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I love Cosmopolitan martinis. There, I said it. Does it make me a bad person for liking them? No, not in the least. However, there is a problem with them and that problem is number three. Anytime I have a third one it is a disaster. By the time the third one hits, I've long since lost what little inhibitions I normally have, I make innapropriate remarks at a rapid fire pace and at some point, I'm losing my clothes. Then the next day I feel every cell in my body saturated with sugar and alcohol, my brain takes several seconds to catch up to my body movements and nothing I do can take that nasty, gummy, blech taste out of my mouth. So I decided to try and find an alternative that left me with a touch of mental faculties and at least a hope of functioning the next day.

I set out on this experiment knowing only two things 1) that it needed to contain vodka and 2) that the resulting drink needed to be pink. It should be noted that I HATE the color pink but since I am trying to mimic a Cosmopolitan I had no choice. Since Ms Cocktail is rather fond of Cape Cods (a Cape Cod is a Cranberry and Vodka for those not from the Northeast) and they tend to be very pink the way she makes them, I thought it would be a good place to start. The next thing needed was the element of citrus brought in by the Cointreau in a Cosmo. Since I was trying to detoxify this drink, I opted for fresh squeezed orange juice rather than more alcohol although a little flavor in the vodka couldn't hurt. Finally, there's no better way to take the edge off a drink than to serve it over ice and water it down a touch.

The first try was remarkably close to what I was trying to achieve, it was really just a matter of dialing in the proportions. In the end, it took me five tries to get the proportions down to what I thought was correct. Of course, after five of these things I wasn't exactly sure that I was tasting what was really there. So after scribbling my notes on a somewhat intact paper towel, I went to bed hoping that I had gotten things correct. The next morning dawned, I was remarbably fresh given that over half a liter of vodka had disappeared the night before and I tried to read my notes. Thankfully, my memories of the evening were clear because the notes were not. The next evening I proceeded to scale things back to single drink size and apply exact measurements. The results of this exercise is what I call the Cape Cosmo.

Cape Cosmo

1 oz Ketel One Citroen vodka
1 oz 100% Cranberry Juice (Do not use Cranberry Juice Cocktail)
1 Tbs fresh squeezed valencia orange juice

Fill a tumbler with ice. Add ingredients and mix well. Serve with a lime slice.