Cosmopolitan

As a cocktail made famous by Sex and the City, you might be forgiven for thinking this drinks has roots in the '90s. But in reality, its origins can be date back to the mid-century! Back then, a variety of drinks appeared with cranberry juice and were called "Cosmopolitans". In a book published in 1934, "Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933", five drinks with widely ranging recipes called Cosmopolitans were documented, of which one was closely related to our modern Cosmo. Several decades later, int he '70s and '80s, multiple bartenders began experimenting with the Daisy cocktail format, eventually giving rise to the 'Tini era of drinks - neon-colored cocktails served in martini glasses but which were very much not Martinis in composition.

A few bartenders in San Francisco during this time have competing claims to the actual "creation" of the Cosmopolitan; the list includes such names as Cheryl Cook and Neal Murray. What is agreed on historically is that the pink Cosmo made its rounds in gay bars on the West coast during those decades, before eventually making its way to New York City in the late '80s.

The Cosmo's first big break came when Dale DeGroff of bartending legend created his own variation of the Cosmo recipe at the famed Rainbow Room in Manhattan. A photo of Madonna drinking a Cosmo circulated by the Associated Press proceeded to catapult both Dale and the Cosmopolitan to famed heights as never before. Although he never claimed to create the drink, Dale was cited as its inventor by many in the press and he has since been cemented as a cocktail great - to be fair, he had already well-earned his reputation before the misattributed cocktail, being the founder of Rainbow Room and the eventual pioneer of the craft cocktail revival. It is his recipe that we use for our classic Cosmo.

Of course, Sex and the City brought a resurgance of interest to the drink in the 2000s, and it has since been established as a modern-classic and must-have libation for all girls nights out since then.