Name: Cosmopolitan Cocktail (Dale DeGroff's recipe)
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Citrus vodka; 22.5 ml Triple sec; 30 ml Cranberry juice; 7.5 ml Lime juice

Cosmopolitan Cocktail (Dale DeGroff's recipe)
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Cosmopolitan Cocktail (Dale DeGroff's recipe) image

Serve in a Martini glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Ketel One Citroen Vodka
³⁄₄ oz	Cointreau triple sec liqueur
1 oz	Cranberry juice (sweetened)
¹⁄₄ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Martini glass.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS flamed orange zest twist over cocktail, then use as garnish.

Review:

This is the definitive Cosmo recipe from the man most associated with the drink's development and popularity.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Cosmopolitan (Difford's recipe)
Cosmopolitan (1934 recipe)
Cosmopolitan (Toby Cecchini's recipe)

History:

In his 2002 The Craft of the Cocktail, Dale DeGroff explains that while he did not invent the Cosmopolitan, "What I did do was popularize a definitive recipe that became widely accepted as the standard." He also gives the above recipe but with just ½oz (15ml) Cointreau, a measure which he increased to ¾oz (22.5ml) for the 2020 Revised Edition of his book. This could be as much due to a reduction of sugar in Cointreau to conform with fashion since Dale created his recipe at Manhattan's Rainbow Rooms in the mid-1990s as his revisiting and polishing an old recipe.

Cosmopolitan
1½ ounces citron vodka
½ ounce Cointreau
¼ ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce cranberry juice
Flamed orange coin for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnish) with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the flamed orange zest coin.
Dale DeGroff, The Craft Of The Cocktail, 2002

COSMOPOLITAN
1½ ounces Absolut Citron vodka
¾ ounce Cointreau
¼ ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce cranberry juice
Flamed orange coin for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnish) with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the flamed orange zest coin.
Dale DeGroff, The New Craft Of The Cocktail, 2020

See Cosmopolitan cocktail history for Dale's role in the development of this contemporary classic.

More cocktails by Dale DeGroff

Nutrition:

One serving of Cosmopolitan Cocktail (Dale DeGroff's recipe) contains 166 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
18.91% alc./vol. (18.91° proof)
19.9 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Andy Shaw

22nd November 2024 at 14:56

I use Biona organic pure Cranberry juice, frozen in 30ml cubes for storage, with 20ml of 2:1 sugar syrup added. Tasty!

Suzy Francis

18th July 2024 at 00:36

Created this account to say this: Eager cranberry juice isnt your best bet as its main ingredient is actually Apple juice - only 26% cranberry juice. I found the cosmos i made with this tasted weird - i prefer ocean spray :)

Simon Difford

18th July 2024 at 07:32

100% cranberry juice is so intense and bitter that it is undrinkable (courtesy of Ocean Spray; years ago, I was sent samples to test as a cocktail ingredient). Hence, all cranberry juice drink products are diluted with other ingredients. Perhaps better that’s with other naturally sweet fruit juices than water and sugar/sweeteners. Please see “Ocean Spray Cranberry Classic Juice Drink” ingredients: “Water, Cranberry Juice from Concentrate (24%), Milled Cranberry Purée (4%), Sugar, Vitamin C, Flavourings, Sweetener (Steviol Glycosides from Stevia).”