Wherever it's 5 o'clock, someone is pouring something. Here are the signature drinks of happy hour around the globe — each with its story and a simple recipe to make it yourself.
Follow the wave of 5 o'clock around the world and you'll notice every culture reaches for something different when the workday ends. A spritz on an Italian terrace, a whisky highball in a Tokyo izakaya, an ice-cold gin and tonic in a Spanish plaza. Here's what's in the glass, city by city, as happy hour rolls around the planet.
The sunset in a glass. Bittersweet, low-proof and impossibly easy to drink, the Spritz is the beating heart of Italian aperitivo — the pre-dinner ritual that makes the golden hour glow a little brighter.
Deceptively simple and endlessly refreshing, the haibōru is the first drink of countless after-work gatherings in Japan — crisp, fizzy, and built for the first sip of freedom after a long day.
The Spanish took the humble G&T and turned it into theatre — served in a giant balloon glass, packed with ice and botanicals. Nowhere is the after-work gin-tonic taken more seriously.
The taste of an English summer evening. Fruity, herbaceous and low in alcohol, Pimm's is the drink of garden parties, cricket matches, and the after-work crowd spilling onto the pavement.
The original cocktail, and still the benchmark. Spirit-forward and timeless, it's the drink of the American cocktail hour — the one you order when you mean it.
The king of tiki. Rum, lime and almond-sweet orgeat, it's the drink for toes-in-the-sand sunsets out where the Pacific swallows the last light of the day.
Bright, tart and salty, the Margarita is the world's most-ordered tequila cocktail — and the unofficial anthem of "it's five o'clock somewhere" everywhere.
Brazil's national cocktail. Just three ingredients, muddled together into something that tastes exactly like a warm evening — the sound of the day winding down.
The anise-scented soul of the southern French apéro. Poured over ice and topped with water until it turns cloudy, it's the unhurried drink of Provence at dusk.
Mint, lime, rum and fizz — the Mojito is Havana in a glass, the perfect antidote to a hot afternoon sliding into a warm night.
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See where it's 5 PM → The world tourPlease enjoy responsibly, and only if you're of legal drinking age where you are. Recipes are classic proportions — adjust to taste.