Chill a conical-shaped cocktail glass, then pour the following into a shaker tin:
2 ounces (60 mL) Absolut Citron vodka
1 ounce (30 mL) Cointreau
1 ounce (30 mL) lime juice
.5 ounce (15 mL) cranberry juice
Add ice to the shaker tin and vigorously shake, then strain into the chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. Melissa says, “The color should be a pale ballet pink and cloudy from the fresh lime juice and ice—clean and refreshing like a pink lemonade for grownups."
Melissa Huffsmith-Roth Cosmopolitan Spring /Summer1989 NYC
Patrick "Patty" Mitten first showed Huffsmith how to make the San Francisco Cosmopolitan in January of 1988 at Life Cafe with plain/well vodka, triple sec, Rose's lime, and cranberry juice. She then took a bartender job at The Odeon in the spring of 1989 and upgraded her recipe.
Madonna / EDB Image Archive/AlamyStock
Best viewed on a desktop, laptop, or tablet.
The Cosmopolitan Cocktail: An Investigative History
An objective account based on my research drawing on interviews, correspondence, newspaper archives, and published sources collected between 2006 and the present.
Who invented the Cosmopolitan cocktail?
The historical record is more complicated than one name.
No single, verifiable origin point for the Cosmopolitan cocktail has been established. Instead, the historical record shows multiple bartenders in different cities, working independently across roughly a fourteen-year span, arriving at a similar drink: a Kamikaze (vodka, triple sec, lime) modified with a splash of cranberry juice and served up in a cocktail glass. Several of them, unaware of the others, called it a "Cosmopolitan."
What is not in dispute is that the cocktail's global fame is owed to the HBO series *Sex and the City* (1998–2004), which aired during the height of the "flavored martini" trend. Before the show, the drink existed in scattered bars in San Francisco, New York, Miami Beach, and elsewhere, largely unknown outside those cities. After the show, dozens of individuals and establishments began asserting authorship.
Cocktail historian Gary Regan began investigating the drink's origins in the mid-1990s. I began independent research in 2006, expanded it substantially in 2016 while writing The Cocktail Companion: A Guide to Cocktail History, Culture, Trivia and Favorite Drinks, and continued gathering interviews and documentation afterward. We corresponded regularly about our findings until Regan's death in 2019.
Possible Precursors
Cosmopolitan Daisy (1933)
A cocktail by this name appears in the 1933 book Pioneers of Mixing Drinks at Elite Bars (American Travelling Mixologists). It is made with gin, Cointreau, lemon juice, and raspberry syrup, garnished with raspberry. It shares a name and a pink color with the modern Cosmopolitan, and the orange liqueur, but differs in every other ingredient. Whether it should be considered an ancestor of the modern drink is a matter of interpretation rather than settled fact; the two recipes have only one ingredient in common.
The Harpoon (1968)
Ocean Spray's promotional recipe booklet Mix Around with Cranberry Juice included a drink called the "Harpoon" — equal parts cranberry juice and vodka, rum, or gin, served over ice with an optional citrus splash. It lacks orange liqueur and is served on the rocks rather than up, but it establishes that the spirit-plus-cranberry-juice combination was already in commercial circulation well before any of the bartender claims discussed below.
Neal Murray
Golden Valley, Minnesota to San Francisco, California (1975-1989)
Neal Murray states that he created his version of the Cosmopolitan in 1975 while bartending at the Cork 'n Cleaver Steakhouse in Golden Valley, Minnesota, before later popularizing it in San Francisco.
According to Murray's account, he began working at the Cork 'n Cleaver as an inexperienced but quick-study bartender, and one autumn night experimented by adding a splash of cranberry juice to a Kamikaze (itself an evolution of the Vodka Gimlet), shaking it and straining it into a stemmed glass. A regular customer, on seeing the pink drink, reportedly said "How cosmopolitan!" — supplying the name.
Two people have confirmed witnessing Murray's Cosmopolitan at the Cork 'n Cleaver in 1975; two additional corroborating witnesses have not yet been located. Four people in San Francisco in the early 1980s confirmed the drink's presence there.
Murray moved to San Francisco in 1979. In 1981, he began working at the Elite Café, where he introduced the drink to fellow bartender Michael Brennan, who confirmed knowing Murray and making the cocktail there but was not aware he may have been the first in the city to do so. Elite Café co-owner Tom Clendening, contacted in 2019, confirmed that one of his employees invented the Cosmopolitan and that the bar served "up" cocktails in a 4.5 oz Libbey Retro Cocktail glass (#8882)—the same glass style later associated with several other early Cosmopolitan claims.
