Benito vs. the Cocktail: Cosmopolitan

I can't imagine Humphrey Bogart ordering a Cosmopolitan. I'm not going to attack anyone for their preferences, but this falls into the "make it fruity and sweet so you can't taste the alcohol" category mostly desired by Girl Drink Drunks. But it's a useful cocktail to know, both for entertaining female guests and because the basic proportions and principles are a good baseline for improvising your own cocktails. You never know when you may find yourself stranded with just a few ingredients. And let's be honest, use quality components and it tastes pretty good.

Thanks go out to my partner in crime Paul, who tweaked and adjusted the ingredients over time to come up with the following eponymous recipe:

The Cosmopaulitan
1 oz. Vodka
1 oz. Cranberry Juice
1/2 oz. Triple Sec
1/4 oz. Lime Juice
Combine in a shaker with ice, shake or stir, and strain into martini glasses.

Ask for it by name, tovarisch!



Side note: I thought I was being clever by playing around with the ingredients and substituting pomegranate juice for cranberry juice. Later I discovered that this is... gulp... "Oprah's Favorite Pomegranate Martini". And I wanted to call it a Pogo.

Now, what about the basic cocktail recipe that I mentioned earlier? Others have written about this at length, and in general a lot of cocktails boil down to the following formulas:

2 parts spirits + 1 part liqueur + 1 part citrus juice
or
3 parts spirits + 2 parts liqueur + 1 part citrus juice

The Cosmo is loosely tied to the first formula. If you get bored some weekend afternoon and have the ingredients at hand, grab a shot glass for measuring and try a few of these combinations. Like Thomas Edison, be sure to keep notes on what works and what doesn't, and expect many failures. But with the 2:1:1, you can get a great Margarita. Use decent Tequila:Cointreau:Orange Juice, and hit it with a squeeze of lime. Boom! You can no longer appreciate green slushies mixed with cheap liquor.

And of course, once you discover some combination that works for you, say, Gin:Amaretto:Guava Juice*, then you can scale it to serve as many people as necessary. It's the beauty of math: with accurate measuring utensils, you could make a great cocktail in a thimble or in a swimming pool.

*I just made that up, but if anyone tries it please let me know.