Cocktails are mixed drinks where a bartender pours at least two liquids or other ingredients into a glass and either shakes, stirs or does nothing to it and serves it to someone. They could also drink it themselves. It is difficult to determine the number of cocktails there are because so many combinations of different liquors with different ingredients in them exist. Therefore, it would have to be calculated that there are thousands of them.
Some of the liquor that is used in cocktails include brandy, run, sake, wines, whiskey, tequila and absinthe. There are many more, but these are the main ones. Usually, a bar will have a list of cocktails that a person can order because it is almost impossible to know every single type of cocktail and how to make it.