And just like that, the Cosmopolitan cocktail is back. The garishly pink, fruity concoction, made famous by Sarah Jessica Parker’s fictional character, Carrie Bradshaw, and her three friends, in the New York-based television series, Sex and the City, is becoming more popular for the first time since the Nineties.

As Carrie might have written in her newspaper column, we could not help but wonder why people are going back to the drink, which is a combination of citrus or standard vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime juice, served in a martini glass and garnished with an orange twist.

JOHN NGUYEN FOR THE TIMES

Martin Kuczmarski, formerly the chief operating officer of Soho House Group which has London restaurants, The Dover and Martino’s, said: “I strongly believe that the old-school, forgotten classics are coming back. From what I can see, people love a bit of nostalgia, and are fed-up with overcomplicated, mixologist-driven cocktails. There is something elegant about confidently ordering a Cosmo.”

According to Marcello Cauda, bars manager at The Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge, the cocktail is enjoying a revival, though he said it never really went out of fashion.

Marcello Cauda

JOHN NGUYEN FOR THE TIMES

“We’ve definitely seen sales rising again but what we’re seeing isn’t so much a return as a renewed appreciation,” he said. “The Cosmo has joined the ranks of the martini, negroni and margarita — it’s a classic cocktail and once you have tried it, it’s very easy to fall in love.

“The Cosmopolitan is also more approachable than, say, a martini. It has always carried a sense of glamour, especially within a hotel bar setting.”

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The trend is not just in five star hotels. From gastropubs to bar chains, the Cosmo comeback is definitely on.

Jerome Orive, bar manager at London’s Fallow, Roe and FOWL restaurants, said: “It isn’t on our bar list but people keep asking for it.

“I am sure it is driven partly by social media — you see lots of people on TikTok creating their own versions at home, as they are pretty straightforward to make. We do our own twists on it, making it a bit more complex and having a little play around, using things like rosehip vodka. It helps that the ingredients are so much better quality than they were back in the Nineties.”

According to Difford’s Guide, a drink called the Cosmopolitan first appeared in Harry MacElhone’s 1927 Barflies and Cocktails, though it was a whisky-based drink, more akin to today’s Old Fashioned.

The American bartender Dale DeGroff tasted something more similar to today’s cocktail in San Francisco in the mid-Nineties, and turned it into the Cosmopolitan as it is now known. When Madonna was photographed drinking it at The Rainbow Rooms in New York, he became famous and the drink went on to have a starring role in Sex and the City, becoming synonymous with glamorous girls’ nights out.

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Ellie Ireland, group bar manager for Public House Group, which owns The Fat Badger in Notting Hill, as well as The Pelican, The Hero, The Hart and The Bull in Charlbury, in the Cotswolds, said the Cosmopolitan has gone from a “throwback cocktail” to one of their most popular drinks.

“The Nineties’ revival is definitely playing a role, but it’s also a super easy drinking cocktail, while still being chic,” she said. “Vodka is having a moment again, perhaps due to the ‘clean diet’ trend and people seem a bit tired of needlessly complicated cocktails — sometimes you just want to drink a tried and tested classic that you know is delicious.”

It is not just middle-aged women, who remember them from the first time around, ordering Cosmopolitans.

Ireland said: “What’s new is how many younger drinkers, people in their early twenties, order it without any stereotypes attached. To them, it’s just a good cocktail with a cool vibe; it doesn’t carry a certain gender-specific stigma it once did.”

At Waitrose, sales of canned Cosmopolitans are up 12 per cent compared with this time last year. Buyer Sarah Holland said: “We are seeing a real return to nostalgic flavours which is a familiar pattern when we go through periods of uncertainty either economically or politically.

“The Cosmopolitan is a really good example of that — one sip and you are right back in the Nineties which, for many of us, was a time of optimism and excitement. The Cosmo is a great, feel-good classic drink which offers an accessible slice of luxury.”