Cosmopolitan (cocktail)

Cosmopolitan

IBA Official Cocktail
A cosmopolitan.
Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Vodka
Served	Straight up; without ice
Standard garnish	Lemon slice, lime wedge
Standard drinkware	Cocktail glass
IBA specified ingredients*	40 ml Vodka Citron 15 ml Cointreau 15 ml Fresh lime juice 30 ml Cranberry juice
Preparation	Add all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and double strain into large cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wheel.
Notes	The drink should be a frothy bright pink colour
* Cosmopolitan recipe at International Bartenders Association

A cosmopolitan

A cosmopolitan, or informally a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed lime juice or sweetened lime juice.

History

According to the International Bartenders Association the original recipe is based on vodka citron, lemon-flavored vodka.^[1] The cosmopolitan is a relative of cranberry coolers like the Cape Codder.^[2] Though often presented far differently, the cosmopolitan also bears a likeness in composition to the kamikaze cocktail.

The origin of the cosmopolitan is disputed. It is widely believed that the drink was created independently by different bartenders since the 1970s.^[3] Generally, people have recognized that John Caine brought the drink to San Francisco around 1987^[4] from Ohio.^[4][5] The same year in Manhattan, the internationally recognized version of the cocktail was created by Toby Cecchini,^[6] based on a poorly described version of Cheryl Cook's creation.^[6]

The 1930's

Whilst this cocktail is widely perceived to be a more modern creation there is, it seems, a strikingly similar recipe for a Cosmopolitan which appears in Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars 1903-1933, which was published in 1934.

Jigger of Gordon's Gin (1 1/2 oz Beefeater) 2 dash Cointreau (1/2 oz Cointreau) Juice of 1 Lemon (1 oz Lemon Juice) 1 tsp Raspberry Syrup (1 tsp 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.^{[7] [8] [9] [10]}

The 1970s

Provincetown

One version of the creation of this popular drink credits the accomplishment to the gay community in Provincetown, Massachusetts.^[3]

Minneapolis

Neal Murray apparently claims to have created the Cosmopolitan in 1975 at the Cork & Cleaver steak house in Minneapolis. According to Murray:

He was fiddling around with the recipe for the Kamikaze and decided to add a splash of cranberry juice. The first taster declared, "How cosmopolitan" ^[11]

This event supposedly led to the naming of the new beverage.

John Caine

John Caine is the owner of several popular bars in San Francisco and a cosmopolitan expert. He partially credits the upsurge in cocktails during the 1970s to the Cosmo being served at fern bars.^[3] Caine is credited with bringing the Cosmo west from Cleveland.

Cheryl Cook

A commonly cited story concerning the origins of the Cosmopolitan links South Beach, Florida bartender Cheryl Cook with the original creation.^[2][3] Some people think that Cook is a mythical character,^[3][6] but in an online interview,^[6] Cook related the story of how she created the drink in 1985 or 1986:

What overwhelmed me was the number of people who ordered Martinis just to be seen with a Martini glass in their hand. It was on this realization that gave me the idea to create a drink that everyone could palate and was visually stunning in that classic glass. This is what the Cosmo was based on.

Cook's original recipes called for "Absolut Citron, a splash of Triple Sec, a drop of Roses lime and just enough cranberry to make it oh so pretty in pink."^[6]

Although Absolut Citron was not introduced anywhere officially until 1988, it was test marketed in Miami.

Natalie Thomas

The Cosmo was named by Natalie Thomas who was the Maitre D at the Strand Restaurant where Cheryl Cook worked as a bartender. In March of 1989 Cosmopolitan Magazine featured Thomas in an article about America's Top Female Maitre D's with a full page photo and story about her experiences at the famed South Beach hangout. To celebrate she held a party on February 20th and served up platters of the drink which was christened that night as a "Cosmopolitan" as advance copies of the magazine were passed around to the staff and lounge patrons.

