The Cape Codder is simply vodka and cranberry juice over ice, with a squeeze of lime — a highball so plain it barely counts as a cocktail. It is also, in flavour, the Cosmopolitan's other parent.
The Cosmopolitan's quiet, tall ancestor.
Cranberry's Cocktail
The Cape Codder is named for the cranberry bogs of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It rose in the mid-twentieth century alongside bottled cranberry juice, and for decades it was the standard way Americans drank vodka and cranberry together.
A Step From the Cosmopolitan
Add triple sec and a measure of lime to a Cape Codder, swap in citrus vodka, serve it up in a coupe, and you have very nearly a Cosmopolitan. The Cape Codder is the long, casual version; the Cosmopolitan is the same idea dressed for the evening.
Keep It Simple
The Cape Codder is not trying to be complicated. Good vodka, a not-too-sweet cranberry juice, plenty of ice, and a fresh squeeze of lime — that is the entire drink, and it is enough.
The Cosmopolitan Family
The modern classic — citrus vodka, triple sec, cranberry, and lime, shaken and served up.
- 1 1/2 ozCitrus vodka
- 1 ozCranberry juice
- 1/2 ozTriple sec
The Cosmopolitan stripped to its frame — vodka, triple sec, and lime, no cranberry.
- 1 ozVodka
- 1 ozTriple sec
- 1 ozLime juice
The Cosmopolitan made clear — white cranberry and a whisper of elderflower.
- 1 1/2 ozCitrus vodka
- 1 ozWhite cranberry juice
- 1/2 ozTriple sec