While there are numerous claims to the invention of the cosmopolitan, some of which go back as far as the 1930s, it is most often credited to Toby Cecchini, a bartender at Manhattan’s Odeon Restaurant, in 1989.  It became popular in the 1990s, especially with young women, as a result of frequent mention on the television program Sex and the City, when actress Sarah Jesssica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, regularly ordered it at nights out with her girlfriends.  Some say that the cosmopolitan is the most popular mixed drink to emerge since the martini, and that it is responsible for the recent resurgence of the cocktail.

ice cubes as needed

2 fluid ounces citrus vodka

1 tablespoon triple sec

1 tablespoon cranberry juice cocktail

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

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1.   Fill a cocktail shaker two thirds full of ice cubes.  Pour in the vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice cocktail and lime juice and shake well.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

from Ray Foley, The Bar Guide (Williams Sonoma)