Cape Codder (cocktail)
Ocean Spray (an agriculutral cooperative headquartered in Massachusetts) produced cranberry juice drinks starting in 1930. Pierre’s restaurant (52 East 53rd Street in Manhattan) was cited in Ocean Spray’s Cranberry Cooperative News in 1945:
“With cranberry juice he adds vodka arid a dash of fresh lime and comes up with a ‘Red Devil Cocktail.’”
“Cranberry juice and vodka, something new in summer drinks” was cited in June 1956. The Polynesian-themed restaurant chain Trader Vic’s was cited for its “Rangoon Ruby” cocktail (vodka and cranberry juice) in June 1957.
“America’s newest cocktail creation— The Cape Codder. Two ruby jiggers Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice. One jigger vodka” was cited in The New Yorker magazine in 1965. “Cape Codder” is the most popular name for the drink today. “Their counterparts in Miami and Palm Beach go for the Bog-Fog (vodka and cranberry juice — known to New Engenders as the Cape Codder)” was cited in Time magazine in 1966.
Wikipedia: Cape Codder (cocktail)
The Cape Cod or Cape Codder is a type of cocktail made with only fruit juice and spirits. The name refers to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the eastern United States.
Ingredients
A Cape Cod is made with vodka and cranberry juice, and may be garnished with a lime wedge. Proportions vary, with sources giving a recommended vodka-to-juice ratio of 1/4, 1/3.7, 1/2 and 1/1. while other sources don’t recommend precise proportions. Some sources recommend lime juice instead of a lime wedge garnish.
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Background
This drink was conceived in 1945 by the Ocean Spray cranberry grower’s cooperative under the name “Red Devil”. The “Cape Codder” name dates from the early 1960s.
Wikipedia: Ocean Spray (cooperative)
Ocean Spray is an agricultural cooperative of growers of cranberries and grapefruit headquartered in Lakeville/Middleborough, Massachusetts. It currently has over 700 member growers (in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Florida, British Columbia and other parts of Canada) as well as Lanco, Chile. The cooperative employs about 2,000 people, with sales of $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2013. Their products include cranberry sauce, fruit juices, fruit snacks, and dried cranberries.
Ocean Spray was formed in 1930, in Hanson, Massachusetts, by three cranberry growers who wanted to expand their market for cranberries. Led by grower Marcus L. Urann, who had created a cranberry sauce, the cooperative developed more cranberry-based products. In the same year Ocean Spray became the first producer of cranberry juice drinks with the introduction of Cranberry Juice Cocktail.
Google Books
Ocean Spray’s Cranberry Cooperative News
Cranberry Canners, Incorporated,
Volumes 6-10
1945 (Google Books date may be incorrect.—ed.)
Pg. ?:
IN the continental atmosphere of Pierre’s on 52 East 53rd Street, New York, the ultra-American cranberry juice is always on the menu alongside such French dishes as ...
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With cranberry juice he adds vodka arid a dash of fresh lime and comes up with a “Red Devil Cocktail.”
29 November 1955, The Oregonian (Portland, OR), “Behind the Moke” by B. Mike, sec. 3, pg. 2, col. 1:
West Shore Manor near Otter Rock was serving specialty of the house over Thanksgiving, the “Otter Crock,” consisting of cranberry juice, lemon and vodka poured over ice.
Old Fulton NY Post Cards
25 June 1956, Long Island (NY) Star-Journal, “Going to Town” by Hal Eaton, pg. 7, col. 6:
Cranberry juice and vodka, something new in summer drinks.
16 June 1957, Omaha (NE) World-Herald, “Fantastic ‘Trader Vic’” by Norma Lee Browning, Magazine, pg. 28G, col. 1:
He’s just a bartender, he says—the one who dreamed up such potent guzzles as the Samoan Fog Cutter, Rangoon Ruby, Suffering Bastard, Martinique Swizzle, Tika Puka Puka, and the Scorpion with a floating gardenia.
(Trader Vic, or Victor Bergeron.—ed.)
Google Books
25 November 1957, Life magazine, pg. 117 ad:
JUBILEE PUNCH. Pour over ice in a punch bowl: one bottle (fifth) Samovar Vodka, two quarts cranberry juice and a quart of sparkling water. Stir, add lemon juice for extra tang. It’s delicious!
(Samovar Vodka advertisement.—ed.)
