Entertainment
What is a Cosmopolitan and did Sex and the City invent it?
The pink cocktail is synonymous with SATC (Picture: HBO / REX / Getty)
When you think of Sex and the City, one of the first things that will spring to mind for many is the lead characters’ signature cocktail.
Yes, we had fashion, passion, romance and long-lasting, life-affirming friendships – but one of the most memorable cultural artefacts that came out of the show’s reign was the love for a Cosmopolitan.
With the reboot, And Just Like That, hitting small screens today, the days of the Cosmopolitan being the drink of choice for groups of friends worldwide could be making a return – even if not every original cast member will be doing the same.
But what goes into a Cosmo – and were the SATC ladies the first ones to do it?
What is a Cosmopolitan?
As well as the title of a popular women’s magazine and a way to describe something with international flare, a Cosmopolitan is a fruity, alcoholic cocktail made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice.
Often served in a martini glass, it is one of the best-known concoctions served at a bar.
Charlotte and Carrie have moved onto rose in the latest spin off (Picture: SplashNews.com)
Did Sex and the City invent it?
Though Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha are somewhat inseparable from the dainty beverage at this point, the drink is not an invention of the 90s sitcom.
In fact, there is evidence for the cocktail being around as early as the 1930s – a similar recipe for a ‘Cosmopolitan Daisy’ appears in the drinks guide Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars 1903–1933, published in 1934.
Some 40 years later, bartender Neal Murray claims to have created the cocktail in Minneapolis when he added a splash of cranberry juice to a Kamikaze – a martini cocktail consisting of vodka, triple sec and lime juice.
The first taster replied, ‘How cosmopolitan!’, giving another possible origin story to the drink.
However, the cocktail’s big boom came in the 1990s when Carrie and co would order them often on their evenings out. Ever the trendsetters, the characters sparked a practice of fans ordering them all around the world.
The film adaptation in 2008 even made a passing comment about the drink’s popularity: when Miranda asks why they stopped drinking them, Carrie replies ‘because everyone else started’.
MORE : And Just Like That: Are the Sex and the City cast friends in real life?
