Small Bites

Did you know Madonna was way ahead of Carrie when it cames to Cosmos? With the “Sex and the City” movie coming out, I’ve just written a short piece for tomorrow’s paper on the Cosmopolitan cocktail. We’re short on space in the paper, so I had to chop it down. Here’s the full version:

(Photo by HBO via ohgo.sh) 

The Cosmo
Liz Johnson
The Journal News
Carrie Bradshaw may have brought the Cosmopolitan fame, but another glam gal — Madonna — helped it come out of the cocktail closet a decade earlier.
According to author and mixologist Dale DeGroff in “The Craft of the Cocktail” (Clarkson Potter), the recipe originated from the test marketing of Absolut Citron. (DeGroff was erroneously given credit for inventing it by New York magazine, but he says it wasn’t his recipe.) He first started seeing it on menus in the late 1980s — first at the Fog City Diner in San Francisco and then at the Odeon in TriBeCa.
DeGroff added a flaming-orange garnish and put it on the menu at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan. Shortly after, Madonna was spotted drinking one, and people as far away as Australia were calling DeGroff for the recipe.
When the “Sex and the City” girls started ordering it in 1998, it was already well known in cocktail culture. But those pink drinks became the most popular and ubiquitous cocktail since the martini because of Carrie & Co. Here’s DeGroff’s recipe.

Cosmopolitan
Makes 1 drink
1 1/2 ounces citron vodka
1/2 ounce Cointreau
1/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce cranberry juice
Flamed orange peel for garnish
Shake all the ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the flamed orange peel by holding a lit match in one hand and an orange peel in between your forefinger and thumb, skin facing down. Snap the twist so the oil propels through the lit match and onto the surface of the drink.

Cosmopolitan
Makes 1 drink
Don’t have fresh lime juice? Try this recipe from drinksmixer.com1
1 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce triple sec
1/2 ounce Rose’s lime juice
1/2 ounce cranberry juice

Shake vodka, triple sec, lime and cranberry juice vigorously in a shaker with ice. Strain into a martini glass, garnish with a lime wedge on the rim, and serve.