Google Books
Say, Darling:
A Comedy about a Musical
By Richard Pike Bissell
Boston, MA: Little, Brown
1959, ©1958
Pg. 139:
MORTY
I’ll have a little vodka and cranberry juice.
TED
Cranberry juice?
MORTY
You don’t have any? Well then, give me something simple — just give me some plain Scotch and Pepsi-Cola
Google Books
31 March 1961, Time magazine, pg. 71, col. 2:
MODERN LIVING
Polynesia at Dinnertime
The restaurant’s liquor list reads like a South Sea adventure. After an encounter with a White Witch (pure white Jamaica rum) or a Rangoon Ruby (vodka and cranberry juice).
Old Fulton NY Post Cards
9 June 1961, Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, “Dining in the Country” by Maureen Connolly, pg. 18, col. 6:
WE SKIPPED the specialties of the house (“Jersey Wedding”—cranberry juice, apple-jack brandy and lemon on shaved ice — and “Yankee Doodle” — cranberry Juice, vodka and lime) to savor a man-sized gin and tonic in the stone-and-wood atmosphere reminiscent of an early American tavern.
(Nassau Inn, Princeton, New Jersey, and its Yankee Doodle Tap Room.—ed.)
Google Books
The New Yorker
1965
Pg. 10:
Let the jolly innkeeper refresh you (and your lady) with America’s newest cocktail creation— The Cape Codder. Two ruby jiggers Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice. One jigger vodka. (Rum, if you prefer. Equally delicious.) Over the rocks or tall with soda. A splash of lime or lemon is optional. Tangy, cool brisk as a breeze. Like the red sky at night—a sailor’s delight!
Google Books
Foreign Service Journal
Volume 43
1966
Pg. 33:
And now in Boston — once a shrine of decorum — you may invest in a Swamp-fire, made of cranberry juice, vodka and Pernod.
Google Books
Time
Volume 88, Part 2
1966
Pg. 87:
Their counterparts in Miami and Palm Beach go for the Bog-Fog (vodka and cranberry juice — known to New Engenders as the Cape Codder) or the Palm Bay Intrigue (pineapple wine with vodka and a squeeze of lime).
Google Books
29 November 1966, Princeton Alumni Weekly, pg. 33, cols. 1-2:
To be seen at Yale, a report later, will be Bob Rock, who is still working with Turner Construction, but now working on the Ocean Spray Cranberry building in Middleborough, Mass. He says, “This is to be the largest box of cranberries in the world.” Since he was forced to move away from the breweries of St. Louis, he notes that there is a drink in his part of the country called the Cap-Codder, composed of vodka and cranberry juice.
10 October 1971, Seattle (WA) Times, Magazine, pg. 10, col. 3:
To the ‘Clover Club’ and ‘Iron Curtain’ cocktails—mostly vodka and concentrated cranberry juice—now listed in many bar guides, researchers have added a new name: Bog Fog.
“But it’s really only a joke,” says Azmi Y. Shawa, Palestinian-born horticulturalist. “We don’t have a drink to go with the name.”
Inventive bartenders, front and center. It’s in your hands now.
Google Books
Blithe Spirits:
A Toast to the Cocktail
By Jill Spalding
Washington, DC: A. Rosenbaum Projects
1988
Pg. 185:
SEA BREEZE, BAY BREEZE AND CAPE CODDER
America’s fascination with both cranberry juice and vodka has led to the invention of these three cool and refreshing cocktails. All three begin with a shot of vodka over ice in a collins glass. For a Cape Codder, simply fill with cranberry juice. For a Sea Breeze, top with cranberry juice and a generous splash of grapefruit juice; for a Bay Breeze, it’s cranberry and pineapple juice, in the same proportions as in a Sea Breeze.
16 October 2003, Winnipeg (Manitoba) Free Press, Magazine, pg. 5, col. 1:
The Cosmopolitan is actually a variation of an older Trader Vic cocktail called Rangoon Ruby, which evolved into the Bog Fog in the ‘60s, the Cape Codder in the 1970s, and then became the female drink of choice in the ‘90s.
Google Books
Field Guide to Cocktails:
How to Identify and Prepare Virtually Every Mixed Drink at the Bar
By Rob Chirico
Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books
2005
Pg. 78:
On a historical note, the same fixings appeared in a drink at Trader Vic’s in the 1950s as the Rangoon Ruby. It made a second appearance a decade later as a Bog Fog. The Cape Codder has not only since held its own but has inspired many variations.