2 ounces vodka
1 ounce cranberry juice cocktail
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce triple sec (Cointreau)
Orange or lemon twist (garnish)
Combine vodka, cranberry juice, lime juice, and triple sec in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake vigorously until frosty.
Strain into a chilled martini glass. I recommend double straining to capture any ice shards broken off in the shaker. Garnish with an orange or lemon twist if desired.
There are few cocktails more immediately recognizable than a Cosmopolitan. This blush-pink cocktail with sweet-tart blend of vodka, triple sec, cranberry and lime juices served in a tall martini glass is completely synonymous with 1999 or the early 2000s. That’s because, while the cocktail was around earlier and had some moderate popularity, the cosmo didn’t become the ubiquitous girly drink we know it as today until it appeared in the second season of Sex and the City in 1999. After that the drink made several cameos on the show, and for a good decade became one of, if not the, most popular cocktail in America.
So we know why the cosmo blew up in 1999, but we don’t know exactly who invented it or when or where, because about a dozen different origin stories exist.
Some people believe it evolved from a 1930s era cocktail called a Cosmopolitan Daisy that was made with gin, Cointreau, Lemon Juice, and Raspberry Syrup. Others believe it was invented by the gay community in Provincetown in the 60s or 70s. Some say it came out of Ocean Spray’s quest for easy cranberry juice cocktails in the 1960s. A very popular cocktail called the Harpoon is basically a cosmo without the triple sec, so many believe that’s where they come from. Others believe it was a play on a Kamikaze. Bartending legend and author Gaz Regan, believes the original Cosmopolitan was created in 1985 in Miami Beach by bartender Cheryl Cook when she added citrus flavored vodka and cranberry juice to a Kamikaze and served it in a Martini glass. Some believe that Dale DeGroff came up with the cosmo at the Rainbow Room in New York, and others still believe that Toby Cecchini first did at New York’s Odeon restaurant in Tribeca.
What we do know is that before Sex and the city, Cecchini’s Odeon version using Absolut Citron and Cointreau was by far the most popular and well known recipe out there. The Odeon was a very trendy restaurant and the cosmo spread from there all over Manhattan, which is probably how it landed on Sex and the City in the first place.
And the rest is history.