A Cosmo tastes more like a cranberry margarita than anything else and is just as strong if made correctly. This adds a slightly sweet and tart red fruit flavor to the cocktail that is structurally a vodka daisy. It gets its distinctive bright pink color from the single ounce of cranberry juice added. It is pretty strong (around 25% abv) and not overly sweet. The Cosmopolitan is a delicious cocktail. This is unfortunate because this is a beautiful drink. Sadly just as fast as it became the hot new drink, it became associated with trashy rich girls and a social faux pas to order. Women wanting to imitate Carrie became obsessed with this cocktail. The fictional character Carrie Bradshaw’s favorite cocktail turned the Cosmopolitan into an overnight superstar. The Cosmopolitan enjoyed mild fame throughout the mid-90s, but that changed once Sex and the City aired in 1998. It gets its distinctive color from the single ounce of cranberry juice added. It quickly spread across New York and eventually caught national attention once celebrities started getting photographed drinking New York’s fabulous new bright pink cocktail. The Cosmopolitan is not a very old cocktail it was invented in New York in 1987 by Toby Cecchini while working at The Odeon. While many have claimed to invent the Cosmo, the internationally recognized one was created by Toby Cecchini.

The 1934 recipe is a Jigger of Gordon’s Gin, two dash Cointreau, Juice of 1 Lemon, and 1 tsp Raspberry Syrup. This is a somewhat different drink other than the name and a light pink hue.

The oldest known written reference to it comes from the 1934 book Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars. Like the Margarita, many people claim to have invented the Cosmopolitan cocktail.

Whats in a cosmopolitan drink