Cosmopolitan cocktail recipe

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The classic Cosmopolitan cocktail is just as sophisticated as it sounds

Pink Cosmopolitan cocktail in a martini glass with lime garnish
(Image credit: Arina Habich / Alamy Stock Photo)
Serves1
SkillEasy
Total Time5 mins

The cosmopolitan is one classy cocktail and great for a night with your best girlfriends. 

It's been a favourite ever since it became Carrie Bradshaw's signature drink on Sex and the City. We're sure you'll love our version of this classic cocktail just as much as Carrie did. It's brilliantly easy to make - you can whip it up in less than five minutes. We've use a lemon vodka to give an extra zing but you can use a straight vodka if you prefer. Other than that, you just need  Cointreau or triple sec, squeezed lime and of course, the classic cranberry juice to make it pink. This is a cocktail with style and substance.

Ingredients

  • 30ml (1fl oz) lemon vodka
  • 15ml (½fl oz) Cointreau or triple sec
  • ½ a freshly squeezed lime or lime cordial if preferred
  • 15ml (½fl oz) cranberry juice
  • Lime wedge, to garnish

WEIGHT CONVERTER

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Method

  1. Shake the vodka, Cointreau, lime and cranberry juice in a shaker with ice. If you haven't got a shaker mix the ingredients well with a spoon.
  2. Decorate a martini glass with a wedge of lime and sugar around the rim.
  3. Strain the cocktail into the glass and serve straight away.

Top tip for making cosmopolitan cocktail

If you can't get hold triple sec for your Cosmopolitan, just use Cointreau instead.

What's the best vodka to use in a cosmopolitan?

The lemon vodka we've used here gives a lovely extra tang to the cocktail, but if you want to use a straight one, go for the best brand you can afford. Cheap vodkas can be very harsh and this won't be masked by the other flavours in the drink. A good vodka is smooth and drinkable.

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Octavia Lillywhite
Food and Lifestyle Writer

Octavia Lillywhite is an award-winning food and lifestyle journalist with over 15 years of experience. With a passion for creating beautiful, tasty family meals that don’t use hundreds of ingredients or anything you have to source from obscure websites, she’s a champion of local and seasonal foods, using up leftovers and composting, which, she maintains, is probably the most important thing we all can do to protect the environment.