Cosmonaut
A Cosmonaut is 60ml of London Dry gin, 22.5ml of fresh lemon juice and a barspoon of raspberry preserve, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with no garnish. About 2.4 UK units, all from the gin. Punch, which prints Sasha Petraske’s recipe from Robert Simonson’s 3-Ingredient Cocktails, credits him with it and calls it his sly retort to the popularity of the Cosmopolitan. The Oxford Companion says Petraske opened Milk & Honey in New York on New Year’s Eve 1999, and that every drink there was carefully measured with jiggers. The preserve is the sweetener. A spoonful brings sugar and cooked raspberry together, with pectin that gives the drink more body than syrup would. Loosen it in the lemon first, and double strain the drink to catch the seeds.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: None: house rules
Ingredients
60ml
A London Dry at our working figure of 40% ABV, with enough juniper to keep a raspberry drink tasting of gin rather than fruit.
22.5ml
Squeezed the same day. Loosen the preserve in it first, before the gin and ice go in.
1 barspoon
Raspberry preserve or jam with a high fruit content, a barspoon as in Petraske’s recipe. It is the only sweetener and the only fruit. The double strain removes its seeds.
Instructions
Chill a coupe.
Stir the raspberry preserve into the lemon juice in the shaker until it loosens.
Add the gin.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe. No garnish.
Source: its creator's published specification (Sasha Petraske; measures as Punch prints them from Robert Simonson’s 3-Ingredient Cocktails (2017), ounces taken as 30ml; shake time and double strain ours). Last checked 19 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Loosen the preserve in the lemon juice before anything else goes into the shaker. Work it with a barspoon until it runs. Dropped cold into gin and ice, jam sticks to the tin and the drink comes out thin and sour. Give it a hard shake of 10 to 12 seconds. The ice has to break the preserve down and spread it through the drink. Pour it through a fine sieve as well as the shaker strainer. It catches the seeds and any pulp and leaves the colour and the body. Choose a preserve with a high fruit content, since it is the only raspberry in the glass.
Behind the Cosmonaut
Flavour Profile
Sasha Petraske and Milk & Honey
The Oxford Companion says Sasha Petraske opened Milk & Honey in New York on New Year’s Eve 1999, and a London Milk & Honey in 2002 with Jonathan Downey. Its entry on the bar says it ran under posted rules and that each drink was carefully measured with jiggers.
Petraske dropped out of school at seventeen and soon joined the US Army, the Companion says, spending nine weeks training as an elite Ranger before he went into bartending. Many bartenders he trained went on to open bars with him, which is how his recipes travelled.
A Reply to the Cosmopolitan
The Cosmopolitan was the pink drink of the day: vodka, orange liqueur, cranberry and lime. Punch calls the Cosmonaut Petraske’s sly retort to it.
His answer kept the colour and the coupe and changed what was in them. Gin replaced the vodka, lemon replaced the lime, and a spoonful of jam replaced both the liqueur and the cranberry.
Jam in the Shaker
Preserve is sugar and cooked fruit in one spoon, with pectin that gives a shaken drink some weight. A barspoon sweetens 60ml of gin and 22.5ml of lemon to the balance of a classic sour.
The Breakfast Martini makes the same move with orange marmalade. In both, the preserve has to be worked into the citrus first, or it sits in the bottom of the shaker as a lump.
Petraske’s Recipe and Ours
The Cosmonaut as Punch prints Petraske’s recipe, and ours
Gin
- Petraske (Punch)
- 2oz
- Ours
- 60ml London Dry
Lemon juice
- Petraske (Punch)
- ¾oz
- Ours
- 22.5ml
Raspberry preserve
- Petraske (Punch)
- 1 barspoon
- Ours
- 1 barspoon
Shake
- Petraske (Punch)
- About 15 seconds
- Ours
- 10 to 12 seconds
Strain
- Petraske (Punch)
- Strained
- Ours
- Double strained
Glass
- Petraske (Punch)
- Chilled coupe
- Ours
- Chilled coupe
Garnish
- Petraske (Punch)
- None
- Ours
- None
UK units
- Petraske (Punch)
- Not stated
- Ours
- About 2.4
| Element | Petraske (Punch) | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| Gin | 2oz | 60ml London Dry |
| Lemon juice | ¾oz | 22.5ml |
| Raspberry preserve | 1 barspoon | 1 barspoon |
| Shake | About 15 seconds | 10 to 12 seconds |
| Strain | Strained | Double strained |
| Glass | Chilled coupe | Chilled coupe |
| Garnish | None | None |
| UK units | Not stated | About 2.4 |
How to Serve It
Straight from the shaker into a cold coupe, with nothing on it. The colour and the faint haze of fruit are the whole look of the drink.
