Tequila Sunrise is a tequila and orange juice highball defined by grenadine sinking through the drink to create a red-orange gradient.
Fill a highball glass with ice. Add tequila and orange juice, then slowly pour grenadine so it sinks and creates a sunrise gradient. Serve without garnish.
Serve in a highball glass over ice with the grenadine settling into a red-orange sunrise gradient. The Tequila Sunrise should look bright, clean, and vertical, with the color transition doing the visual work without extra garnish.
Pair it with brunch dishes, tacos, grilled shrimp, fruit salad, spicy snacks, or chicken fajitas. Tequila, orange juice, and grenadine work best with food that can handle sweetness, citrus, and light agave warmth.
The modern Tequila Sunrise became a recognizable 1970s classic because of its simple build and dramatic color gradient. Its identity is tied as much to the visual sunrise effect as to the tequila-orange highball structure.
Best for brunch, casual parties, poolside service, retro cocktail menus, and colorful tequila highballs. It suits moments where visual impact matters but the drink still needs to stay easy and familiar.
Tequila gives agave structure, orange juice adds sweet citrus body, and grenadine contributes red-fruit sweetness, color, and a heavier lower layer. Fresh orange juice keeps the drink brighter and less flat.
Colorful, fruity, nostalgic, sunny, and easygoing.
Use fresh orange juice for better acidity and aroma. Pour grenadine slowly so it sinks cleanly; stirring removes the sunrise effect and turns the drink into a simpler tequila-orange highball.
17%
⚠️ Alcoholic beverage: not suitable for minors, pregnant individuals, or designated drivers. Please enjoy responsibly.
Start from the ingredient that shapes this recipe before moving into broader style, method or glassware lists.
Same ingredient inside the Tropical style.
Same ingredient prepared with the same method.
Same ingredient served in the same glassware family.
Follow the same category, preparation method or glassware logic to compare drinks that behave like Tequila Sunrise in a specific way.
Cocktails in the Tropical category prepared with the built in glass method.
Cocktails that combine a tropical profile, the built in glass method, and service in a highball glass.
These routes use ingredient pairs that actually appear in Tequila Sunrise and group cocktails with the same pairing logic.
Next paths
Choose the next route by style, method, glass or ingredient.
Browse all recipes A–Z
See more from this style
Explore cocktails built the same way
Find serves in this glass
Explore drinks where Tequila shapes the recipe.
Learn the spirits, liqueurs, and mixers in our index
