This weeks cocktail of choice is Sea Breeze. A Sea Breeze is made with 1-1/2oz of vodka, 4oz of cranberry juice and 1oz of grapefruit juice. The cocktail is known for being a summer drink due to availability of the fruit ingredients. The drink may be shaken in order to create a foamy surface.It is considered an IBA Official Cocktail.
The drink follows the classic cocktail principle of balancing strong (alcohol) with weak (fruit juice) and sweet and sour.
A Bay Breeze, or a Hawaiian Sea Breeze, is similar to a Sea Breeze except for the substitution of pineapple juice for grapefruit juice. It is also closely related to the Cape Codder (which lacks the grapefruit juice) and the Salty Dog (which lacks the cranberry juice and is made with a salted rim).
The cocktail was born in the late 1920s, but the recipe was different from the one used today, as gin and grenadine were used in the original Sea Breeze. This was near the end of the Prohibition era. In the 1930s, a Sea Breeze had gin, apricot brandy, grenadine, and lemon juice. Hmm maybe we should try that drink on another show. Later, a Sea Breeze recipe would contain vodka, dry vermouth, Galliano, and blue Caracao. Again, a great idea for later.
The cranberry grower's cooperative in the 1930s evolved into Ocean Spray which marketed cranberry juice in the 1950s. Cranberry juice was used as a mixer with alcohol, first with gin and later with vodka. The Harpoon, later called the Cape Codder, was born, and its descendants such as the Greyhound, the Salty Dog, the Bay Breeze, and the Sea Breeze were later created. Starting in the 1960s, the breeze drinks were sporadically in the top ten most popular mixed drinks. According to some, the Sea Breeze, along with the Cape Codder and Bay Breeze, did not become very popular until the 1970s. This was because in 1959, the U.S. Department of Health stated that cranberry crops were tainted with toxic herbicides, collapsing the cranberry industry. Consider this our little effort to help the cranberry industry.
