Vodka Cranberry

Vodka and cranberry juice — Ocean Spray's 1945 Red Devil (promoting cranberry juice year-round) formalized as the Cape Codder in a 1965 New Yorker advertisement.

The Vodka Cranberry traces its commercial origins to 1945, when the Ocean Spray cranberry growers cooperative created a simple vodka and cranberry juice recipe called the Red Devil, promoting it in their newsletter to drive demand for cranberry juice beyond the holiday season. The drink gained traction through Ocean Spray's expanding advertising campaigns during the 1950s and 1960s. The name Cape Codder — a reference to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the heart of American cranberry cultivation — was formalized in a 1965 New Yorker advertisement. The cocktail became one of the most widely consumed drinks in American bars from the 1960s onward, valued for its simplicity, vivid ruby color, and refreshing tart-sweet balance. By the 1990s, the Vodka Cranberry had achieved near-universal menu status, and Ocean Spray's aggressive marketing through that decade kept cranberry juice synonymous with vodka as a natural pairing in American cocktail culture.