As a man of a powerful thirst nothing burns me faster than someone trying to tell me how to spend my money. I went to one of these cocktail cool bars with 30 different Amaro on the backbar. I was thrilled. This place had everything you would want in a cocktail bar. Great glasses, homemade syrups and infusions, beautiful produce and an incredible backbar, literally everything you wanted but hospitality. My companion ordered a cosmopolitan and the response put a bad spin on the whole evening.
The cosmopolitan by any standard was the most successful cocktail of all the cocktail inventions in the last three decades. Since when is being successful not cool? I don’t know but today’s hip cocktail lounges definitely have a prejudice against the Cosmopolitan. I am in the hospitality business. If I have it and you want it, I’ll get it for you.
Ingredients
2 ounces citrus-flavored vodka (I think this was originally made with Absolut Citron but I cannot confirm)
1/2 ounce cranberry juice
1/2 ounce triple sec (I prefer Marie Brizard or Cointreau for a special occasion)
1/4 ounce lime juice
Garnish
Lime twist.
Glassware
5 oz cocktail glass
Assembly
Chill a cocktail glass. Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Measure and add lime juice, cranberry juice, triple sec and vodka and shake until chilled. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish.
Suggestions
If you infuse your own vodka, let the vodka and flavorings have at least a week together before using.
One of my favorite historic references is The Dictionary of Drinks and Drinking by Oscar A. Mendelsohn copy write 1965. He gave one of my favorite quotes ever. “Vodka can be made from grain, potatoes or any other source of fermentable carbohydrate. Why people have proved willing to pay a high price for neutral spirit under a fancy name is one of the romances of modern commerce and a tribute to the mysterious power of the advertising agent.” That was 50 years ago. Please drink what you want and you like, but from an economic stand point I don’t understand pricing of vodka. I don’t know what the relative pricing was in those days but I do find it a real head scratcher that people will purchase a vodka that was made weeks ago for the exact same dollars as a whiskey that has been aged over 7 years.