The True-ish Origins of Sex on the Beach

Few cocktails wear their intentions on their sleeve quite like Sex on the Beach. Bright, fruity and impossible to ignore, it’s become a fixture on bar menus worldwide. Yet behind the cheeky name lies a muddled origin story with a dash of 1980s marketing bravado.

Most accounts trace the drink to Florida in the mid-1980s, when peach schnapps was enjoying a moment of sudden popularity in the United States. Have you tried peach schnapps? By itself, don’t bother. But cocktail lore credits a Florida bartender with inventing the drink during a peach schnapps sales promotion.

Asked to come up with something catchy to push the product, he reportedly named the cocktail after the two things spring-break tourists were most interested in. Whether this tale was wonderfully convenient or wonderfully true remains debated, but it seriously helped the drink’s climb up the resort-bar ladder.

The classic recipe combines vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice and cranberry juice. So yes, it’s super sweet, but it’s a colourful, sweet-tart mix that offers friendliness rather than complexity. Its red, orange and soft peach tones made it an ideal “holiday photo” drink long before Instagram arrived, and once social media was a thing, it became even more popular.

It’s particularly fashionable in high-volume bars, beach destinations and venues where guests want something easy and festive. While it’s far from the darling of craft-cocktail purists, it’s still one of the most requested mixed drinks. That’s largely because the name is easy to remember, and it doesn’t taste like alcohol, so it’s easy to enjoy, even for those who rarely drink cocktails. As long as you like your drinks sweet. Super sweet. American-level sweet.

In some American states, some resort bars once softened the cocktail’s name on printed menus, particularly in family-oriented venues, so Fun on the Beach made its debut. But love it, laugh at it, or simply enjoy it on a sultry afternoon, Sex on the Beach remains one of the modern era’s most enduringly cheerful cocktails - a little brash, a little silly and somehow always in season.

This cocktail, and many others, features in my book Mixology – A Brief History. If you know a cocktail lover, or a history lover, it’s a great Christmas stocking filler. In fact, I happen to know that some of you are getting this book as a Secret Santa gift – and if you send me a photo with you holding the book, I’ll send you a Secret New Year’s gift in return.

We’ll be at Peregian Beach Market on Sunday, 7 December 2025, where this book – and all my others – will be available. Or you can go to my website

(www.frenchandvintage.biz)

if you can’t come to the market in person.

At the last Peregian market, a young couple bought the book plus a framed A3 image of Sex on the Beach “for Nana”. Apparently, at a recent party, Nana got a little tipsy and talked a lot about how much she enjoyed sex on the beach in her youth. And she wasn’t talking about the cocktail. So they thought this would be the perfect Christmas gift for her because it would make her laugh a lot. I need to meet Nana! Apparently, these days she’s a veritable angel. But she wasn’t always. Go Nana!