Additional Elite Café staff, including waiter Hugh Tennent, were interviewed by phone and recalled Murray, Brennan, and the drink, though not all details were independently corroborated (co-worker Willie Karnofsky recalled the Elite Café period generally but not the Cosmopolitan specifically).
Neal's Cosmopolitan recipe as given to me.
Pour the following into a shaker tin with ice:
1.5 ounces (45 mL) Gordon’s vodka
.75 ounce (22 mL) Leroux triple sec
.75 ounce (22 mL) Rose’s lime juice cordial
.5 ounce (15 mL) cranberry juice
Shake, then strain into a conical-shaped cocktail glass.
Garnish with a lime wedge.
Murray later worked at Café Royale (1984) and Fog City Diner (1985–1986), where he created a rum-based variant called the Barbados Cosmopolitan, which restaurateur Douglas "BIX" Biederbeck later adopted for his own restaurant, BIX. In a 2017 interview, Biederbeck confirmed he hired Murray and said the drink was popular; his 2008 book Bixology also notes that the Cosmopolitan "had only recently been invented" around that time in San Francisco. Fog City Diner co-owner and chef Cindy Pawlcyn separately confirmed by email that the Cosmopolitan was served and popular there, describing it as one of her favorites.
Murray later worked at Julie's Supper Club, owned by Julie Ring, and Miss Pearl's Jam House (1989), where he introduced a tequila-and-aloe-vera variant, the Cactus Cosmo. Crescent Bartending School founder Ricky Richard confirmed that the Cosmopolitan entered his school's curriculum around 1990.
John Caine
Provincetown, Massachusetts, Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio, and San Francisco, California (FROM 1984)
John Caine has been publicly associated with the Cosmopolitan's origin, particularly in connection with Provincetown, Massachusetts, and San Francisco. In direct correspondence, Caine stated plainly: "I did not invent the Cosmo."
Caine says he first heard of the drink around 1984 while working at The Rusty Scupper in Cleveland, Ohio, through co-workers who described the cocktail circulating in Provincetown's gay nightlife scene. He later tended bar in Cincinnati before moving to San Francisco in 1987, where he worked at Julie's Supper Club and taught staff to make the drink; the owner reportedly introduced him to customers as its inventor, a credit Caine says he did not personally claim.
No documentation beyond Caine's own account has been obtained for the Provincetown or Cleveland origin story. Of fifteen people contacted who lived in Provincetown in the 1980s, four responded, and none recalled a cocktail called the Cosmopolitan from that period — including one longtime bar owner. Because the Cosmopolitan is independently documented in San Francisco starting in 1981, the drink Caine's Cleveland co-workers described from their trips may have been encountered in San Francisco rather than Provincetown, though this has not been confirmed.
Caine has his Famous Cosmopolitan on the menu at his restaurant, AT Water Tavern, in San Francisco. A patron posted about Caine's famous cocktail on Instagram in 2025. Caine has closed his Facebook account.
A separate, uncorroborated account comes from bartender Tom Richter, who says the Cosmopolitan (made with fresh lime juice) was already being served at San Francisco's Zuni Café in 1987.
Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City, Season 5, 2002. HBO / Photofest
Photos by Cheryl Charming
1970s Neal Murray. Photo by Neal Murray.
1981 photo of the Cork ’n Cleaver Steakhouse in Golden Valley,MN
slphistory.org/wayzatabuildingsnorth
2017 Neal Murray. Photo by Neal Murray.
Patrick “Patty” Mitten
San Francisco, California to NYC (1987)
Patrick "Patty" Mitten says he first learned of the Cosmopolitan from his manager at the Patio Café in San Francisco's Castro district, who described it as "a Kamikaze with cranberry but served as a Martini." In 1987, Mitten relocated to New York City on the weekend of September 27 for the closing of the famous Paradise Garage nightclub (84 King Street). In October, he took a bartender position in the East Village at the Life Café (343 E 10th St B), where he taught the recipe to co-workers, including Melissa Huffsmith-Roth and Peter Pavia.
Both Huffsmith and Pavia independently corroborated learning the drink from Mitten at Life Café around January 1988. Life Café's then-owner, Kathleen "Kathy" Life, confirmed by email that Mitten, Huffsmith, and Pavia all worked for her during this period and gave positive character references for each.
This provides a plausible bartender-to-bartender route:
Minnesota → San Francisco → New York City
It is one of the most consequential findings in this research because it helps explain how a cocktail already known on the West Coast could appear in New York before the version that would later become internationally famous.
