Latest / Into The Barchive / The Cosmopolitan | From ‘90s Trend to Modern Classic
Transcript
- ITB: Welcome to the Bar-Kai! Where the past comes alive! Forgotten drinks will revive! ⁓ we thrive! Sip the tails, let them jive! Welcome to the Bar-Kai! Welcome in bark of this to this episode of into the bar archive, the cosmopolitan pink pivotal and maybe the misunderstood. Yeah. I mean, there are a few drinks that glow quite like a cosmopolitan. It's pale pink. It's served up. But if you say Cosmo in certain circles, you might still get an eye roll. But here's the thing. The Cosmopolitan isn't just a punchline in cocktail circles. It's pivotal to cocktail history. Please elaborate. Well, we thought since it's ⁓ National Cosmopolitan Day on May 7th, we'll dive into this very powerful cocktail and probably one of the most powerful cocktails of last 50 years. So we'll look at its tangled origins story. from queer nightlife in San Francisco to South Beach glamor to Manhattan refinement. And we'll talk about how the cosmopolitan quietly helped ignite the cocktail Renaissance. And yes, we'll talk about it. Star turn on television because the cosmopolitan didn't just ride a trend. It defined one. So here's the key question. Is the cosmopolitan A relic of the 1990s or is it a modern classic hiding in plain sight? We're going answer that question today. You think I think you know where I stand on the matter. I do. But before we dive that deep, I say we go to the bar and get shaking. Let's do it. For our first cocktail, we have the classic Cosmopolitan. In our Shaking Tin, we're gonna start with a Citron Vodka. Not all Citron Vockas are made the same. Use whichever one you feel to be ⁓ adequate enough for you. I would say at bare minimum, make sure absolute. If you decide to go with the Goose or some other brand that has a higher one, that's all on you, good for you. The ounce and a half, of a citron vodka? into your small tin. Non-negotiable. Do not use Triple Sec. Please use Quantro. A half ounce of Quantru. Our next ingredient is going to be three quarters of an ounce of fresh lime juice. half of a line that we may have used a little earlier while we were playing around today before this episode. So get a little bit of juice out of that. And now let's get into our next line. three quarters of an ounce. And now we're going to go a quarter of an ounce of simple syrup. And the reason we're doing a quarter of an ounce of simple syrup is because some people use a cranberry cocktail juice in their mix. Again, we like to control our sugar levels. So we're going to use a simple syrup that we control our sugar. And then we're going to use pure unsweetened cranberry juice here so we're not using a cranberry cocktail. And again, a quarter of an ounce. So quarter of an ounce of the simple, a quarter ounce of this cocktail. I mean this cranberry. Total would equal to be the half ounce if you choose to use a cocktail cranberry at your house. Maybe even bump it up to three quarters of an ounce if that's ⁓ a sweetener that you would like to bring to the party. From here, let's go ahead, ice our Big 10. Pour and shake. Make sure that you grab a chilled coupe or in this case, martini glass. If you remember from our martini episode, that nice V. And we're going to double strain, making sure that we keep out any of those ice shards from shaking while your hot one strainer may be great. They're not always as perfect enough to hold back all the ice shards straining there. And for this one, some people do a lime twist. I want to have my lime wedge in case I want a little extra line. to squeeze in there a little bit later. And that's my garnish, a lime wedge for my Cosmopolitan. Cheers. For our second cocktail, I'm going to make another variation on the Cosmopolitan. This one from a cocktail bar called Room for Improvement in Portland, Maine. I actually went to Room for Improvement a couple years ago on fall break. It was a really crowded bar and they serve twists on classic cocktails. And so this is their twist on the Cosmopolitan. I didn't have it that night. I had an Amaretto Sour twist. with like Reposado tequila and like a Horchata foam. But I really enjoyed their approach to cocktails. So this is their Cosmopolitan riff. So we're going to start with that same ounce and a half of Citron vodka. And all it is, it is a flavored vodka with like lemon and lime. So hence why it doesn't say like absolute lemon. is that it's got a little lime in there as well. Instead of the Quantro, which is like ⁓ a neutral spirit base orange liqueur, they split that base. So it's kind of like Don the Beachcomber and Tiki drinks. What one rum can't do, two can. So what one orange liqueur can't do, two can. So we're going to start. with a quarter ounce of Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao. So this is an orange liqueur made from a brandy base. So it's gonna be a little richer than maybe a triple sec, but it's still not super sweet. So we'll add that quarter of an ounce. Whoops, we'll get that little bit. ⁓ The second one will be a quarter of an ounce of the Clément Creole Shrub. This orange liqueur, instead of a neutral base or a brandy base, has a base of Rum Agricole from the Martinique, a French department. And so it has ⁓ some nice, rich, funky flavors along the way. It's gonna add some more complexity for that orange component. Now we'll add three quarters of an ounce of lime juice. So freshly squeeze, we'll get that lime finished off there and then move on to our other lime half. All right, and I don't know if it shows up on the camera, but one of the reasons fresh squeeze juice is best is because like when you're hand squeezing it, all the oils from the peels get expressed and fall into the juice and add a bit of richness to it. And then here is the other special ingredient in the Room for Improvement version. So one thing they did is they upgraded the orange liqueur doing the split base and so the Cointreau and instead of cranberry cocktail juice or like a split of like pure cranberry juice and simple syrup like we do typically for our classic they have what's called a cranpare cordial. So in a blender you add equal parts whole cranberries sugar and water and blend it for about a minute. And then you run it through like a chinois or to be doubly sure you get all the solids out like a coffee filter, which I did. And then you add a little measure of Campari to the drink. So that's going to add more complexity and a little bitterness to the cocktail. So from our Cranpari cordial, we're going to add one ounce of it. to our shaking tin. So one ounce Cranpari Cordial and now we will ice up our big tin. and we'll give it a 10 to 15 second shake. All right, we'll get that seal broken and grab our chilled glass from the freezer. And then just like Tim, we're gonna double strain to keep out any of those eyeshadows. And then like one trick anytime you're double straining to get out any extra liquid that it's just knock your big 10 against your mesh strainer there. And then we'll end by garnishing with a lime wedge and hang it off the side. And you have your room for improvement Cosmopolitan. Cheers. Now that we've built the cocktails, let's build the context. Tell me about the history of the Cosmopolitan. Well, despite it being a relatively modern cocktail, there are a lot of disagreements about the cocktail's origins. Girl fighting over the cocktails. Well, I mean, not really. And there's lots of different people claiming that they invented the cocktail. OK, well, who had it first? Well, One of the earliest claims was from Neil Murray, who was bartending in late 1970s San Francisco, and he takes triple sec and roses lime juice from the kamikaze, blends it with a vodka and cranberry of like a cake cotter, and then he calls it a cosmopolitan. It has vodka, roses, lime juice, and roses grenadine, and that version of a cosmopolitan makes the round of gay bars in San Francisco. But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, roses, lime juice, and just enough cranberry to make it pretty and pink. Because her idea, she wanted to create a more approachable drink than like a booze Ford Martini, but would still be served in the sophisticated Martini glass. Kind of going back to that conversation we had a couple episodes ago about martinis that aren't martinis. So we've got the 80s and the 70s. a little bit of a different San Francisco and my South beach Miami esque, but the ingredients sounded the same other than the 10 years later, you mentioned actual Citron vodka. why the San Francisco version apparently migrated to New York. And that's where Toby Chikini at the Odeon Bar in San Francisco hears about this and he takes the idea and transforms the drink into the modern cosmopolitan using more of like the ingredients we would use today in a modern Cosmo. So he gets rid of the roses, lime or... Yeah. So instead of roses, sweetened lime juice, fresh lime juice. Yep. Instead of a well vodka, he's using absolute Citron, which was introduced in 1988. So he's like, Hey, according to his story, this product was new. He was like, Hey, let me grab this bottle and see how it does. And this drink is he was reworking this drink. Okay. Then instead of the triple sec and like a Classic bottle of cheap artificially flavored. He brings in Cointreau. Yep, so high-end triple sec ⁓ And then he's going to finish the drink with ocean spray cranberry juice At that time ocean spray cranberry juice not cranberry or like a sweetened cranberry case Okay, so that like you notice like in the dream and they're classical drink, there's no sweetener. There's no syrup. All the sugar comes from your orange liqueur and your cranberry. And that cranberry cocktail juice. Okay. ⁓ That's three of them. But is there a fourth? Yes and no. Del DeGroff, who is like the godfather of the cocktail Renaissance. Uh-huh. He featured the Cosmopolitan on his menu at the Rainbow Room in New York City. And that's the one that I know of. Yeah, so de Groff has never made a claim to, he never says he invented the Cosmopolitan. He