The Cosmopolitan – or Cosmo – is said to have been created independently by many different bartenders since the 1970s. The general concensus is that John Caine – owner of several bars in San Fransisco – brought the popular pink drink to the west from Ohio in around 1987.

Although the cocktail is widely perceived as a contemporary creation, there is a strikingly similar recipe for a Cosmo, which appears in the book ‘Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars 1903-1933’. The ‘Cosmopolitan Daisy’ substitutes cranberry juice and vodka for raspberry syrup and gin, as these are the ingredients that would have been readily available at the time.

There are also many claims that the Cosmo was adapted from the Kamikaze cocktail, though is often presented very differently.

The Cosmopolitan was popularised significantly among young women in the 1990s because of its frequent appearances on the TV program ‘Sex and the City’, where Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, often ordered the drink when out with her girlfriends.

Ingredients:
50ml vodka
25ml triple sec
50ml cranberry juice
25ml fresh lime juice
Orange peel and/or mint to serve
Ice

Method:
1. Add ice, vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime juice to a cocktail shaker and shake for about 30 seconds.

2. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a sprig of mint and/or a twist of orange peel.

Why not have a Mocktail?
For a non–alcoholic alternative, use 50ml cranberry juice, 25ml lime juice, 25ml orange juice and 25ml simple syrup (sugar and water, boiled then cooled).

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY