Cape Codder

Yes. Forty-five ml of vodka in roughly 165 ml of liquid lands near 12%, about the strength of a glass of wine, and cranberry hides alcohol better than almost anything else behind a bar. Count them the way you would count glasses of wine.

One to two and a half, or one to three at the outside. The 45 to 120 here lets the cranberry lead without leaving you with juice and a rumor of vodka. If your bottle is the very sweet kind, pull the juice to 90 ml and squeeze more lime.

No, though they share a color and a bottle of cranberry. A Cosmopolitan is short, shaken and served up, with citrus vodka, orange liqueur and lime, and it runs roughly three times as strong. A Cape Codder is a tall juice-led highball you can nurse for an hour.

Fill the glass to the rim with ice rather than dropping in four cubes. A packed glass melts slower, because less warm liquid touches each cube. Keep the cranberry in the fridge overnight as well. Room-temperature juice does most of the melting before you take a sip.

A classic Cape Codder calls for 45 ml (1.5 oz) Vodka, 120 ml (4 oz) Cranberry juice. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Cape Codder is roughly 11% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it a relatively light, sessionable drink — similar in strength to a beer.

A Cape Codder is stirred, not shaken. It contains no citrus juice, so stirring keeps it crystal clear and silky instead of cloudy and aerated.