There's Just One Small Difference Between Sex On The Beach And Woo Woo Cocktails

Having multiple cocktails in your bartending repertoire often comes in handy, and in some cases, a simple substitution can give you a completely different drink. This essentially gives you the benefit of being able to make two cocktails by learning just one. Sex on the beach, the classic cocktail, is made with vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice, and cranberry juice. Simply take the orange juice away and you have woo woo — a sweet cocktail whose popularity at parties is apparent from its name.

Despite their largely overlapping ingredient lists, a sex on the beach and a woo woo are quite different in appearance and flavor. The former gets a slightly orange hue and tartness from the orange juice, while the latter is deep red and unabashedly sweet. Both can be served on ice in a highball glass, strained into a coupe glass, or even drunk as shots.

Much of this versatility comes from vodka — the cocktails' base alcohol. It's always good to have a bottle on hand, whether you're making colored vodka for holiday-themed cocktails or even using vodka to make extra crispy fried shrimp. Most of the time, you'll have ingredients at home to throw together a vodka cocktail. And if you're missing a certain ingredient (like orange juice), you can simply use a substitute or leave it out and you'll have a different cocktail!

Sex on the beach has been popular for a long time and is an officially recognized cocktail by the International Bartenders Association (IBA). The drink originated in Florida in the 1980s as a way to popularize peach schnapps, and the name seemingly stems from the two things that people coming to Florida for spring break looked for.

The woo woo, while not an official IBA cocktail, also seems to have originated during the '80s in the U.S. and gets its name from celebratory whoops from the bartender and likely also from those drinking the cocktail. Like sex on the beach, the woo woo also helped popularize the use of peach schnapps in cocktails and continues to be a staple on most bar menus.

The proportions used in a sex on the beach are generally one part peach schnapps, and two parts each of vodka, orange juice, and cranberry juice. A woo woo, meanwhile, is made from one part peach schnapps, two parts vodka, and four parts cranberry juice. A dash of lemon juice is also often added to balance the sweetness. If vodka isn't your thing, try our tropical sex on the beach that opts for coconut rum instead. Or swap the O.J. in that drink for pineapple juice and you've got yourself a Malibu zinger. The possibilities are almost endless.