A cosmopolitan, or informally a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka,

Cointreau Cointreau (, , ) is a brand of orange-flavoured triple sec liqueur produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, France. It is consumed as an apéritif and digestif, and is a component of several well-known cocktails. It was originally called Curaça ...

cranberry juice Cranberry juice is the liquid juice of the cranberry, typically manufactured to contain sugar, water, and other fruit juices. Cranberry – a fruit native to North America – is recognized for its bright red color, tart taste, and versat ...

, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice.

History

The

International Bartenders Association The International Bartenders Association (IBA), founded on 24 February 1951 in the saloon of the Grand Hotel in Torquay, England, is an international organisation established in order to represent the best bartenders in the world. An annual e ...

recipe is based on vodka citron, lemon- flavored vodka. The cosmopolitan is a relative of cranberry coolers like the Cape Codder. . Online source viewable a
The Big Apple
blog by Barry Popik. Though often presented far differently, the cosmopolitan also bears a likeness in composition to the

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...

cocktail. The origin of the cosmopolitan is disputed.

The 1930s

While the cocktail is widely perceived to be a more modern creation, there is a recipe for a Cosmopolitan Daisy which appears in ''Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars 1903–1933'', published in 1934. Jigger of Gordon's Gin ( Beefeater) 2 dash Cointreau ( Cointreau) Juice of 1 Lemon ( Lemon Juice) 1 tsp 5 clRaspberry Syrup (homemade) Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Made with ingredients that would have been readily available during the period, this identically named cocktail aims for the same effect. If this drink is in fact the source of the modern cosmopolitan, then it would be an adaption of a Daisy rather than a Kamikaze.

Provincetown

One version of the creation of this popular drink credits the accomplishment to the

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

community in

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...

.. Online source viewable a
The Big Apple
blog by Barry Popik.

Neal Murray

Bartender Neal Murray says he created the cosmopolitan in 1975 at the Cork & Cleaver steak house in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. According to Murray, he added a splash of cranberry juice to a Kamikaze and the first taster declared, "How cosmopolitan." Murray's Cosmopolitan used 1.5 oz Gordon's vodka, .75 oz Rose's Lime, .75 oz Leroux triple sec, and .5 oz cranberry juice.

John Caine

John Caine is the owner of several popular bars in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and a cosmopolitan expert. He partially credits the upsurge in cocktails during the 1970s to the Cosmo being served at

fern bar Fern bar is an American slang term for an upscale or preppy (or yuppie) bar or tavern catering to singles, usually decorated with ferns or other greenery, as well as such decor as fake Tiffany lamps. The phrase came into common regional usage in ...

s. Caine is credited with bringing the Cosmo west from Cleveland.

Cheryl Cook

There are a number of other claims made as to the origin of the cosmopolitan. Cocktail historian Gary Regan credits bartender Cheryl Cook of the Strand Restaurant in South Beach, Florida with the original creation. In a letter to Regan, Cook related the story of how she created the drink in 1985 or 1986: Cook's original recipes called for " Absolut Citron, a splash of

Triple sec Triple sec is an orange-flavoured liqueur that originated in France. It usually contains 20–40% alcohol by volume. Triple sec is rarely consumed neat, but is used in preparing many mixed drinks such as margaritas, cosmopolitans, sidecars, L ...

, a drop of Rose's lime and just enough cranberry to make it oh so pretty in pink." Although Absolut Citron was not introduced anywhere officially until 1988, it was test marketed in Miami.

Melissa Huffsmith-Roth

Notable bartender Gaz Regan says that the internationally recognized version of the cocktail was created by Toby Cecchini & Melissa Huffsmith-Roth in 1989 at the Odeon restaurant in Manhattan based on a poorly described version of Cheryl Cook's creation. Huffsmith-Roth's Cosmopolitan includes 2 oz Absolut Citron vodka, 1 oz Cointreau, 1 oz lime juice, and .5 oz cranberry juice.

New York City

According to Sally Ann Berk and Bob Sennett, the cosmopolitan appears in literature as early as 1993 and derives from New York City. However, a bartender named Patrick "Paddy" Mitten is also credited with bringing the drink to New York City from San Francisco in October 1987.

Popularity

The cosmopolitan gained popularity in the 1990s. It was further popularized among young women by its frequent mention on the television program ''

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO. An adaptation of Candace Bushnell's newspaper column and 1996 book anthology of the same name, the series premiered in the United Stat ...

'', where Sarah Jessica Parker's character,

Carrie Bradshaw Caroline Marie "Carrie" Bradshaw is a fictional character from the HBO franchise ''Sex and the City'', portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker. Candace Bushnell created Carrie as a semi-autobiographical character for her column "Sex and the City" in ...

, commonly ordered the drink when out with her girlfriends. The film adaptation made a reference to its popularity when Miranda asks why they stopped drinking them, Carrie replies "because everyone else started."

Preparation and serving

The cosmopolitan is usually served in a large

cocktail glass A cocktail glass is a stemmed glass with an inverted cone bowl, mainly used to serve straight-up cocktails. The term ''cocktail glass'' is often used interchangeably with ''martini glass'', despite their differing slightly. Today, the glass i ...

, also called a ''martini glass''. For this reason, the drink is sometimes mistakenly categorized as a type of

martini Martini may refer to: * Martini (cocktail) * Martini (vermouth), a brand of vermouth * Martini (surname), an Italian surname * Martini (automobile company), a Swiss automobile company * Automobiles Martini, a French manufacturer of racing cars * M ...

. The use of citrus flavored vodka as the basis for this cocktail appears to have been widely popularized in the mid 1990s by

Dale DeGroff Dale DeGroff (born September 21, 1948, Rhode Island), also known as ''the King of Cocktails'' or ''King Cocktail'', is an American bartender and author. The New York Times in 2015 called DeGroff "one of the world's foremost cocktail experts", and ...

and is used in the IBA-approved recipe. However, many bartenders continue to use a standard unflavored vodka and this alternative would undoubtedly be historically consistent with any of the supposed predecessors of this drink that were popular in Ohio, Provincetown, or Minneapolis during the 1970s, or in San Francisco during the 1980s. A lemon twist is sometimes used to garnish.

Variations

* Another variation calls for stirring in a mixing glass, instead of shaking. * An alternative ingredient in substitution for Cointreau is a variation of the French Martini. * The ''

Real Housewives of New Jersey ''The Real Housewives of New Jersey'' (abbreviated ''RHONJ'') is an American reality television series that premiered on May 12, 2009, on Bravo. Developed as the fourth installment of ''The Real Housewives'' franchise, it has aired twelve seaso ...

'' star Kathy Wakile created a Red Velvet Cosmo, based on one of her favorite desserts,

red velvet cake Red velvet cake is traditionally a red, red-brown, crimson, or scarlet-colored layer cake, layered with ermine icing. Traditional recipes do not use food coloring, with the red color due to non- Dutched, anthocyanin-rich cocoa. Common ingred ...

. * For a virgin cosmopolitan replace the vodka and triple sec with orange juice and pink lemonade. * For a constipolitan, use

prune juice Prune juice is a fruit juice derived from prunes (dried plums) that have been rehydrated. It is a mass-produced product that is often produced using a hot extraction method, and juice concentrate is typically produced using a low-temperature ext ...

in place of cranberry juice. * A CosNOpolitan, from Kimbal Musk's The Kitchen, has cranberry juice, lime, orange bitters and soda.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cosmopolitan (Cocktail) Cocktails with triple sec or curaçao Cocktails with vodka Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Cocktails with cranberry juice