Vodka 301: Let's try some Vodka Cocktails!

Vodka, it pays the bills. Bartenders pour it chilled as shots or martinis. We'll serve it warm with rye or pumpernickel bread to sniff and pickles to eat. Some of you may have seen this, either in House of Cards or another medium. Russians would drink vodka in a way even more bizarre than how people would drink tequila. Give it a try sometime; you get a bit loopy. Eat some oily food, clink your glasses, empty your lungs, do the shot as you breathe in, smell the rye or your armpit, eat your pickle, laugh loudly, wait five minutes and repeat. Na Zdorovie!

Cosmopolitan
1 1/2 oz. Vodka. 1/2 oz. Cointreau, 1 oz. Cranberry, 1/4 oz Lime

Add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until well chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist or lime slice.

While I'm not personally a fan of Sex and the City, there's no denying the popularity of this drink. It seems to have come about in the '70s in the gay neighborhoods of Provincetown Massachusetts. At the time, it was not exactly the symbol of class and elegance it is today. Don't get me wrong, Provincetown is beautiful and the people are very friendly. But gay bars in the '70s were not exactly brimming with fresh juices and premium spirits. It was arguably Dale Degroff who revitalized the cocktail at the Rainbow Room in New York City. Madonna was photographed with the cocktail and it's been a staple cocktail in a bartender's repertoire. Sex in the City certainly also boosted the popularity of this drink among the national population. 

Vesper
3 oz. Gin, 1 oz. Vodka, 1/2 oz Lillet Blanc

Add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake it until it's ice cold. Strain into a champagne coupe. Garnish with a large slice of lemon peel. Got it?

As many of you probably know this is the drink that James Bond ordered in Casino Royale. It is certainly a bit dominant on the gin side, but it is a classic spin on the martini. There's a lot of speculation as to why the drink was ordered this way. "Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?" James bond is a man who knows what he wants. He said he only drinks one drink before dinner, but he likes it large, strong, cold, and well made. Sean Connery adapted this to be a vodka martini shaken not stirred. 

Moscow Mule
2 oz. Vodka, 1/2oz fresh lime juice, 3 oz. Ginger Beer

Add the ingredients to a copper mug with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.

This drink was created in 1941 in Los Angeles by a partnership between a ginger beer producer, Cock 'n' Bull, and a liquor distributor trying to popularize vodka in America as it had just been introduced to the United States after World War 2. In the fifties, there was a massive vodka craze. Prohibition ended not twenty years before and world war 2 less than a decade. People liked the easily mixable liquor and started mixing it with virtually everything. Smirnoff claims to be the original vodka for a Moscow Mule. They actually host a competition as to who can redesign the Moscow Mule every year. 

White Russian
1 1/2 oz. Vodka, 3/4 oz. Kahlua, 3/4 oz. Cream

Add the vodka and Kahlua to a rocks glass with ice. Gently float some cream on top and stir lightly with a sip stick.

The Dude abides. This drink came about in the '60s as a simple variation to the Black Russian. a white Russian is just a black Russian with the addition of cream. The drink really has nothing to do with Russia aside from the fact that the dominant ingredient is vodka. In the classic 1998 cult comedy film The Big Lebowski, the lead character, The Dude as played by Jeff Bridges, drinks White Russians. The fan base of the film is truly devoted so much so that they have even created a religion, Dudism, with 200,000 ordained Dudist priests. Given the devotion of the fan base, it's natural that The Dude's signature drink be given a rise in popularity. 

Special mention to: appletini, sex on the beach, martini, screwdriver, vodka collins, bloody mary

"If you want to be happy, be."
Leo Tolstoy

Photo Credit: Wikimedia, pixabay

Vodka 401: Evolution of a Cocktail: The Cosmopolitan

The Cosmopolitan has a crazy history building up to the drink we know today.

The Cape Codder could be called a jumping off point for the Cosmopolitan. The Cape Codder was just a highball with vodka and cranberry with a lime wedge. It was made in 1945 as a promotion for Ocean Spray cranberry juice. The elements are clearly there for a Cosmo to come about, but the style still had a way to go.

The Harpoon seems to be the successor of the Cape Codder and a precursor to the Cosmopolitan. Some served it as a highball but for many it was 1 1/2 oz. Russian Vodka, 2 oz. Cranberry Juice, 1/4 oz. Lime Juice, and was shaken and served in a cocktail glass. The Harpoon was one of the first serious American vodka cocktails. Vodka really didn't start coming over to the States until the forties, after The Second World War. The Harpoon was first made in the 60's. You can see by the recipe, it's 3 out of 4 of the ingredients of a staple Cosmo. It's certainly a lot tarter and less sweet. But the style is there. The drink is shaken with the fresh lime juice so it has that presentation. the slightly opaque pink hue in a sexy glass. And that's really what the Cosmopolitan really is, it's an icon.

The Kamikaze is another drink that's sort of three-quarters the way to the modern Cosmo. It's vodka, triple sec, and lime. Throw in a little cranberry and there you have it. The Kamikaze has been served all sorts of ways, up, on the rocks, and namely as a shot these days. Neal Murray is one of many to claim to have invented the Cosmopolitan. He reportedly added some cranberry to a Kamikaze and one of his customers remarked, "How Cosmopolitan." This was back in '75. 

The exact origins of the cosmopolitan, as we know it, are a bit up to speculation. A drink named the cosmopolitan did exist in the 1930's, but it used gin, Cointreau, lemon juice, and raspberry syrup. The base Cosmo as we know it probably came around in the mid to late 70's. There are numerous claims as to who first made it up. Toby Cecchini might have made up the current recipe at the Odeon in '88. The cosmopolitan with flavored vodka came about when Absolut was testing out Citron in Miami and a bartender by the name of Cheryl Cook in the mid-80's. Another story of its origin comes from Miami, this one from 1989 again as a plug for Absolut. There are also numerous murmurs of it being created in the 70's by the gay community in Provincetown Massachusetts, coincidentally where I used to vacation every summer, and probably spread to San Francisco or vice versa. Reportedly, however, the Cosmo of the gay bars was a ghastly drink with well vodka and Rose's lime and grenadine. In its later iterations, it began using fresh juice and more premium ingredients. 

I pay much respect to Dale Degroff, aka King Cocktail, for breathing new life into this classic cocktail, though he was certainly not its true inventor. He was the owner of Rainbow Room in New York atop Rockefeller Center. His recipe is 1 1/2 oz Citrus Vodka (Ketel One Citroen or Absolut Citron), 3/4 oz Cointreau, 1 oz cranberry juice, 1/4 oz fresh lime juice. I like the use of fresh lime juice rather than Rose's. This makes the drink a gorgeous opaque pink. If you think of a Cosmo as a sweet transparent red drink, you've not had a fresh one. The true flair he added was the garnish, a flamed orange peel. That sharp burst of fire drew quite a crowd. Even Madonna was photographed drinking it which spread the word of the drink around the world and probably led to it being featured on Sex and the City where is got a second burst of popularity. 

Miranda Hobbes: [at a bar, drinking Cosmopolitans] "Why did we ever stop drinking these?"

Carrie Bradshaw: "Because everyone else started!"

Photo Credit: Wikimedia