You will find several Cosmopolitan recipes in your favourite bars. Some use flavoured vodka, while others add currant juice… So which recipe is actually the right one?
If you use unflavoured vodka, that should be no problem: Neal Murray claims that in
1975, at the Cork & Cleaver steakhouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he created the Cosmopolitan by adding a little cranberry juice to a Kamikaze (vodka, triple sec and lime juice). After tasting it, one guest exclaimed, “How cosmopolitan!”
Most often, however, credit for creating the Cosmopolitan goes to bartender Cheryl Cook of the Strand Restaurant in South Beach, Florida, around 1986. Cheryl was surprised by how many guests ordered a Martini simply to hold a stylish stemmed cocktail glass. She decided to create a drink that looked wonderful but also tasted good to everyone. For her version, you would use Absolut Citron, triple sec, a little Rose’s lime cordial and just enough cranberry to give the drink a lovely pink colour.
An important change came around two years later, when bartender Melissa Huffsmith of The Odeon replaced ordinary triple sec with Cointreau and Rose’s lime juice with freshly squeezed lime juice.
The Cosmopolitan became especially famous in the late 1990s through the popular television series Sex and the City. Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, and her friends regularly order Cosmopolitans. The pink drink became a favourite among young women and an icon of its time.
This is our Cosmopolitan recipe:
4 cl Absolut Citron
1.5 cl Cointreau
1.5 cl fresh lime juice
3 cl cranberry juice
Shake the drink, strain it into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wheel or wedge. You can also express citrus oils over it; a flamed piece of peel and its ignited oils can add a spark to the presentation. Since the quality of citrus and juice varies between suppliers, do not be afraid to adjust the proportions slightly.