Melissa Huffsmith-Roth
NYC (1989)
Melissa Huffsmith-Roth left Life Café for a bartending position at The Odeon in April 1989. There, she introduced the drink to bar manager Paul Bacsik and upgraded the recipe with the newly released Absolut Citron, Cointreau, and fresh lime juice. Bacsik, contacted independently, corroborated learning the drink from Huffsmith at The Odeon in 1989.
Huffsmith is the co-worker identified, though not named, in Toby Cecchini's 2003 memoir as the person who introduced him to a cocktail from a San Francisco friend. Huffsmith has confirmed she is the "Melissa" ("Mesa") described in Cecchini's book.
Melissa's Cosmopolitan recipe as given to me.
Chill a conical-shaped cocktail glass, then pour the following into a shaker tin:
2 ounces (60 mL) Absolut Citron vodka
1 ounce (30 mL) Cointreau
1 ounce (30 mL) lime juice
.5 ounce (15 mL) cranberry juice
Add ice to the shaker tin and vigorously shake, then strain into the chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. Melissa says, “The color should be a pale ballet pink and cloudy from the fresh lime juice and ice—clean and refreshing like a pink lemonade for grownups".
I asked Melissa if she remembered working with a co-worker named Toby Cecchini, and she confirmed, saying, “Yep! I know he wrote a book and claims ownership of the Cosmo recipe. I haven’t read the book, but if there is a Melissa in there, then it’s me.” She also mentioned that Cecchini was a waiter when she started working at The Odeon in April 1989 and was promoted to bartender by Bacsik in the fall of 1989.
Chef Stephen Lyle, who worked at The Odeon during this period, independently confirmed that the Cosmopolitan was well established there and remained his wife's regular drink years later.
Patrick "Patty" Mitten in the 1980s. Photo by Patty Mitten.
Patrick "Patty" Mitten in 2016.
Melissa Huffsmith in the 1980s.
Melissa Huffsmith-Roth in 2016.
Toby Cecchini
New York, New York
Toby Cecchini's account, as published in his 2003 memoir Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life, states that in 1987, a co-worker ("Mesa," i.e., Melissa Huffsmith) showed him a cocktail she had learned from a friend visiting from San Francisco, made with grenadine and Rose's lime juice. Cecchini writes that together they reworked it — substituting fresh lime for Rose's, adding Cointreau, using the newly available Absolut Citron, and adjusting the cranberry proportion and garnish — and that the result became widely known as the Cosmopolitan. The book opens the relevant passage with the statement: "I did not invent the Cosmopolitan... By every other consideration, however, it's my drink, for better or worse."
Several details of Cecchini's account have shifted across published interviews over time:
• The year he places the reworking has varied between 1987 and 1988 in different tellings; multiple former Odeon co-workers and patrons place his promotion from server to bartender in the fall of 1989 and his departure in 1991, which would place any bartending contribution after that date.
• His book attributes the source recipe to grenadine and Rose's lime juice; no other San Francisco- or New York-based source interviewed mentioned grenadine as an ingredient.
• His degree of personal credit has varied by interview — from "I did not invent the Cosmopolitan" (2000, 2008) to "It's my cocktail; I made it, yes" (2016 CNN interview) to "I'm the one who made the fucking drink everyone had to make" (2017 Norwegian interview).
Cecchini stated he was discouraged from providing further documentation, calling one line of inquiry "a dead end" and another "it's completely unimportant." He has not shared photographs from the period despite requests.
Toby's Cosmopolitan recipe as given to me.
Chill a conical-shaped cocktail glass, then pour the following into a shaker tin:
1.5 ounces (45 mL) Absolut Citron vodka
.75 ounce (22.5 mL) Cointreau
.75 ounce (22.5 mL) lime juice
.75 ounce (22.5 mL) cranberry juice
Add ice to the shaker tin and shake, then strain into the chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with a lemon twist.
Cecchini went on to manage Kin Khao (1991–early 1998), co-own Passerby (through the 2000s), and co-found the Long Island Bar in Brooklyn (2013). He has written for Food & Wine, GQ, The New York Times, and Saveur.
In multiple publications since 2016, cocktail writer Robert Simonson has credited Cecchini as the drink's creator, generally without reference to Huffsmith's role. Cointreau's promotional materials and several trade publications have likewise credited Cecchini individually. Gary Regan's early-2000s writing also credited Cecchini, though Regan's later research (2012, 2018) incorporated other claimants, including linking directly to my research.
Cheryl Cook
Miami Beach, Florida
Cheryl Cook stated that she created her version in March 1989 while bartending at The Strand in Miami Beach, at her employer's request, using Absolut Citron. She said she named it after Cosmopolitan magazine's March 1989 issue, which had a pink cover and featured an article about The Strand.
Cheryl's Cosmopolitan recipe as given to me.
