The Cosmopolitan’s origins are a bit like a well shaken cocktail… multiple stories, a few conflicting ingredients, and a final product everyone agrees is delightful. Many mixologists trace its modern form to the 1970s - 1990s American cocktail scene. One influential claimant is Toby Cecchini, a New York bartender who in 1987 refined the drink at the Odeon in Manhattan, swapping in Absolut Citron vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice and fresh lime for a brighter, more balanced version. Other antecedents include earlier drinks with the “Cosmopolitan” name or similar flavour profiles, the 1930s “Cosmopolitan Daisy” and later Cape Codder variations, but Cecchini’s recipe is widely credited with codifying the cocktail we recognise today. There’s also a parallel thread pointing to South Beach and Miami bartenders in the 1980s who mixed vodka, triple sec and cranberry juice for a similar end result. The precise inventor remains disputed, but the modern Cosmopolitan emerged from this blend of Northeast and Florida bar culture.

The Cosmopolitan’s leap into pop culture was turbocharged in the late 1990s and early 2000s, mainly thanks to the TV series Sex and the City, where the characters frequently ordered pink cocktails that became visually synonymous with modern, fashionable urban life. That exposure turned the Cosmo into a symbol of cosmopolitanism (pun intended) being chic, feminine and a touch indulgent. As a result, its popularity exploded across bars and restaurants worldwide during the 1990s and early 2000s, riding the wave of cocktail culture’s mainstreaming and the era’s fascination with stylish, accessible mixed drinks. Though cocktail trends have since diversified, the Cosmopolitan remains an iconic late 20th century classic, forever linked to pop culture glamour and the boozy optimism of the 1990s.