Last Updated:
You make a Sea Breeze by combining Vodka, Cranberry Juice, and Grapefruit Juice together in a Highball Glass.
Wanna know how to make a Sea Breeze? We got ya covered!
A Sea Breeze is a super simple refreshing cocktail that’s perfect for hot summer days. You make a Sea Breeze by combining Vodka, Cranberry Juice, and Grapefruit Juice together in a Highball Glass.
Delicious.
But you have to be careful…they go down far to easily!
In this article, you’re going to learn:
- How to make a Sea Breeze.
- How many calories there are in a typical Sea Breeze.
- The history of the Sea Breeze.
- The controversial history of the Cranberry.
- Which Vodka is the best to use for a Sea Breeze.
Pretty cool, right?
…But wait, there’s more! At the end of the article, you can save the Sea Breeze recipe to your device and take it with you!
For now, let’s dive right in to the recipe.
How to Make a Sea Breeze
So, first things first: let’s take a look at how to make a Sea Breeze.
Sea Breeze Cocktail Recipe
Ingredients
- Vodka 40ml / 1.4oz.
- Cranberry Juice 120ml / 4.1oz.
- Grapefruit Juice 30ml / 1oz.
- a slice of lime
Recipe
- Add Ice, Vodka, Cranberry Juice, and Grapefruit Juice to a Highball Glass.
- Garnish with a slice of lime.
Tweet This Recipe
Share on Facebook
Email to a FriendWhat do you Need to Make a Sea Breeze?
As you’ve seen from the recipe above, you make a Sea Breeze by combining Vodka, Cranberry Juice, Grapefruit Juice in a Highball glass.
Vodka
For Vodka, we recommend Smirnoff Red Label.
Why Smirnoff? Well, we did an extensive comparison of 12 different brands of Vodka and Smirnoff came out on top.
Related ArticleRead more about our Vodka comparison
Highball Glasses
Of course, you can use any tall glass you want to make a Sea Breeze, but traditionally, the recipe calls for Highball Glasses.
For Highball Glasses, we recommend:
How Many Calories Are in a Sea Breeze?
So let’s take a look at how a Sea Breeze is going to affect our waistlines!
The History of the Sea Breeze
Confused Origins
The Sea Breeze cocktail first surfaced in the late 1920s.
…At least the name of the cocktail does.
Back then, it was a whole different kind of cocktail. Then, it contained gin and grenadine. Presumably with Vodka, but the details are sketchy at best.
But the Sea Breeze had another revamp in the 1930’s Prohibition era. According to Salvatore Calabrese’s Classic Cocktails book, this version of the cocktail consisted of Gin, Apricot Brandy, Grenadine, and Lemon Juice.
In the same book, Calabrese would go on to mention that yet another cocktail of the same name emerged not long afterward. This version contained Vodka, Dry Vermouth, Galliano and Blue Curacao.
Scary Cranberries
The modern-day Sea Breeze comes in as one of many cranberry-based cocktails promoted by Ocean Spray – formerly known as the Cranberry grower’s cooperative.
Why was Ocean Spray promoting cocktail recipes? Because in 1959 the Cranberry market took a BIG hit.
You may have heard of it. It has been dubbed The Great Cranberry Scare of 1959 (I shit you not).
On November 9th, 1959, Arthur S. Flemming, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, informed the public that a small Cranberry crop from the Pacific Northwest had tested positive for a herbicide.
That herbicide was called Aminotriazole and it was found to cause abnormal growths on lab rats.
Ocean Spray argued that a person would have to consume tonnes of Cranberries for them to be put at risk, but Flemming added gasoline to the flames.
He advised that if the consumer couldn’t be sure of the origin of the Cranberries, they shouldn’t buy them.
Overnight, the $50 million a year Cranberry industry took a nose-dive.
Bouncing Back
Ocean Spray’s plan to bounce back from the market crash was to create and distribute Cranberry-based recipe booklets.
The booklet included how to make a Sea Breeze and a variety of other Cranberry-related cocktails, including:
- The Cape Cod
- The Bay Breeze
The cranberry industry recovered, but it wasn’t until the late 1970s and early 1980s that these Cranberry cocktails became popular again.
How to Make a Sea Breeze Downloadable Recipe
To save the below How to Make a Sea Breeze infographic to your computer:
- Right-click the image.
- Selected Save Image As…
- Choose a location on your PC and click the save button.
Or a tablet or mobile:
- Press and keep your finger on the image until options appear.
- Click the download image option.
Summary
So, what did we cover in this article:
- You make a Sea Breeze by combining Vodka, Cranberry Juice, and Grapefruit Juice.
- The traditional glass for a Sea Breeze is a Highball Glass.
- The traditional garnish for a Sea Breeze is a slice of lime.
- There have been a few different cocktails all going by the name Sea Breeze over the years.
- The cocktail as we know it today comes from a recipe booklet distributed by Ocean Spray to get Cranberry’s to be popular again.
Want More Cocktail Recipes?
Now that you’ve learned how to make a Sea Breeze, do you wanna try more cocktail recipes?
You should take a look at our cocktail recipe hub. Here you’ll find 100+ cocktail recipes for you to try. For Free.
If you’re looking for more Vodka Cocktails to try, then check out our collection of 40 of the Best Cocktail Recipes with Vodka.
Happy mixing!
Further Reading
In creating this How to Make a Sea Breeze article, we referenced the following sources:
- How to Make a Bay Breeze
- The Best Vodka for Cocktails
- Cranberry Juice Cocktail Collection
- https://www.liquor.com/articles/sea-breeze/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Breeze_(cocktail)
- https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ec7-H6oHpe4C&pg=PA158&redir_esc=y
- https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-great-cranberry-scare
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2015/11/26/the-great-thanksgiving-cranberry-scare-of-1959/