Pour the following into a mixing glass filled with ice:
2 ounces (60 mL) Absolut Citron vodka
.5 ounce (15 mL) triple sec
.5 ounce (15 mL) Rose’s lime juice cordial
.5 ounce (15 mL) cranberry juice
Stir, then strain into a conical-shaped cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Cook's account has been corroborated by the bar's owner, Gary Farmer, co-worker Christine “Crispy” Soloperto, and a bartender who worked across the street at the time, Bob Dean; beyond that, documentation relies on her own recollection, supplemented by photographs. She had initially told Gary Regan she created the drink in 1985, a date she later acknowledged was a guess; 1985 is inconsistent with the known introduction of Absolut Citron in late 1988/early 1989.
Cook's version is notable for another reason: it used Absolut Citron, anticipating the citrus-vodka identity that became associated with the modern Cosmopolitan.
Miami Beach later honored her at its centennial celebration, where several hundred former patrons who remembered her Cosmopolitan attended. Cheryl Cook died in 2026. Gary Farmer died in 2025.
Cheryl Cook in the early 1980s.
2015, Cheryl Cook was honored at Miami Beach's 100th birthday celebration for creating the Cosmopolitan. Gary Farmer is to her left.
Dale “King Cocktail” DeGroff and the Rainbow Room
New York, New York
Dale DeGroff has stated publicly and consistently that he did not invent the Cosmopolitan, but that he popularized a specific recipe — using two ounces of cranberry juice for a deeper red color and a flamed orange peel garnish — after encountering the drink at San Francisco's Fog City Diner and later serving it at the Rainbow Room in New York. This color of the Cosmo appeared on Sex and the City. He learned the flamed orange peel garnish from bartender Pepe Ruiz in Los Angeles during the 1970s.
DeGroff has recounted, in interviews over multiple years, that an Associated Press photograph of Madonna drinking his Cosmopolitan at a Grammy-related party at the Rainbow Room circulated internationally, which he credits with boosting his career and subsequent partnerships with Absolut and Ocean Spray. Neither he nor independent research has established the exact year of the event or located the photograph itself. Cross-referencing Grammy dates, DeGroff's recollections of when the Rainbow Room reopened, and the availability of the three celebrities he names (Madonna, Sinatra, Dylan) narrows the plausible years to 1991, 1992, or 1994, with 1992 the best fit based on available evidence, though this remains unconfirmed.
DeGroff's Cosmopolitan recipe appeared in a November 1994 newspaper article in The Central New Jersey Home News — the earliest known newspaper publication of a Cosmopolitan recipe found to date. He later published the recipe in his own cocktail books, including The Craft of the Cocktail (2002).
1994 Newspaper Article Recipe
Chill a conical-shaped cocktail glass, then pour the following into a shaker tin:
.5 ounce (15 mL) freshly squeezed lime juice
1.5 ounces (45 mL) Absolut Citron vodka
.5 ounce (15 mL) Cointreau
2 ounces (60 mL) cranberry juice
Mix together in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass.
Flame the orange peel with a match and drop it into the glass.
2002 book, The Craft of the Cocktail Recipe
Chill a conical-shaped cocktail glass, then pour the following into a shaker tin:
1.5 ounces (45 mL) citron vodka
.5 ounce (15 mL) Cointreau
.25 ounce (7.5 mL) fresh lime juice
1 ounce (30 mL) cranberry juice
Add ice to the shaker tin and shake, then strain into the chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with a flamed orange zest.
2018 De Kuyper Video Recipe
Chill a conical-shaped cocktail glass, then pour the following into a shaker tin:
.25 ounce (7.5 mL) lime juice
1 ounce (30 mL) cranberry juice
.75 ounce (22.5 mL) DeKuyper triple sec
1.5 ounces (30 mL)Grey Goose Le Citron vodka
Add ice to the shaker tin and shake, then strain into the chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with a flamed orange zest.
A 2006 photo from Jill DeGroff. Dale DeGroff author photo for his second book, The Essential Bartender: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks.
1994 On Wednesday, November 16, in The Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick, New Jersey) the first known recipe for a Cosmopolitan is published in a newspaper. The recipe was contributed by Dale DeGroff.
How Did the Cosmopolitan Reach
Sex and the City?
This may ultimately be the most important question in the cocktail's history.
• A bartender could create a drink.
• Another could improve it.
• Another could carry it across the country.
• Another could serve it to celebrities.
• But none of those events explain why millions of people around the world eventually knew the name Cosmopolitan.
• For that, the story moves from bars to popular culture.