put it on his menu, it became a popular drink. Madonna would come to the Rainbow Room and she would implore bartenders, like, make me one of those pink drinks, right? Yep. ⁓ De Graaff made a couple changes to the Cosmopolitan, just minor adjustments and proportions rather than in wholesale ingredients. So he dialed back the lime juice to a quarter of an ounce and up the cranberry juice to a full ounce. Whereas if you look at Toby Chikini's original Cosmopolitan, he did three quarters lime, three quarters cranberry. The most notable ⁓ Contribution de Groff ⁓ made to the Cosmopolitan that set his apart Was instead of like a lime wheel lime wedge garnish. It was the flame orange peel So you hold the match warm up the oils and give it that little death layer Yeah, and you know de Groff is the one who went back to Jerry Thomas's book and sir bring back classic cocktails so This was a modern drink he brought into a bar that mostly otherwise featured old pre-perobition classic cocktails. Something to note, DeGroff was also in a Netflix episode of... Drinkmaster. Yeah. So, ⁓ I'm sure some of our listeners and viewers have watched Drinkmaster's, the cocktail competition show on Netflix. On one of the episodes, Gael de Graaff made an appearance. He was actually a mentor to one of the judges, Julie Reiner. And so he comes on and they talk about his importance and his historical stature within the cocktail renaissance. And they have him demonstrate how to make a drink. And he makes his version of the Cosmopolitan. And then one of the challenges on that episode is... for them to be inspired by Del DeGroff and his Cosmopolitan. And so, mean, that's certainly strengthened DeGroff's connection to the drink, even though he didn't invent it. So, we've got this, not necessarily battle for who invented the cocktail, because nobody's trying to jockey for whoever did. It just came about, and people were trying to put their spin, their perfection to it. So the Cosmo rolls around this 1970s, 1980s ish, whatever. It becomes a staple recipe about the 1990s though. Yeah. And so, I mean, I would argue if anyone can claim the drink, it's Toby Chikini. Okay. And partly that's because the Cosmopolitan in its modern form, he's the one who has all the building blocks put together. Yeah, you can adjust a quarter ounce here, a quarter ounce there, but the absolute citron or a citron vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice, lime juice, that's Toby. Okay. Okay. ⁓ you know, again, he drew on some vague ideas that use lesser quality ingredients, but the modern Cosmo would be from him. ⁓ but you know, it hit this peak in the late eighties, early nineties, but it was largely restricted to Manhattan. By the mid nineties, the Cosmo craze has cooled a bit, but then the late 1990s come. Okay. So let's, let's geographically stop. got San Fran, South beach, and now we're all the way up to fricking New York. We've gone to the trial. Like we're going to try cities. Yeah. Right. So in the 1990s, Sex and the City. Yep. That's where the cosmopolitan reaches like the stratosphere of popularity. So Carrie Bradshaw and her friends would frequently drink Cosmos on screen. Yep. And this reignited the drink's popularity and it expanded the scope of the Cosmo. from New York City to all across the United States because everyone wanted the same drink that Carrie and her friends had. There's a, so taking art into this visually, a pink drink looks sexier than a clear drink because a martini could have been just as fine as this is a martini based off our last episode or one of our previous episodes. It's in the V glass. It's there. But because of the color, it had to have been, we don't know. There's no documentation around this, but there had to have been some insight from those writers, the producer, the directors that it needed to be a colorful, sexy, pink, maybe not that actual color, but visually appealing, other than clear, drink. Well, and I think there's perhaps a gendered component to that as well. know, Sex in the City was a show that was largely targeted toward women, right? Versus, I mean, pop- culture and cocktails have always been intricately connected thinking about James Bond and like the vodka martini. Yep. Or mad men and the old fashioned. Right. So with sex in the city, the cosmopolitan becomes a symbol for identity, femininity, social ritual, like hanging out with your girlfriends. The Cosmo became aspirational because women who lived in the suburbs or in rural areas and had HBO subscriptions. They might not be able to go out for a night on the town in Manhattan like Carrie and her friends, but by going to their local bar and ordering a cosmopolitan, they could feel like they were part of the crew. Yeah, this, I mean, the Cosmo gave an an entry, entree, if you will, into the cocktail culture for certain individuals that may have not ever done it. Yeah. And it reignites and reopens the door for serious cocktails after those cocktail dark ages of sickly sweet drinks and artificial sour mixes, or