The Cosmopolitan is the pink drink that gets mocked and then ordered anyway. Strip away the Sex and the City cliché and the glass holds a tidy sour: vodka, orange liqueur, lime and a splash of cranberry. The cranberry is there for tartness and colour, not sweetness, which is why a well-made Cosmo tastes crisp and not like fruit punch. Below is the spec, with a glass you can change.

The spec, and how to make it

The International Bartenders Association (IBA) lists the Cosmopolitan as a contemporary classic with this spec: 40 ml (1⅓ oz) citron vodka, 15 ml (½ oz) Cointreau, 15 ml (½ oz) fresh lime juice and 30 ml (1 oz) cranberry juice. Other books vary the measures a little, so treat it as the common version rather than the only one.

Method: shaken. Put everything in a shaker filled with ice and shake hard for about 10 seconds. That chills the drink and adds a little water, called dilution, which softens the alcohol so the lime and orange can come through. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Glass: a cocktail glass or coupe, put in the freezer beforehand if you can. Garnish: the IBA uses a lemon twist; many bars use orange or lime. Squeeze the peel over the drink so its oils land on the surface.

Ingredient notes. Citron vodka is vodka flavoured with lemon; a plain vodka plus a little extra lime works too. Cointreau is a triple sec, a clear orange liqueur; any decent triple sec will do. Use the unsweetened cranberry juice drink or a 100% juice if you can find one, because sweetened cranberry cocktail is where the fruit-punch taste comes from. Fresh lime is not optional: bottled juice tastes flat.

Where it came from

Nobody agrees, and that is part of the story. Several bartenders claim a version. Dale DeGroff says a Miami bartender, Cheryl Cook, supposedly came up with it. Toby Cecchini says he rebuilt the drink at the Odeon in New York in 1988, swapping a sweeter San Francisco recipe for fresh lime juice, Cointreau and citron vodka. DeGroff, who helped spread it, put a version with fresh lime on his own menu. What the accounts share is the family tree: a Kamikaze (vodka, triple sec, lime) with cranberry added.

Why it works

The Cosmopolitan is a sour: a spirit, something sweet, and something sour. The Kamikaze skeleton is strong vodka, orange sweetness from the liqueur and a hit of lime. Cranberry juice adds the part that surprises people: it is tart, so it brings acidity and a thin berry flavour along with the pink colour, rather than sugar. That is why the balance falls apart in two directions. Too much cranberry waters the drink down and hides the lime. Too little, and you are back to a plain Kamikaze, sharp and almost clear. Try both with the buttons above.

Cranberry is a seasoning here: enough to turn the glass pink and add some tartness, never enough to drown the lime.

Strength is worth knowing. The IBA spec works out at around 17–18% alcohol once shaken, similar to a glass of port or sherry, and it is served small for that reason. Count it as one standard drink and pace it like one.

Variations, including one without alcohol

• Cosmo with plain vodka: use 40 ml plain vodka and add a lemon or orange twist.
• White Cosmopolitan: swap the cranberry juice for white cranberry juice. Same tartness, no pink.
• Lower alcohol: use 25 ml vodka and 10 ml triple sec, keep the lime and cranberry, and top with 30 ml of cold soda water. It is longer and lighter.
• Alcohol-free: shake 50 ml cold, strong, unsweetened black tea or a non-alcoholic citrus spirit with 15 ml orange juice, 15 ml fresh lime juice, 30 ml unsweetened cranberry juice and a teaspoon of sugar syrup. Strain into a chilled glass. It gets the tartness and colour; the tea supplies some of the tannin that spirits otherwise give.

Common mistakes

• Too sweet: sweetened cranberry cocktail and bottled lime cordial. Use fresh lime and a tart juice.
• Too weak: shaking too long with small, wet ice. Use cold, hard cubes and stop at about 10 seconds.
• Warm glass: a drink this small warms fast. Chill the glass first.

As with any cocktail, drink it slowly, alternate with water, and do not drive afterwards. The alcohol-free version above is there if you would rather skip it.