Candace Bushnell
New York, New York
Candace Bushnell, author of the 1994–1996 New York Observer column "Sex and the City" that inspired the HBO series, has stated in correspondence that she began drinking Cosmopolitans in the late 1980s/early 1990s with writer Bret Easton Ellis, and that she introduced series creator
Darren Star to the drink after they met in 1995.
She described it as her personal "signature drink," which carried over to her fictional alter ego, Carrie Bradshaw.
This provides one of the clearest direct connections between New York's real-life Cosmopolitan culture and the television series that eventually made the cocktail internationally famous.
Sex and the City
• The HBO series Sex and the City premiered on Sunday, June 6, 1998.
• The Cosmopolitan appears in the first episode before viewers are actually told what the characters are drinking.
• The first spoken reference identified during this research occurs in Season 1, Episode 7, "The Monogamists," broadcast July 19, 1998.
• From that point forward, the drink became increasingly associated with Carrie Bradshaw and her friends.
• Across the show's six seasons and 94 episodes, this research documented the Cosmopolitan being seen 27 times and mentioned by name six times. I made a video showing all 27 times.
• Season Two appears to have been especially important because the drink was repeatedly identified by name rather than simply appearing on screen.
That distinction matters.
• A pink cocktail sitting on a table cannot create millions of orders unless viewers know what to ask for.
• Once television audiences repeatedly heard the word Cosmopolitan, they could walk into bars and order one.
• And they did.
Was Sex and the City the First Television Appearance?
No.
Research into earlier television references uncovered a Cosmopolitan in a 1998 episode of ER, before Sex and the City identified it by name.
That makes the relationship between Sex and the City and the cocktail more precise: The show did not introduce the first known Cosmopolitan ever shown on television.
What it did was vastly more important. It turned the Cosmopolitan into a cultural symbol.
From Cocktail to Cultural Phenomenon
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, several trends converged:
premium vodka was booming;
flavored vodka had become fashionable;
large V-shaped "Martini" glasses were everywhere;
brightly colored cocktails photographed well;
celebrity drinking habits received increasing media attention;
and Sex and the City became an international success.
The Cosmopolitan landed in the middle of all of them.
Suddenly the drink was no longer merely a New York cocktail.
It represented a lifestyle.
Bars around the world put Cosmopolitans on their menus. Bartenders who had never visited The Odeon, the Rainbow Room, San Francisco, Miami Beach, or Minnesota were making them nightly.
By the early 2000s, books and articles began trying to explain where the drink had come from.
That is also when a complicated oral history increasingly became compressed into a single creator story.
Why the Origin Became Confusing
Cocktails rarely arrive with birth certificates.
Most are created during ordinary shifts by bartenders who have no reason to believe anyone will care about the details decades later.
The Cosmopolitan presents an especially difficult historical problem because several different events can reasonably be described as "creating" it:
• Creating the earliest known drink by that name
Introducing the drink to another city
• Changing its ingredients
• Creating the recipe that became the accepted standard
• Popularizing it within an influential bar
• Introducing it to celebrities and tastemakers
• Putting it into popular culture
• Making it internationally famous
• These are not the same achievement.
Treating them as though they are creates an unnecessary winner-and-loser version of cocktail history.
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1998 First known Cosmo mentioned and seen on TV. ER. s4 e17. The writer is Linda Gase.
I found it by looking through old posts on Webtender.com. Here is the exact post.
HERE IT IS! The first time the word "Cosmopolitan" is written into the script on Sex and the City. S1 E7 July 19, 1998. Below are the other five from S2.
What the Evidence Currently Suggests
Based on the interviews, witness accounts, published material, recipes, correspondence, and other evidence assembled during this research, the most defensible chronology is:
1975 — Neal Murray | Golden Valley, Minnesota
Murray says he added cranberry juice to a Kamikaze-style mixture, served it in a cocktail glass, and named it the Cosmopolitan in 1975.
People who knew him during the period have corroborated his account, although no known contemporary written recipe has surfaced.
1981 onward — San Francisco
Murray introduced the drink into the San Francisco bar community, including to bartender Michael Brennan at the Elite Café.
Multiple recollections place Cosmopolitans in San Francisco during the 1980s.
1987 — Patrick "Patty" Mitten | New York City
Mitten brought knowledge of the San Francisco Cosmopolitan to New York in 1987 and introduced it to coworkers, Melissa Huffsmith-Roth and Peter Pavia, at Life Café.
1988–1989 — Melissa Huffsmith-Roth
Huffsmith-Roth became an important link between the Life Café Cosmopolitan and The Odeon. She introduced the drink to Odeon bar manager Paul Bacsik and upgraded the recipe with the newly released Absolut Citron, Cointreau, and fresh lime juice.
