Cocktails typically include a hearty dose of lore and legend—we could by no means know who poured the primary mai tai, for example. The cosmopolitan cocktail is not any exception.

Earlier than Intercourse and the Metropolis made it a nationwide sensation, the pink drink was well-liked within the queer communities of Provincetown and San Francisco. Legendary bartender Dale DeGroff and a Miami girl named Cheryl Prepare dinner are sometimes credited with inventing the fashionable cosmo recipe. However Toby Cecchini, who owns Long Island Bar in Brooklyn, appears to have probably the most believable story from his days bartending at New York icon The Odeon.

As he informed former BA editor Priya Krishna in an oral history of the drink, a colleague’s pals have been visiting from San Francisco within the late Nineteen Eighties and confirmed them the drink. “It was gross, however it seemed fairly,” Cecchini recalled. He reconstructed it with Absolut Citron vodka, Cointreau, recent lime juice, and cranberry juice to approximate Rose’s grenadine. The drink grew to become successful with the workers and their celeb and downtown Manhattan clientele.

A basic cosmopolitan recipe—like this one—must be vibrantly hued and candy from a “cranberry juice cocktail” like Ocean Spray (a bottle labeled 100% cranberry juice shall be too tart right here). The drink ought to have a floral citrus notice from a triple sec (like Cointreau) or one other orange liqueur and a refreshing tang. The kind of cocktail glass can be essential: Solely a martini glass will do. (Nevertheless, we will even settle for a coupe.)

Take a look at extra classic cocktail recipes like an extra-dry martini with a lemon twist, a Moscow mule, and a negroni.