening is the practical strategy for securing a seat.

Ranked #2 in Asia and #9 globally by World's 50 Best Bars in 2024, Zest operates from a minimalist ground-floor space in Gangnam's Dosan-daero corridor, where a zero-waste cocktail programme draws on contract-farmed Korean ingredients, in-house urban beehives, and micro-distillery spirits. Co-founder Dohyung 'Demie' Kim won the Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award 2024. Weekday hours run from 18:30, with weekend service beginning at 15:00.

Bar Us occupies a discreet first-floor space on Sukhumvit Soi 26, operating as a 'drinking room' where the menu follows a tasting structure — starters, mains, and afters, all built around liquid versions of Thai cuisine. Named in Tatler's Best Bars Asia-Pacific 2025 with the Best Innovation award, and ranked No. 4 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025, it is one of Bangkok's most recognised bars by international trade standards.

Twelve years into its run on Cambridge Heath Road, Satan's Whiskers has settled into something East London rarely produces: a cocktail bar with no concept beyond the cocktails themselves. Ranked #22 in the Top 500 Bars (2025) and #29 in the World's 50 Best Bars (2024), it draws on a 900-strong list of classics and a live-to-order approach that keeps the drinks sharp and personal.

El Gallo Altanero has ranked on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2022, reaching #48 globally in 2024 and placing eighth in North America in 2025. Located in Guadalajara's Colonia Americana, it represents the leading edge of Mexico's agave-driven cocktail movement and draws serious bar travellers well beyond the city's own circuit.

<strong>Handshake Speakeasy</strong> sits at the technical end of <strong>Mexico City</strong>’s cocktail culture, where hotel-bar polish, agave fluency, and laboratory-level preparation now share the same glass. Its 2024 No.1 ranking in The World’s 50 <strong>Best Bars</strong>, repeated <strong>North America</strong> recognition, and compact 32-guest main room make it a defining reference point for the <strong>Juárez bar</strong> circuit.

Behind a discreet Queen Street entrance, Panda & Sons has spent twelve years reshaping Edinburgh's cocktail culture through genuine technical ambition. Ranked #30 in the World's 50 Best Bars (2024) and #1 in the Top 500 Bars (2025), it operates at the intersection of sub-zero science and a genuinely welcoming atmosphere — the kind of bar where a freeze-distilled Coconut Daiquiri sits comfortably alongside a simple pint.

Ranked #17 in Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 and a three-time holder of the #1 Asia title, Coa occupies a lower-ground space on Shin Hing Street in Central with a forty-page agave spirits list and a cocktail programme that rotates a new drink every week. The food menu, developed with award-winning Mexican restaurant Chicano, grounds the experience in the culinary culture that produced the spirits on the shelf.