1989 — Toby Cecchini | The Odeon, New York
Cecchini's 2003 memoir states that in 1987 he and Huffsmith-Roth developed a more refined version at The Odeon using Absolut Citron, Cointreau, fresh lime, and cranberry juice.
This formulation became enormously influential and closely resembles the modern standard. No known corroboration of his account.
March 1989 — Cheryl Cook | Miami Beach
Cook independently described creating a Cosmopolitan at The Strand using
Absolut Citron, triple sec, Rose's lime cordial, and cranberry juice.
Available evidence places this version in 1989, not the previously reported 1985 date.
Early to mid 1990s — Dale DeGroff | Rainbow Room
DeGroff refined and promoted his version of the Cosmopolitan at one of New York's most prominent cocktail venues, the Rainbow Room, helping increase its visibility.
The reddish color of his Cosmopolitan resembles the color of the Sex and the City Cosmo.
1990s — Candace Bushnell
Bushnell wrote the 1994–1996 New York Observer column "Sex and the City" that inspired the HBO series. She drank Cosmopolitans in New York nightlife
and introduced director and producer Darren Star to the cocktail.
1998–2004 — Sex and the City
The television series transformed the Cosmopolitan from a popular cocktail into an international cultural icon.
So, again, who invented the Cosmopolitan cocktail?
No single answer adequately describes the evidence.
If "invented" means the earliest presently documented oral account of a vodka, orange liqueur, lime, and cranberry drink called the Cosmopolitan, Neal Murray's 1975 account is the earliest uncovered in this research.
If the question is who created the premium-ingredient formulation that became strongly associated with the modern Cosmopolitan, Toby Cecchini and Melissa Huffsmith-Roth occupy an important place in that history.
If the question is who independently developed an early citrus-vodka Cosmopolitan, Cheryl Cook's 1989 Miami Beach version deserves inclusion.
If the question is who helped refine and popularize the cocktail within New York's modern cocktail culture, Dale DeGroff belongs in the story.
And if the question is what made the Cosmopolitan internationally famous, the answer is overwhelmingly Sex and the City.
Those conclusions can coexist.
Cocktail history does not require one person's contribution to erase another's.
A Note About Historical Research
Cocktail history changes.
A menu can surface in an attic. An old bartender can recognize a photograph. A newspaper archive can be digitized. A forgotten recipe book can appear online. Someone who was sitting at a bar forty years ago can provide a name that connects two previously unrelated stories.
That is why this page does not present oral recollections as indisputable facts or assume that the current evidence will necessarily be the final evidence.
This research aims to preserve what can still be documented while the people connected to the story can tell it themselves.
New evidence is welcome.
Research Notes
This investigation began after I became curious about the Cosmopolitan's history and its relationship with Sex and the City.
I began receiving emails asking if I was the Cheryl from Florida who had created the Cosmopolitan. It piqued my curiosity because, oddly enough, I was a Cheryl who was bartending in Florida and served plenty of Cosmopolitans—just not that Cheryl.
I began keeping information about the drink in the 2000s and undertook much more extensive research beginning in 2016 while working on my book The Cocktail Companion: A Guide to Cocktail History, Culture, Trivia and Favorite Drinks.
Over the following years, I contacted bartenders, bar owners, coworkers, witnesses, writers, and others connected with the drink. Whenever possible, I sought independent corroboration rather than relying upon a single recollection.
Some people remembered dates differently. Some remembered ingredients differently. Some accounts changed over time. That is normal when people are asked to reconstruct ordinary events that occurred thirty or forty years earlier.
For that reason, this page distinguishes among:
contemporary documentation;
• independently corroborated recollections;
• individual recollections; and
• my own interpretation of the available evidence.
I have not included personal or off-the-record information shared during interviews.
The chronology presented here represents the best reconstruction I can make from the evidence currently available. It should not be interpreted as a claim that every unanswered question surrounding the Cosmopolitan has been settled.
Quite the opposite.
Another menu, recipe, photograph, bartender, customer, newspaper clipping, or forgotten box of bar memorabilia may still add another piece to the story.
And if one appears, the history should change with the evidence.
The Bottom Line
The Cosmopolitan appears to have traveled a remarkable path:
Golden Valley → San Francisco → New York → television → the world.
Along the way, bartenders changed its ingredients, improved it, carried it between cities, served it to influential people, and made it their own.
That does not weaken its history.
It makes the history considerably more interesting.
The Cosmopolitan was not simply born.
It evolved.