just everyone ordering simple high balls of gin and tonic, Jack and Coke, you know, like these are sophisticated drinks. They're served up, they're shaken. It's not just done. There's more sophistication there. And when done in proper balance, mean, the Cosmo is a very well-made drink. I mentioned before off screen again, talking about how individuals kind of turn their nose up against the Cosmo for what it is. This is a sneaky good drink. Like a couple of these gets you feeling good because I mean, the alcohol content is a traditional cocktail and it's done in the correct balanced way. Like before turning your nose up against this drink. Give it a try again, especially with the correct ingredients. Yeah. And it's one of those things just recognizing that this drink served a pivotal moment, like before people started going back to the bar and ordering Negroni's and last words, right? Is that people had fallen out of that habit of ordering a shaken or stirred cocktail like that, a properly balanced drink. The Cosmo was that entryway back into the door drinking out of martini glasses or coupes and things like that. Again, it's also part of that 1990s era where everything was a martini because it was served in a V-Glass. I mean, we can't go to every bar. I would say that most bars that we walk into now, if you're going to your traditional dive bar, are probably not going to have a V-shaped or martini glass. That's not the bar that you're also going to order a Cosmo. That's also the bar that you're probably not going to order a Negroni, right? Different restaurants are there for different needs. Different bars are there for different needs. If it says cocktail bar, you're going to experience a different thing than if it's a sports bar. Absolutely. So let's break down this little piece of maybe the cosmos. Yeah. Let's talk about it then. So your base spirit is vodka. Again, the modern cosmopolitan was based around the introduction of Absolute Citron. You could use grapevines. That is specific. Yeah, that was the first Citron flavored vodka, one of the first flavored vodkas, period. Now there's since have come, as we mentioned, in making the cocktails, other people have come on and made their own citrus versions of vodka. And of course, the world of flavored vodkas has expanded, I mean, to the point where it's kind of ridiculous like whipped cream vodka or something like that. Vanilla whipped cream vodka. Yeah. Yeah. So again, Absolute Citron is the early one. It's kind of still a standard brand and it's a quality brand. The next thing I would have to point out would definitely be the other ingredient, which was either triple sec, Cointreau or some other combination of orange liqueur like you did for using a shrub or an agricultural orange, right? Like that has tremendously played an impact on the variations of a cosmopolitan. Yeah, I think the main thing here is use Quantro or a higher end orange liqueur. You can get creative and play with the base like the Rim for Improvement version, but avoid cheap artificial triple sex. Like if it comes in a plastic bottle, I would avoid it if you want a well-made Cosmopolitan. A non-negotiable though is fresh lime juice. Yeah, not Rose's Lime. You're not going back to that original recipe of a Rose's Lime. Even, mean, at bare minimum go with a bottled lime juice. At least it's shelf stable, still adds some acidity, some brightness to it, but fresh lime juice and those oils, those oils help play into the cocktail, adding a little bit more viscosity. Letting it layer as it goes down. I mean it does play into the cocktail so non-negotiable Use line juice not roses line. Mm-hmm Next let's talk about the cranberry Yeah, so the cranberry juice helps provide the signature color of the drink, but it shouldn't dominate the drink ⁓ The cranberry also adds Bitterness and tannin like if you just drink straight up cranberry juice it is bitter Right. Yeah, and like when we talk about tannins like in wine, it's the grippiness the astringency that kind of clears the palate That's why you drink red wine with like a fatty piece of red meat It kind of scrapes your palate and resets before the next bite. So cranberry juice kind of serves that function in this drink to some degree. But if you go to your local grocery store or wherever you get your juices from, because most of us are not squeezing fresh cranberries for juice, ⁓ take a look at that cocktail, the cranberry cocktail, and put it side by side with the pure cranberry. And you can clearly see the difference in the richness of how deeper of a color that you'll get. without having the thinned out version of the cocktail. And again, it goes back to the fact of if you use the cocktail cranberry juice, the sweetener in there may be consistent throughout the time because it's about always gonna be your ocean spray or whatever the version that you buy. But if that's the only sweetness that you'll ever get, that could be either too sweet or not sweet enough where if you get your own unsweetened, cranberry, you