pink — The Cocktails — Beyond Reproach

2 ounces vodka
1 ounce cranberry juice cocktail
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce triple sec (Cointreau)
Orange or lemon twist (garnish)

Combine vodka, cranberry juice, lime juice, and triple sec in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake vigorously until frosty.

Strain into a chilled martini glass. I recommend double straining to capture any ice shards broken off in the shaker. Garnish with an orange or lemon twist if desired.

There are few cocktails more immediately recognizable than a Cosmopolitan. This blush-pink cocktail with sweet-tart blend of vodka, triple sec, cranberry and lime juices served in a tall martini glass is completely synonymous with 1999 or the early 2000s. That’s because, while the cocktail was around earlier and had some moderate popularity, the cosmo didn’t become the ubiquitous girly drink we know it as today until it appeared in the second season of Sex and the City in 1999. After that the drink made several cameos on the show, and for a good decade became one of, if not the, most popular cocktail in America.

So we know why the cosmo blew up in 1999, but we don’t know exactly who invented it or when or where, because about a dozen different origin stories exist.

Some people believe it evolved from a 1930s era cocktail called a Cosmopolitan Daisy that was made with gin, Cointreau, Lemon Juice, and Raspberry Syrup. Others believe it was invented by the gay community in Provincetown in the 60s or 70s. Some say it came out of Ocean Spray’s quest for easy cranberry juice cocktails in the 1960s. A very popular cocktail called the Harpoon is basically a cosmo without the triple sec, so many believe that’s where they come from. Others believe it was a play on a Kamikaze. Bartending legend and author Gaz Regan, believes the original Cosmopolitan was created in 1985 in Miami Beach by bartender Cheryl Cook when she added citrus flavored vodka and cranberry juice to a Kamikaze and served it in a Martini glass. Some believe that Dale DeGroff came up with the cosmo at the Rainbow Room in New York, and others still believe that Toby Cecchini first did at New York’s Odeon restaurant in Tribeca.

What we do know is that before Sex and the city, Cecchini’s Odeon version using Absolut Citron and Cointreau was by far the most popular and well known recipe out there. The Odeon was a very trendy restaurant and the cosmo spread from there all over Manhattan, which is probably how it landed on Sex and the City in the first place.

And the rest is history.

1 oz White Crème de Cacao
1 oz Crème de Noyaux
2 oz Heavy cream
Freshly grated nutmeg for garnish

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake until frosty and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.

In the 1970s, cream-based cocktails were taking the country by storm. There was the white Russian, the Brandy Alexander, the Grasshopper, the Golden Cadillac, and of course, the Pink Squirrel.

This sweet and creamy cocktail is made with heavy cream, white crème de cacao, and a deep red French almond flavored liqueur called Crème de Noyaux which gives the cocktail a delicate pale pink color when combined with the heavy cream. Invented in the 1940s by Bryant Sharp at Bryant's Cocktail Lounge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it may have originally called for ice cream rather than heavy cream. In the 50’s it was often served at Wisconsin supper clubs, old-school restaurants best known for their meat-and-potato prix fixe menus. These supper clubs were also known for serving boozy milkshake cocktails, so the Pink Squirrel fit right in.

In the 60s though, heavy cream was swapped for the ice cream, and that’s when the Pink Squirrel made it out of Wisconsin and into bars across the country. By the 70s, it was everywhere, and it stayed popular through the 90s. The cocktail was mentioned by name in the 1988 Tom Cruise movie Cocktail, and in several 1990s sitcoms, like Roseanne, Ellen, & The Nanny.

Eventually, the Pink Squirrel faded into obscurity but today it’s actually having a bit of a resurgence in young hip bars across the country. When asked about the Pink Squirrel, the bar manager at Xanadu, the rooftop bar at the McCarren Hotel in Williamsburg Brooklyn, said, "Being in New York at the time of this Prohibition revival was great, and it was great to enjoy these beautiful classic cocktails of that era, but now it's fun to enjoy these cool drinks that were popular in the 70s and 80s. The Pink Squirrel is sort of one of those cocktails that our mothers drank when they were in college. It's one of those late-70s, trendy cocktails that people were drinking in New York especially."