---
This account synthesizes original interviews and correspondence conducted by Cheryl Charming with Neal Murray, John Caine, Tom Richter, Patrick "Patty" Mitten, Melissa Huffsmith-Roth, Peter Pavia, Paul Bacsik, Stephen Lyle, Toby Cecchini,
Nicole Willis, Dale DeGroff, Cheryl Cook, Candace Bushnell, Tom Clendening, Douglas "Bix" Biederbeck, Cindy Pawlcyn, Greg Harris, Steve Knapp, Michael Brennan, Hugh Tennent, Madge Walls, Katheen "Kathy" Life, Pamela R. Genevrino, Scotty Taylor, Jake Burger, Bob Dean, and Gary Farmer, between 2016 and the present, along with published books, newspaper archives, and contemporaneous trade press.
Fun Cosmo Media Facts
FIRST COSMOPOLITANS IN NEWSPAPERS
1987
Jason Kruse with the Black Liver Project shared the first known Cosmopolitan mention in an October 23rd San Francisco Chronicle article.
1994
On November 16, The Central New Jersey Home News was the first known newspaper to publish a Cosmopolitan recipe (New Brunswick, New Jersey). Dale “King Cocktail” DeGroff contributed his recipe.
THE COSMOPOLITAN IN BOOKS
1993
April 23, The Complete Book of Mixed Drinks by Anthony Dias Blue.
This is the first known book to mention the Cosmopolitan. The author mentions the Cosmopolitan at Julie's Supper Club in San Francisco. Thank you, Marco Dionysos.
November 1, Complete World Bartender Guide by Bob Sennett.
Thank you, Marcovaldo Dionysos! This book has a recipe and a color photo of a Cosmopolitan next to an Odeon matchbook.
1994
October 1, The New York Bartender’s Guide by Sally Ann Berk.
1995
April 1, The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic by Barnaby Conrad III
1998
May 1, The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century by Paul Harrington and Laura Moorhead
Paul Harrington and Laura Moorhead write, "No one seems to have bothered noting who mixed the first Cosmo. The moniker Cheryl Cook will occasionally surface, but it leads only to San Francisco, never to an actual person.
“Only a few years back, this drink was called the "stealth Martini," first by Barnaby Conrad III, author of The Martini, and then by its followers. Whether the name came from the Cosmo's covert kick or from its popularity among those unimpressed by the classic Martini is of little consequence now. We're just glad the cocktail crowd hasn't deemed it passe.”
2002
October 16, Straight Up or On the Rocks by William Grimes
William Grimes writes, "The cosmopolitan first surfaced in the late 1980s, and unlike other fad cocktails, it has not only survived but prospered. it may well be the most universally ordered mixed drink in America.
The image of vodka as a refresher, and the cocktail as a kind of sports drink, reached an apotheosis with the Cosmopolitan, one of the stranger success stories of the present day."
Dale DeGroff writes that he "Popularized a recipe that became widely accepted as the standard. I put it on my menu at the Rainbow Room in 1996. Shortly after that, Madonna was spotted drinking one, and overnight I was getting calls from as far away as Germany and Australia for the recipe."
2003
October, Cosmopolitan: A Bartender’s Life by Toby Cecchini
Toby Cecchini writes that he learned of the Cosmopolitan in 1987 from his co-worker Melissa and that they made it much better with new ingredients.
"We found it was surprisingly good, like a high-end, girlish Kamikaze."
2008
October 28, The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks by Dale Degroff
Dale Degroff writes, "The Cosmo’s roots are in the Ocean Spray company’s 1960s marketing campaign for cranberry juice. This is exactly what was done in the 1980s by Cheryl Cook, a bartender in South Beach, Florida, during the test-marketing of a then unknown product called Absolut Citron."
2009
March 25, Bixology by Doug “Bix” Biederbeck
San Francisco restaurateur, Doug “Bix” Biederbeck writes "BIX was the first West Coast restaurant to respark the current Martini boom. It’s a little hard to imagine that, only twenty years ago, the white-wine spritzer, gin and tonic, and occasional sweet drink were the calls of choice. The Cosmopolitan had only recently been invented, and there were about six vodkas known to man."
2018
August 28, The Joy of Mixology, Revised and Updated Edition: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft by Gary Regan
Gary Regan writes, "Boy, oh boy, has this drink caused some upsets. When the first edition of this book came out in 2003, no one was quite sure where the recipe came from, but much has transpired since then."
November 30, The Cocktail Companion: A Guide to Cocktail History, Culture, Trivia and Favorite Drinks by Cheryl Charming
Cheryl Charming writes that she kept a Cosmopolitan history file since 2006 but then started aggressively researching the cocktail's origin for this book.
