FOOD NEWS
You Can Thank Ocean Spray For The Upsurge Of The Sea Breeze Cocktail
BY TOM MAXWELL
Born in the 1920s as a simple combo of gin and grenadine, the Sea Breeze cocktail would evolve to include apricot brandy and lemon juice, then turn into a different drink entirely.
The modern Sea Breeze, made of cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, and vodka, emerged in the 1960s, and cranberry company Ocean Spray led the drink to stardom.
The Ocean Spray company was successful from 1930 to the year of 1959, when cranberry bogs in the Pacific Northwest became contaminated with a dangerous herbicide.
This herbicide, called aminotriazole, is linked to cancer, and the scandal damaged the cranberry's reputation for nearly a decade. Ocean Spray decided to fix this themselves.
The company released a recipe booklet that featured a new, cranberry-forward Ocean Breeze cocktail. Consumers were quickly drawn to this simplistic, fruity version of the drink.
The cranberry was able to reintegrate itself into the daily diets of Americans, and most modern Sea Breeze recipes are still derived from Ocean Spray's 1960s-era version.