Pink Lemonade Pink

Another important person involved in the creation of the Cosmopolitan was, Melissa Huffsmith of Manhattan. While working at The Odeon in 1987/1988, her friend Patrick Mullen had tasted a version of the drink in Miami and she developed a slightly different version using Absolut Citron, Cointreau and fresh-squeezed lime juice. Huffsmith stated that the color should be "....just barely pink—the color of pink lemonade." Huffsmith's version has become an internationally standardized method for preparing the drink.^[1]

Popularity

The cosmopolitan gained popularity quickly, traveling from Provincetown, through New York, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and on to San Francisco (Caine^[4]) or possibly from Miami to San Francisco, and on to New York (Cook^[6]).

The Cosmopolitan gained popularity in the 1990s. According to Brian Gougherty, the cosmo was further popularized among young women by its frequent mention on the television program Sex and the City, where Sarah Jessica Parker's character, Carrie Bradshaw, 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."

It is not only in television that the Cosmo has influenced popular culture. Demeter Fragrance Library has created a cologne intended to smell like the cosmopolitan cocktail.

Preparation and serving

The Cosmopolitan is usually served in a large cocktail glass, also called a martini glass. For this reason, the drink is mistakenly categorized as a type of martini.

The use of citrus flavoured vodka as the basis for this cocktail appears to have been widely popularized in the mid 1990s by Dale DeGroff^[12] and is used in the IBA approved recipe. However, many bartenders continue to use a standard unflavoured vodka and this alternative would undoubtedly be historically consistent with any of the supposedly 'original' versions of this drink that were popular in Ohio, Provincetown, or Minneapolis during the 1970s, or in San Francisco during the 1980s.^{[13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32]}

Mix 3 parts citrus vodka, 2 parts cranberry juice, 1 part triple sec, 1 part lime juice. Cointreau or other high-quality triple sec provides a cleaner taste than cheaper triple sec, and is generally substituted in the cosmopolitan. The cranberry mainly adds colour and should not excessively dilute the drink.

A lemon twist is sometimes used to garnish. Traditionally, a coin sized piece of orange should be "flamed" across the top of the drink. This coats the drink with a slick of citrus oil. Currently , it is popular to see a Cosmopolitan garnished with a lime wedge. A common error is to garnish it with a cherry and drown it in cranberry juice, which is overall too sweet and unpleasant. A true Cosmo should have a tart taste and be slightly pink due to the shaking with the lime juice.

Variations

A cosmo-flavored cupcake with lime, vodka, lime juice soaked cranberries, lime buttercream on vanilla cake from Dozen Bake Shop in Pittsburgh.

• One variation is to squeeze a lime wedge into the chilled cocktail glass instead of including it with the ingredients to be shaken.
• The original non-IBA versions used Rose's lime cordial instead of fresh lime juice, and Triple Sec instead of Cointreau, and uses different proportions^[1]
• A blue cosmopolitan may be made by using white cranberry juice instead of standard red juice, and blue curaçao in place of the triple sec and a purple cosmopolitan just replacing the triple sec with blue curacao.
• A Cosmocello substitutes limoncello for the lime juice.
• A Francillian, popularized in Fontainebleau, France in 2010, substitutes sangria for cranberry juice.
• Another variation calls for stirring in a mixing glass, instead of shaking.^[33]
• A Peach Cosmopolitan substitutes peach schnapps for triple sec and peach juice for the cranberry
• For the Broadway musical Wicked, a special type of cosmopolitan called an "Ozmopolitan" was made as a theme-fitting drink, as Wicked is the story of Elphaba, a green-skinned woman who eventually become the Wicked Witch of the West. This cosmopolitan variation was first made for the West End production, then Broadway.
• The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Kathy Wakile created a Red Velvet Cosmo, based on one of her favorite desserts, red velvet cake.^[34][35]

See also

• List of cocktails
• Martini

References

External links

The Wikibook Bartending has a page on the topic of: Cosmopolitan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cosmopolitan (cocktail).

• Absolut Cosmopolitan—A higher proof version of the recipe.
• Cosmopolitan Cockail recipe—Drink Lab recipe
• Cosmopolitan Recipe and a modern twist—A Cosmopolitan recipe made with normal vodka (non lemon) and Cointreau. Link also includes a modern twist on this cocktail—the Continental.