2020
September 22, The New Craft of the Cocktail: Everything You Need to Know to Think Like a Mixologist, with 500 Recipes by Dale DeGroff
Dale Degroff writes, "The Cosmopolitan goes back to the test-marketing of Absolut Citron vodka. The Cosmo got young women cocktailing again; many were devotees of Darren Star’s HBO series Sex and the City, which made the Cosmo the most recognized drink in the world."
2021
November 4, The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails by David Wondrich
David Wondrich writes, "The Cosmopolitan is the only cocktail of the twentieth century to have attained the status of a household name. Like most famous cocktails, it has a confused and contested history, with American bartenders from coast to coast laying claim to either the invention or popularization of the drink."
2022
February 15, The Bartender's Ultimate Guide to Cocktails: A Guide to Cocktail History, Culture, Trivia and Favorite Drinks by Cheryl Charming
Cheryl Charming writes that she located co-workers, servers, managers, friends, and owners from thirty to forty years ago who worked with all who claimed the Cosmopolitan cocktail. "Two New York City bartenders claim to be the first to have upgraded the Cosmopolitan recipe using quality ingredients; however, only one has been credited. Their names are Melissa Huffsmith and Toby Cecchini. And there is Dale “King Cocktail” DeGroff, who independently upgraded the Cosmopolitan."
FIRST COSMOPOLITANS IN TELEVISION
1998
On April 9, the first known Cosmopolitan cocktail seen and mentioned on a television show was ER. It was S4 E17, and the writer was Linda Gase.
July 19, HBO's Sex and the City. The Cosmopolitan is seen in the first episode and first mentioned in episode 7.
2003
Girlfriends: Blood is Thicker Than Liquor S3 E22. Cosmo (04:03) & (14:48)
FIRST COSMOPOLITANS IN FILM
2000
On July 17, The In Crowd was the first known film to show and mention a Cosmopolitan.
The next known films are:
2001 Kate & Leopold
2002 Juwanna Mann
2005 Guess Who
2005 In Her Shoes
2006 Phat Girlz
FIRST COSMOPOLITANS IN SONG
2001 To be fair, there is a 2001 rap song that mentioned Cosmos, but I'm disqualifying it due to its lewd lyrics.
2002
On August 13, the first known song to mention a Cosmopolitan is
“Satellite” written and performed by Kay Hanley
"Red cosmos pink, They all toasted you blind, I needed another drink."
.The next known songs to mention a Cosmopolitan include:
2004 “Cosmopolitans” written and performed by Erin McKeown
Cosmopolitans and ladies, Looking for pills in draperies.
2004 "The Girl's Gone Wild" written by Bob Dipiero, Rivers Rutherford, performed by Travis Tritt
“Passin' around the Cosmo, wearin' out the cell phone.”
2004 “Virgo,” written by Christopher Brian Bridges, Douglas L Davis, Nasir Jones, Salaam Remi, performed by Ludacris
“Bartender put a Cosmo in that girl hand.”
2005 “Red Dress,” written by Graham Walker and performed by Babyface
“Stop for some cocktails, Let's set the mood, Have a Martini Cosmo or two.”
2008 "I Did it All" written and performed by Tracy Chapman
A Cosmopolitan, a Manhattan, Call me one, Pour a round for me and my friends.
2007 “Love Me, Hate The Game,” written and performed by M-flo
“Cosmo cocktails, topless models.”
2008 “Danny Callahan,” written and performed by Conor Oberst
“Some wander the wilderness, Some drink cosmopolitans.”
2009 “Grown Thangs,” written by Kenneth B Edmonds, Luther Vandross, performed by Luther Vandross
“Grab two more Cosmos, we ain't thinkin' about tomorrow.”
2009 “I Hate California,” written by Brett James, Matthew L Shafer, performed by Uncle Kracker
“Drinkin' pink Cosmos at the Sky Bar.”
2013 “Hollywood,” written by Oliver Jao Smith, performed by Maggie Rose
“Cosmos - everybody nurses, They get as trashed as we do.”
2015 “Drink On It,” written by Jessi Leigh Alexander, Jon Randall Stewart, Rodney Clawson, performed by Blake Shelton
“I could use another whiskey, And your Cosmo's gettin' low.”
2016 “Cheaper To Drink Alone,” written by Brandon Kinney, Jon Lawhon, Chris Robertson, Ben Wells, John Fred Young, performed by Black Stone Cherry
“High heels and high dollar Cosmos.”
You can find many more Cosmopolitan cocktails seen and/or mentioned in my Facebook Group, “Cocktails in Media.” Just use the group search bar. Cheers!
October 23rd, 1987. San Francisco.
November 16, 1994 The Central New Jersey Home News
