How to mix a perfect cosmopolitan cocktail

1. Put two and a half parts of citrus vodka, measuring with a jigger. (One part equals one ounce.)
2. Add 3/4 part of orange liqueur and 3⁄4 part cranberry juice.
3. Using a citrus squeezer, add 1⁄2 part of fresh lime juice.
4. Add some ice to our shaker to chill the tin down. Using the strainer, strain the excess water. Tamp down on the glass as you invert it onto the shaker. Make sure you’ve got a good seal, then shake it like you mean it!
5. Once the cocktail is well-chilled, flip the glass back up, tap the side to loosen, and remove the shaker.
6. Pour into a well-chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with one wheel of fresh lime floating in the glass.

Mmmm, the perfect cosmo!

I'm Allen Katz for howdini.com and today I'm going to teach you how to make one of the most popular cocktails of the 1990's, the Cosmopolitan. It's a simple refreshing cocktail that combines citrus vodka, with a little bit of orange liqueur, cranberry juice, and fresh lime juice.

We're going to start with our mixing glass, and using our jiggers as measuring tools, we're going to start with about two and a half parts of citrus vodka. Now once we've added the vodka, we can add the orange liqueur and that's about three quarter parts, and three quarter parts cranberry juice. One part equals one ounce.

Now to finish the cocktail, we're going to take our citrus squeezer and just add about a half a part of fresh lime juice, and fresh lime juice will make all the difference. You want this to be a very refreshing slightly tart cocktail.

Now, in the second part of our mixing apparatus, our shaker, we've simply added some ice to chill the tin down. Using the strainer, we're simply going to strain the excess water, and then of course the fun part. We're going to tamp down and you can tamp down fairly hard to make sure there's a good seal between the two parts of the shaker, and shake it like you mean it.

Now once you have the cocktail well-chilled, you're simply going to tap the side and it will release the two parts of the shaker. This is a cocktail that can be served ideally in a well-chilled cocktail glass, and it has a wonderful, very light, sexy pink color. Now to garnish the Cosmopolitan, you can either put on the rim or simply float right on top, one wheel of fresh lime. Enjoy. I'm Allen Katz for howdini.com