Consider it as a Cape Codder up to date “for the trendy, Cosmopolitan-ordering vodka drinker,” explains Lauren Corriveau, who created the playful Coast to Coast throughout her time on the now-shuttered New York bar Nitecap.
Whereas the drink by no means made it to Nitecap’s menu, it was very a lot in line with a selected part of the menu that supplied jazzed-up takes on traditional “one and ones”—just like the vodka-cran—and requirements just like the Paloma or Tom Collins. “It was an actual showcase of our sense of caprice and a chance to redeem drinks that had been regarded as ‘lesser than’ within the cocktail world,” recollects Corriveau, now head of artistic growth and programming at Gin & Luck, the mum or dad firm of Loss of life & Co.
At first look, the drink seems much like the traditional Cape Codder, a blush-hued drink made with vodka and cranberry juice and served over ice in a Collins glass, lime wedge perched on the rim. However the elements have been fastidiously reconstructed to maximise taste.
Vodka stays the spirituous core of the drink; Corriveau specifies two ounces of St. George Spirits’ California Citrus vodka. “Squeezing a lime wedge into the traditional Cape Codder is without doubt one of the small touches that may elevate that cocktail,” she explains, “so I introduced citrus extra totally into the equation.”
The Bay Space distillery’s vodka helped encourage the drink identify, Corriveau says: “I wished to honor each the Cape Codder’s origin, in addition to the birthplace of St. George’s scrumptious Citrus Vodka.”
Instead of the much-maligned Ocean Spray, Corriveau engineered a sweet-tart cranberry shrub with frozen cranberries and apple cider vinegar. “Using a shrub made with actual cranberries, versus cranberry juice cocktail, allowed me to amp up the tanginess whereas additionally using a pure ingredient that hasn’t undergone as a lot processing,” she notes. In comparison with the beneficiant glug of cranberry juice that goes into the traditional, the Coast to Coast calls on a mere three-quarters of an oz of cranberry shrub: “It’s a extra intense ingredient than juice cocktail.”
Lengthening the drink with tonic water lightens that depth; tonic’s sugar content material and bitterness additionally assist replicate the mouthfeel of cranberry juice, whereas including refreshing effervescence. (“Plain seltzer would have made the drink style extra watered down,” she notes.)
To stability out the bitterness of the cranberry and tonic components, Corriveau provides three drops of a salt answer. The saline can also be “a playful nod to the Cape Codder’s (allegedly) maritime origins,” Corriveau says. Plus, “a bit salt by no means hurts a cocktail.”
The crowning glory, a traditional lime wedge, acknowledges the everyday Cape Codder garnish. It echoes the citrus observe within the vodka, and—just like the traditional—permits a visitor to switch the drink to their liking with a squeeze or two.
Ultimately, the drink could appear like the standard model, however its considerate elements make for a extra refined, amped-up rendition. Actually, it’s a good distance from the vodka-cran Corriveau remembers first serving as an 18-year-old cocktail waitress throughout a one-week bartending crash course.
“Does the Cape Codder want rescuing? No,” Corriveau acknowledges. However, “Is it enjoyable to get geeky and imaginative with it? Positively.”
