Is there any cocktail more reviled, more looked down on by serious drinkers than the Cosmopolitan? This bright pink delight is served in a martini glass and seen most often in the hands of middle aged women, and it is reminiscent of nothing so much as a girl’s night out in the 1990s, with plenty of references to Sex and the City thrown in for good measure. It’s the kind of drink that most cocktail enthusiasts wouldn’t be caught dead drinking.
But I’m here to say that, in fact, everyone is wrong about this 90s icon. Drinks don’t have a gender, the Cosmopolitan is for everyone, and in fact it’s a delicious, well-balanced and unique cocktail. Let’s stop worrying about what we’re supposed to think of as being cool and embrace the face that this drink is great, actually.
How to make a Cosmopolitan
- 2 parts vodka
- 1 part Cointreau
- 1 part cranberry juice
- 1 part lime juice
Method:
Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin with plenty of ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a lime wheel.
Why you should drink a Cosmopolitan
I genuinely think a lot of the derision directly toward the Cosmopolitan is because of its pink color. People assume it’s going to be sickly sweet and strawberry flavored — and to be fair, there are plenty of bars which made their Cosmopolitans with a ton of sugar syrup, especially before the craft cocktail boom of the last few decades got people more interested in bitter drinks.
But in its classic formulation, the Cosmopolitan is sharp and dry, with the gentle sweetness coming only from the Cointreau and the fruit juices. The backbone of this drink is the cranberry juice, which I think is a deeply underrated drinks ingredient. There is a dry quality to cranberry juice, an almost mouth-puckering experience to it which is unlike any other fruit juice, and it provides an interesting sensory quality to the drink as well as a rich berry taste.
The problem with making a Cosmopolitan is that the cranberry juice you buy in the stores is often excessively sweetened, which inevitably adds far too much sweetness to your cocktails when you use it. So it’s worth looking out for unsweetened versions, or at least checking that you are buying pure cranberry juice and not one mixed with other juices.
You’ll also often find this drink made with lemon vodka, which should in theory work well to add to the citrus flavors. But again, when you buy a pre-made lemon vodka, like other flavored vodkas it will often be punishingly sweet. You can get past this by infusing your own lemon vodka, which is surprisingly easy to do and lets you control the amount of sugar added (preferably none). Or you can just use plain vodka, which works perfectly well in this recipe as there is plenty of tang from the lime juice anyway.
As for serving the drink — well, even I won’t try to defend the martini glass. It’s just not a very practical shape to drink from. But try out making this cocktail using the classic recipe and serve it in a coupe glass, and I reckon there’s a chance you’ll be a convert too.
