1.5oz (45mL) vodka, 0.5oz (15mL) triple sec (Cointreau, dry curaçao, whatever), 1.0oz (30mL) cranberry juice, 0.5 (15mL, about one lime) lime juice. Shake with ice, serve in chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with lime wheel.
It should be pink and slightly cloudy, not completely clear. Use pure cranberry juice instead of “cranberry juice cocktail”—which is really more like an apple juice with cranberries added to it, rather than straight cranberry juice. If you are not used to real cranberry juice, you may be pleasantly surprised—or you may completely hate it. Real cranberry juice is often sold in glass jars and requires shaking before you pour.
Experiment with the amount of cranberry juice, lime juice, and triple sec to adjust taste. The triple sec is sweet and offsets the tartness of the cranberry juice and lime juice. I prefer a more tart version, so I use more lime juice.
I understand most people use "cocktail" to be roughly synonymous with "mixed drink". but technically, cocktails are supposed to have liquor, sugar, and bitters (or ingredients that fill those roles). a cosmo has no bitters or similar ingredient. it's a highball.
I was taught that the only "strong" rule about cocktails was that it had 3+ ingredients. Every other rule (like sweet + bitter) has notable exceptions, ie. drinks like the cosmo substitute a citrus for the bitters.
Plus, the whole sweet cocktail thing was a more modern invention of the prohibition era to cover up the taste of harsh spirits. Plenty of older cocktails around.
EDIT: It kinda feels like the rule about email address parsing. The only good rule is that it has an @ symbol.
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[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 24.0 ms ] threadIt should be pink and slightly cloudy, not completely clear. Use pure cranberry juice instead of “cranberry juice cocktail”—which is really more like an apple juice with cranberries added to it, rather than straight cranberry juice. If you are not used to real cranberry juice, you may be pleasantly surprised—or you may completely hate it. Real cranberry juice is often sold in glass jars and requires shaking before you pour.
Experiment with the amount of cranberry juice, lime juice, and triple sec to adjust taste. The triple sec is sweet and offsets the tartness of the cranberry juice and lime juice. I prefer a more tart version, so I use more lime juice.
as an aside, I do like a good cosmo, but it's not technically a cocktail anyway.
Plus, the whole sweet cocktail thing was a more modern invention of the prohibition era to cover up the taste of harsh spirits. Plenty of older cocktails around.
EDIT: It kinda feels like the rule about email address parsing. The only good rule is that it has an @ symbol.
A review of The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture by Orlando Figes