I first heard of a Cosmopolitan when the show Sex and the City was popular, sometime in the late 1990s. Sure, the drink had been around for a while, but I had never heard of it. Back then, I thought a splurgy cocktail was a bar brand whiskey sour, and Shiner Bock was the only beer with any flavor.
I first saw a Cosmopolitan sometime around the same time when I was at an event at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and they were serving something on trays that was in what I had always called a martini glass. But it was pink. Pink! I asked the waitress what they were, and she was aghast that I didn’t recognize a Cosmopolitan when I saw it. Obviously I wasn’t as cosmopolitan as I thought I was.
And then I decided to make my own. Here is the recipe.
The Cosmopolitan Cocktail Recipe
Combine and shake with ice:
- 1.5 oz. citrus vodka (orange Smirnoff, in my case)
- 0.75 oz. Cointreau
- 1 oz. cranberry juice
- 0.25 oz. fresh lime juice
- orange peel
Then strain into a martini glass.
It truly is pink. This drink is not only pink, but it makes everyone who drinks it look girly. It doesn’t matter how manly you are, even a lumberjack looks girly when drinking a Cosmopolitan.
But, my man friends, this is one drink that is worth looking girly for. It’s good when it’s made correctly. It’s delicious, in fact. But don’t skimp on it. Don’t use triple sec, and don’t use bottled lime; it won’t taste right. Go for fresh, and use good stuff. It will make a delicious drink. I served them after Thanksgiving, and they were a hit.
What I like about this drink is how it builds. The liquor is actually accentuated by the cranberry and its sugar. And the lime makes it into a kind of sour, but it’s definitely not a tropical or a typical sour. Everything just melds into something that tastes nothing like cranberry, nothing lime lime, and nothing like vodka. It is simply delicious.
Now I know why Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda were enthralled with them.
Hell, I am too.