Cosmopolitan (cocktail) Cosmopolitan (cocktail) A cosmopolitan, or informally a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice. The International Bartenders Association recipe is based on vodka citron, lemon-flavored vodka. The cosmopolitan is a relative of cranberry coolers like the Cape Codder. Though often presented far differently, the cosmopolitan also bears a likeness in composition to the kamikaze cocktail. The origin of the cosmopolitan is disputed. While the cocktail is widely perceived to be a more modern creation, there is a strikingly similar recipe for a cosmopolitan which appears in "Pioneers of Mixing
Cocktail probable" the theory advanced by Låftman (1946), which Liberman summarizes as follows: In his book "Imbibe!" (2007), David Wondrich also speculates that "cocktail" is a reference to a practice for perking up an old horse by means of a ginger suppository so that the animal would "cock its tail up and be frisky." Several authors have theorized that cocktail may be a corruption of cock ale. There is a lack of clarity on the origins of cocktails. Traditionally cocktails were a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. But by the 1860s, a cocktail frequently included a liqueur. The first