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This month MxMo hosted on Beers in the Shower. The author of this blog announce theme so interesting, but extremely elusive for me. I think “Money Drinks” is like “worth the money” drinks or “make the money” drinks… I hope I have right understanding. For this MxMo I explore one of my favorite “for my guest” cocktail – Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan Cocktail is very popular modern cocktail. It has so many fans and it is a TV-star. It is really one of the most popular cocktail worldwide.
The story of this cocktail is relatively unclear, you may read some of it here (wiki) or here (webtender). My favorite Dale DeGroff in The Craft of the Cocktail and The Essential Cocktails wrote that author of Cosmopolitan is Cheryl Cook. Also he associate the Cosmopolitan with Ocean Spray cooperative and its cranberry juice.
Now we have many recipes of Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan is father of big “cosmo”-family (like margarita or martini). I think that Cosmopolitan consist of vodka as main alcohol, Cointreau as sweetener, cranberry and lime juices. Optional ingredients are orange bitter, simple syrup or lime syrup. Generalized recipe of Cosmopolitan therefore is:
Cosmopolitan
30-45 ml vodka (or citrus vodka)
7-25 ml Cointreau
2 dash – 28 ml cranberry juice
5-13 ml fresh pressed lime juice
optional:
0-2 dash orange bitters
0-8 ml simple syrup
0-5 ml lime syrup
Shake all ingredients in ice-filled shaker and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a orange twist (spiral) or flamed orange peel or lime wedge (or wheel) or lime zest.
I tested eleven version of Cosmopolitan which was found in different sources (like blogs, sites, books etc) and at different times. You may find all recipes in this .pdf files. You may organize yours own “Great Cosmo Roundup” with this simple and clear table :)
This is results of my “Great Science of Drink Cosmopolitan Roundup”. It begin with my first Cosmopolitan, I do not remember a source of this version.
1. Cosmopolitan (Unknown version) – so strong cocktail with elegant citrus taste;
2. Cosmopolitan (Chris Doig – Brilliant Cocktails) – this version has medium strength and sour-sweet very orange taste, good choice for novice;
3. Cosmopolitan (Jay Hapburn – Oh, gosh! ) – aromatic version of Cosmopolitan, has rich aroma and taste;
4. Cosmopolitan (Dale DeGroff – The King of Cocktails ) – it is well-balanced version with medium strength and delicate citrus taste, this recipe has one lack – too much of the cranberry juice. This is good for novice, not for adept :) ;
5. Cosmopolitan (cocktailtimes.com) – this version has very indistinct taste;
6. Cosmopolitan (Davide Wondrich — quintessence (Esquire Drink Database)) –
it is very good version, it has smooth aromatic and citrus sour-sweet taste, but please omit sugar rim – I think it is joke;
7. Cosmopolitan (Gary Regan (The Joy of Mixology, 2003) (from CocktailDB) – strong and sweet cocktail (Kamikaze :) ) with cranberry juice as dye-stuff, excellent drink;
8. Cosmopolitan (Time Out (wiki.webtender.com)) – sophisticated recipe but mediocre results;
9. Cosmopolitan (Salvatore Calabrese – The Maestro – (from book Classic Cocktails)) – so strong and tempered version;
10. Cosmopolitan (IBA) – light sweet cocktail, novice only;
11. Cosmopolitan (cointreau.com) – strong, sweet and citrus cocktail.
Some tips for your Ultimate Cosmopolitan:
– use good quality vodka (pure or citrus-flavored depend upon you taste, both variants work well in Cosmopolitan)
– use Cointreau (not cheap triple sec), it is good choice for you fresh and citrus Cosmo;
– use good and expensive cranberry juice (and omit the recipe with high amount of cranberry juice, if it possible);
– use fresh ripe limes for yours fresh pressed lime juice, DO NOT use preserved lime juice or something like that. You may add some simple syrup for preferable balance of sour-sweet. Omit lime syrup;
– you can use orange bitter for high aromatic cocktail, please add bitters responsibly ;) ;
– in my humble opinion, most appropriate garnish for Cosmopolitan cocktail is orange zest. I use orange zest spiral for strong version (with high Cointreau content) and flamed orange peel for the others. Flamed orange peel is real show, it is real Cosmo-mood. For flamed orange peel you may:
1. Cut small piece of orange peel. Take this piece of orsnge peel in one hand and a match in other. Strike a match as you see on foto :)
2. Heat the surface of peel with a flame of match through few seconds.
3. Press on peel for release of essential oil.
I can resume that Cosmopolitan cocktail is awesome drink. It has right name, good taste, good looks and good mood. It is acceptable as for cocktail novice as adept. When made correctly, it is a brilliant drink.
