045 – Cosmopolitan

A Sydney Covid ‘lock-down’ exploration of the ‘Cosmo’ cocktail.

Lock-down has inspired me to explore this famous cocktail, made super-famous by the 1998–2005 television series ‘Sex In The City’. Let’s take a look at the 1934 Gin-version and its far more famous modern Vodka and Cranberry iteration.

Make your own ‘mix-at-home’ #Locktail ‘Cosmopolitan’, in either 21st Century or 20th Century style.

METHOD – Chill glassware in advance. Add 45ml Vodka (high quality with an option to use Citron Vodka or other citrus infused version), 15ml Cointreau, 45ml Cranberry Juice, 15ml of fresh Lime Juice, and 3-dashes of Orange Bitters into a cocktail shaker with a handful of ice. Shake until cold (10-15 seconds) and double strain into Coupe glass (option for Martini or Cocktail glass). Garnish with orange zest (flamed by twisting while applying a lit match). FOR THE 1934 GIN VERSION – As above measures from ingredients list, shaken and doubles strained into chilled glassware. Garnish with lemon zest or lemon twist instead of orange.

HISTORICAL NOTES – A cocktail called the ‘Cosmopolitan Daisy’ appeared in Charles Christopher Muller’s 1934 publication ‘Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903–1933’, along with four other cocktails containing the name ‘Cosmopolitan’. This seven-part monster catalogue with 1,374 cocktail recipes from four US contributors (Muller, along with AI Hoppe, AV Guzman, and James Cunningham), recounting the pre-Prohibition (1920–1933) cocktails that they had collectively produced at 30 different bars.

The closest pre-1934 mix is not the ‘Cosmopolitan’ we know today, it calls for 30ml Gordon’s Gin, 2-dashes of Cointreau, the juice of one lemon and a teaspoon of raspberry syrup, shaken and strained into a small goblet. Gin rather than vodka and raspberry rather than cranberry. Three of the other recipes from Muller’s book are also pink in colour.

When we get into the contemporary ‘Cosmopolitan’, the origins, progression and credit are murky to say the least. If you want to explore this complex web of claims and counter claims, Cheryl Charming is the place to go, she has been researching the ‘Cosmo’ since 2006 and has a wealth of information, history and no shortage of drama, that ‘Sex In The City’ would be proud of, on her ‘Miss Charming’ website, here.

Regardless of the attribution of creation, the cocktail’s international fame is primarily connected with the 1998 to 2005 television series ‘Sex In The City’ and the regular on screen appearance and mention of the ‘Cosmo’ cocktail. In the later film, when discussing why the four-friends stopped drinking ‘Cosmopolitan’ cocktails, Carrie answers “because everyone else started”. That is the truth for the cocktail in reality as well, many Bartenders stopped making them and consumers stopped drinking them because of a similar response to their ubiquity in the early 2000’s.

The ‘Cosmo’ is slowly on the rise again with a number of variations. The one thing that seems to remain, is the deeper red colour introduced on the TV-series became the norm for a cocktail that was originally pink.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The ‘Cosmopolitan’ appears on the International Bartender Association’s (IBA) ‘Contemporary Classics’ official cocktail list, here. The recipe calls for 40ml Vodka Citron, 15ml Cointreau, 15ml fresh lime juice and 30ml cranberry juice, shaken and strained into a cocktail glass. Garnished with a lemon twist.

TASTING NOTES – The well know ‘Sex In The City’ version of the ‘Cosmo’ is vodka forward and will pick up the taste of the Vodka you choose. This cocktail is ‘thin enough’ and ‘light enough’ on flavour for you to actually taste the Vodka. The next flavours are cranberry, also on the ‘thinner and lighter’ side with a dry aftertaste and then the orange from the Triple Sec, bitters and garnish. It is an easy drinking cocktail, not surprisingly, but doesn’t balance as well, or wow with flavour, the way you would expect from a cocktail with such fame. Sort of the impact you sometimes get from a real-life encounter with celebrity.

The 1934 Gin version is perhaps more impressive. It is Gin forward, the lemon can verge on over sour, but if carefully balanced with the home-made raspberry, it picks up a sweetness and depth reminiscent of the Clover Club cocktail of roughly the same era.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – To put these 70-plus year separated cocktails head-to-head, I haven’t changed much from well established recipes. I have added slightly more cranberry juice for the modern and popular version, mostly to ensure a ‘Sex In The City’ like colour.

For the 1934 ‘Cosmopolitan Daisy’ I have increased the overall volume to be more comparable to the modern version, and lifted the Raspberry and dropped the Lemon Juice, each by 5ml, to get the sweetness in a comparable range. Overloaded with lemon, this version gets a little tart. I have also added the Fee Brothers’ Rhubarb Bitters for a bit of extra flavour range and a bitter dimension to the cocktail.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’. Sorry that this mix may have broken the rules on ingredient ‘re-use’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is the fifth cocktail of the 1931-1940 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. Full list in the index.