can dial up or down your own sweetness based off adding your own simple syrup like we did in my version of the Cosmopolitan. Yeah, and sometimes depending on the brand, like if they're mixing fruit juices too, like you might have pear juice in the cranberry cocktail juice and that's gonna throw things off. Again, in the classic recipe, using the pure cranberry juice and the simple syrup is a better choice. I'll also say just quickly to compare colors. Yours is deeper red. Yeah, and sometimes that deeper red color can signal an out of balance drink. In this particular version, the reason that this works is because it is whole cranberries blended with sure and water and then adding a little Campari, which is Very red. Yep. So that brings some extra color, but the Campari is adding bitterness and extra layers of flavor along the way. So essentially the Cosmopolitan is a daisy with the cranberry as its additional modifier. Absolutely. Instead of like a little simpler Demerara syrup, especially if you're using the cranberry cocktail juice, that's the sweetener. Okay. So Let's go to some of the bad, nasty history of the Cosmo. The, I hate this, it's backlash moment. Talk to me. Well, sometimes people have deemed the drink as an unserious drink. It's too sweet. It's basic, right? Is that... I'm okay with being basic. Is that people have dismissed the cosmopolitan because they're uncomfortable with drinks that are coded as feminine. It's pink. It's in a dainty glass. Only brown spirits are serious spirits. Pink drinks are frivolous. I challenge an individual to drink three of these and three old fashions. And I'm pretty sure they're going to be feeling the same at the end of the night. Yeah. And it's one of those things that yes, maybe the cosmopolitan got over sweetened in some areas, right? And bartenders, maybe as they were in the cocktail Renaissance, trying to move away from vodka. There are modern improvements, right? Yeah. that can keep the drink more balanced and have more complexity beyond the original. The addition of a Capare to yours, again, complexity, more booze. Yeah. Right? And then the split orange liqueur, more complexity. Yeah. Using that, agri-col adds this flavor bomb that isn't anywhere else. And that liquor by itself is... immensely potent, but using it in the scant amount that you did is perfectly fine for this cocktail. Yeah. And in this updated Cosmopolitan from Rune for Improvement, it adds complexity at multiple levels. And one of the weaknesses of vodka that many people would say is its neutrality, right? Is that it lacks complexity is that they're adding layers of complexity back into the drink by adding a subtle but balanced bitter backbone to the drink. Eventually we'll go into base spirits. We'll talk about the origins of vodka. We'll talk about the origins of gin, whiskeys, so on in later episodes because we'd like to do a deeper dive into those. But vodka in itself, like... flavor profile, most individuals that drink them don't have a palette to understand the nuances of the different styles of vodka. Right? I mean, we were both the same when we were first introduced, vodka brought alcohol to the party. That was it. Right? As we become more educated and nuanced in those, in that spirit, we know that that's not the case, but it still is delicate enough that it does get lost. when you start adding crazy complexity to a drink. As we close out of the Cosmopolitan, what is it important for us to think about? Well, the Cosmopolitan is an important cocktail because it connects like the history of gay bars to mainstream culture. It bridges like nightlife and clubs to the craft cocktail Renaissance. and it demonstrates the power of popular culture like with sex in the city. So the Cosmo isn't just this pink cocktail, it's pivotal. Yeah, it is a pivotal drink to the story of the rebirth of the cocktail in America. As always, we ask that you please make your own Cosmos at home, whether it be the classic or some other variation, an improved version. Ensure those with us, either via commenting, liking, subscribing, and putting a comment on our YouTube page or sending us an email over at podcasts at into the bar archive.com. Or if you're watching on one of the shorts on Instagram, tick tock. And now if you're following along on one of our audio versions on Apple or Spotify, let us know how it's going. Let us know what you like or dislike about that Cosmo, or if there are any other variations that you would want us to try. And if the cosmopolitan was the drink that defined the 1990s, on our next episode we will tackle the drink that defines America. What is that? The margarita. Yeah, it's endlessly riffed on, regionally adapted, and globally recognized, and will trace the contested origins of the margarita, its rise to dominance, and why it remains the reigning heavyweight of American cocktail culture. I guess until then, raise a pale pink glass and drink that changed the bar. and thanks for digging into the past with us here on Into the Bar-Cive. Cheers!