Crafting the Cosmopolitan
The Cosmopolitan is one tasty cocktail and probably most popular drink created in the last 30 years, but it is not magically original. The recipe calls for lemon vodka, lime juice, orange liqueur, and a splash of cranberry for color. Minus the cranberry, the drink follows the formula of spirit plus lime plus orange liqueur. If that spirit is tequila, that’s a Margarita. If it’s unflavored vodka, that’s a Kamikaze.
In fact, the prevailing theory on the creation of the Cosmopolitan is that it was a spin-off of the Kamikaze created by a Miami bartender named Cheryl Cook in 1985 or 1986. She said the Cosmo is, “Merely a Kamikaze with Absolut Citron and a splash of cranberry juice.”
But her version called for Rose’s lime juice, a bottled lime juice that’s a poor substitute for fresh-squeezed, and triple sec, which usually refers to the low-end orange liqueurs that are poor substitutes for Cointreau. These items are often served at high-volume bars that want to save money on (admittedly pricey) orange liqueur and don’t want their bartenders taking the time to squeeze limes for each drink.
But I find the Cosmo to be intolerable without them. So too did Toby Cecchini, a New York bartender credited with finessing the drink into its best form. Someone told Cecchini about the drink, but in their version it was made with unflavored vodka, Rose’s lime, and the red-colored syrup grenadine. He liked the look of the drink - soft pink and served in a Martini glass - and experimented with ingredients to make the flavor match the fashion. In the end, his version came out just like Cheryl Cook’s version, but with better ingredients.
This version caught on like wildfire in New York, causing Cecchini and other bartenders to make them by the thousands. In the era of bottled sour mix and vermouth-free Martinis, this drink seemed high-maintenance enough for Cecchini to call them “labor-intensive pink monstrosities.”
The trick to making a good pink monstrosity, even if you have the proper ingredients, is getting the ratio of them right. Apparently this is a problem for bartenders too - I’ve had Cosmopolitans in every shade from clear to deep red. When I make them at home, I’m too lazy to look up the recipe so I just take it one ingredient at a time: a couple ounces of Citron, a small splash of Cointreau, and a large quantity of lime. (I like them tart.) I make mine in keeping with Cheryl Cook’s original instructions of “just enough cranberry to make it oh so pretty in pink.”
That’s my starting point, anyway. One thing I’ve learned making this drink is that cranberry juice, like slimming black clothing, hides many sins. Even if you get the initial ratios of liquor and juice all wrong, or have to resort to bottled lime juice and bottom-shelf triple sec, you can always make a drinkable version of this drink. Just keep adding cranberry until it’s good.
Vodka, Now Available in Juniper Flavor
I like to think of “bathtub gin” as “Martinis by the pool,” but that’s not where the expression originated. It came about during Prohibition when people would “make” their own gin by adding mail-order juniper flavoring to low-quality alcohol to help mask its awfulness. The weird thing is, gin cocktails were awfully popular back then.
Today it is still legal to make gin this way- not in the bathtub, but by adding juniper oil and other flavors to a neutral spirit like vodka. Thankfully, most of the gins with which we’re familiar don’t do it like that. Gin usually starts with high-proof neutral spirit made from grains like corn, wheat, and rye. The gin distiller then selects a range of botanicals or botanical oils to infuse into the spirit, then redistills everything together.
There are many different distilling methods gin makers employ, but this is probably only interesting to folks like me who spend our spare time hanging out in distilleries on vacation. More interesting are the types of botanicals that go in to gin. Traditional brands like Beefeater, Plymouth, and Tanqueray contain many ingredients like citrus peels, coriander, cinnamon, and cassia bark. Newer gins on the market like Bombay Sapphire, Hendrick’s, and Martin Miller’s also include things like lavender, ginseng, rose, and green tea. All gins, by definition, must contain juniper (berries that smell like pine trees) as a dominant flavor, but the newer ones tend to put less of it in.
While vodka lovers and gin lovers are usually different sorts of people (though I find versatility provides more options in the bedroom and the liquor cabinet), when it comes right down to it gin is really just juniper-flavored vodka. If you’ve got vodka drinkers over for cocktails and you only have gin left, just tell them their drinks are made with “botanical vodka.” If you’re in the opposite situation, tell them the vodka is “diet gin.” Lying to your guests is the most entertaining part of entertaining them.
The combination and concentration of the juniper, spices, citrus, and other botanicals is what gives each gin its unique flavor and makes it a better or worse fit for different cocktails. Some modern gins are so very citrusy and floral that they can be too perfumey for a Martini. (Hey, this drink smells like grandma!) On the other hand, when you add an intensely juniper-heavy gin to a Gimlet or other mild cocktails, sometimes all you taste is the juniper. (Hey, this drink smells like where grandma is buried!)
The trick is finding the right fit for each gin for your mouth. I prefer the old-style gins in a Martini, Aviation, Pink Gin, and Negroni. With the more-floral, less-juniper gins I like the Salty Dog, Gimlet, White Lady, and Vesper.
But I find that no matter what kind of gin you have in the house you can always add it to tonic water and it will taste just fine. Tonic is the mixer that swings both ways.

Camper English is a cocktails and spirits writer and publisher of Alcademics.com.