Madras
Vodka, orange juice, and cranberry — Ocean Spray's 1970s creation named after India's coastal Chennai, the warm orange-red color the casual bar calling card.
- 1½ ozvodka
- 2 ozcranberry juice
- 2 ozorange juice(freshly squeezed)
- orange slicegarnish
- 1Add vodka and cranberry juice and orange juice.
- 2Fill a highball glass with ice cubes.
- 3Garnish with an orange slice.
- 4Stir gently to combine.
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The Madras is one of several cocktails developed through Ocean Spray's cranberry juice marketing campaigns during the 1970s and 1980s. The cooperative founded by Massachusetts and New Jersey cranberry growers in 1930 actively promoted cranberry juice as a year-round cocktail mixer, developing vodka-based drinks to drive sales beyond the holiday season. The Madras combines vodka with orange juice and cranberry juice, named after the coastal Indian city now officially called Chennai — an exotic-sounding name that evoked tropical warmth without any direct connection to Indian culinary tradition. The drink's warm orange-red color, produced by the ratio of orange to cranberry juice, and its approachable sweet-tart flavor made it a natural fit for casual American bar menus alongside the Cape Codder and Sea Breeze during the 1980s and 1990s.
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