Cosmopolitan cocktail in a coupe glass with an orange twist

Cosmopolitan Cocktail (1934 recipe)

Name: Cosmopolitan Cocktail (1934 recipe)
Prep time: 3 min
Total time: 3 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: London dry gin — 45 ml (1 1/2 oz); Triple sec — 15 ml (1/2 oz); Lemon juice (freshly squeezed) — 15 ml (1/2 oz); Raspberry syrup — 10 ml (1/3 oz); Saline solution (opt.) — 1 dash

A berry and sour gin cocktail ∙ Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 19.7% ABV ∙

This early Cosmopolitan Cocktail is a shaken gin sour of London dry gin, triple sec, lemon juice and raspberry syrup, unrelated to the modern vodka drink.

Ingredients

Servings

Garnish

Orange twist

Instructions for 1 serving

Pre-chill a glass
Shake all ingredients with ice: London dry gin 45 mlTriple sec 15 mlLemon juice 15 mlRaspberry syrup 10 mlSaline solution 1 dash (opt.)
Fine strain into the chilled glass
Express an orange twist over the cocktail and use as garnish

Tips

Raspberry syrup is thick, so shake hard with large cubes for a full 12-15 seconds until it's mixed in and the drink is cold and lightly frothy.

History

The Cosmopolitan Cocktail (1934 recipe) is a gin daisy of gin, Cointreau, lemon juice, and raspberry syrup, listed as a "Cosmopolitan" in Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars, a 1934 compilation by Charles Christopher Mueller. It shares only the name and a pale pink hue with the modern Cosmopolitan and is considered a separate, unrelated recipe rather than a direct ancestor. The modern vodka, orange liqueur, cranberry, and lime drink has several claimants from the 1970s and 1980s; its widely imitated recipe is usually credited to Toby Cecchini at The Odeon in Manhattan in 1988.