The Cape Codder is a mixed drink made with vodka, cranberry juice, and sometimes a lime wedge or lime juice and occasionally a splash of soda water. The name, which dates back to at least 1964, derives from its use of cranberry juice, as Cape Cod is home to cranberry bogs and grower associations. The drink itself has many predecessors, including the Red Devil, which is made with the same ingredients as the Cape Codder and is mentioned in Ocean Spray’s Cranberry Cooperative News in 1945. Later mention of a similar drink includes famed bartender Trader Vic’s “Rangoon Ruby” in 1956. See Bergeron, Victor “Trader Vic.” As the Cape Codder, the drink enjoyed its greatest popularity during the “preppie” craze of the early 1980s. Other, related cocktails include the Madras (a Cape Codder with a splash of orange juice), Sex on the Beach, and Cosmopolitan. See Sex on the Beach and Cosmopolitan. In the twenty-first century, as New England has faded as a leader of American popular culture, the drink is most often ordered as a plain “Vodka Cranberry.”
Recipe: Combine in an ice-filled highball glass 45 ml vodka, 15 ml lime juice, and 75 ml cranberry juice. Stir. Garnish with lime. (Optional: top off with chilled sparkling water.)
Popik, Barry. “Cape Codder (cocktail).” The Big Apple, August 10, 2014. http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/newyorkcity/entry/capecoddercocktail (accessed February 22, 2021).
White, Donald. “Ocean Spray.” Boston Globe, November 19, 1964, 26.
Wondrich, David. Esquire Drinks. New York: Hearst, 2002.
By: Derek Brown