For gin, lemon and raspberry under an egg-white foam, make a Clover Club; for marmalade in place of jam, a Breakfast Martini; for the drink it answered, a Cosmopolitan.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, juniper must lead the taste, the floor is 37.5% ABV, and the route the flavour takes sets the grade: plain gin, distilled gin or London gin. Our recipes count it at 40%, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Cosmonaut?
Who created the Cosmonaut?
Why is it called a Cosmonaut?
Can I use raspberry syrup instead of jam?
Why double strain a Cosmonaut?
Is a Cosmonaut like a Clover Club?
How strong is a Cosmonaut?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Punch, “Cosmonaut” (secondary source: “Another succinct Sasha Petraske creation, this is his sly retort to the popularity of the Cosmopolitan”; reprinted from Robert Simonson, 3-Ingredient Cocktails (2017); 2 ounces gin, ¾ ounce lemon juice, 1 barspoon raspberry preserves).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Eric Alperin), “Petraske, Sasha” (secondary source: 1973 to 2015; opened Milk & Honey on New Year’s Eve 1999; joined the US Army and trained nine weeks as an elite Ranger; Milk & Honey London, 2002, with Jonathan Downey).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Jim Meehan), “Milk & Honey” (secondary source: opened by Sasha Petraske on Eldridge Street on New Year’s Eve 1999; posted rules; each drink carefully measured with jiggers).
You Might Also Like
Cosmopolitan
A Cosmopolitan is 40ml of citrus vodka, 15ml of Cointreau, 15ml of fresh lime juice and 30ml of cranberry juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with an orange twist. About 2.2 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. The Oxford Companion says the Cosmopolitan has a confused and contested history, that most claims lack supporting evidence, and that the recipe served worldwide was most likely formulated in 1988 by Toby Cecchini at the Odeon in New York, with Absolut Citron, Cointreau, fresh lime and cranberry, after a cruder San Francisco drink of the same name that the San Francisco Chronicle called “a Kamikaze with cranberry juice” in 1987. Cecchini told Punch the same year, 1988. Under the colour it is a sour: vodka, orange liqueur and lime, with cranberry for tint and a little extra acid. Made with fresh lime and served very cold, it is tart and dry, a long way from the sweet pink drink of its reputation.
Clover Club
A Clover Club is 45ml of London Dry gin, 15ml of fresh lemon juice, 15ml of raspberry syrup and 15ml of egg white, dry shaken, shaken again hard with ice and double strained into a chilled coupe, with three raspberries on a pick. About 1.8 UK units. The egg white is raw, so leave it out for anyone allergic to egg. Those are the IBA’s measures, except the egg white: the IBA asks for a few drops, and 15ml, about half a white, gives the full foam this method builds. Difford’s Guide says the drink is named for a Philadelphia club founded on 29 January 1882 by prominent journalists, whose membership grew to include lawyers, bankers and businessmen, and the Oxford Companion says the drink was created as the club’s signature around the turn of the twentieth century. The Oxford Companion says the drink did not survive Prohibition, and that Julie Reiner’s Brooklyn bar Clover Club, which followed in 2008, brought it back as the house drink. Made with real raspberry syrup it is tart first and fruity second, with the foam softening both.
Breakfast Martini
A Breakfast Martini is 50ml of London Dry gin, 15ml of Cointreau, 15ml of fresh lemon juice and one barspoon of fine-cut orange marmalade, stirred together in the shaker until the marmalade loosens, then shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with an orange twist. About 2.6 UK units. Salvatore Calabrese created it in 1996 while managing the Library Bar at the Lanesborough hotel in London, by his account in CLASS magazine: his wife Sue gave him marmalade on toast the morning after a late shift, and the bitter, tangy flavour set him thinking about a cocktail. Only the name and the glass come from the Martini. The drink itself is a gin sour sweetened with preserve, close kin to the White Lady, with marmalade in place of most of the orange liqueur. The jar sets the drink’s character: Seville peel makes it bitter-edged and dry, a sweet marmalade makes it taste of jam.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026