The Madras is a bright, easygoing highball — vodka stretched long over ice with cranberry and orange juice in roughly equal measure, the orange softening cranberry's tartness into something sunny and sippable. Think of a Screwdriver with cranberry taking half the orange's place: the vodka sits quietly underneath, an optional squeeze of lime sharpens the finish, and the glass glows in a sunset blush of red and orange.
Garnish: Lime Wedge
Built · Highball · On the Rocks
build
Fill a highball glass with ice cubes.
add
Add the vodka, then the cranberry juice and orange juice.
stir
Stir briefly to combine while keeping the layered color.
garnish
Garnish with a lime wedge.
No one is on record as inventing the Madras; it belongs to the loose clan of vodka-and-cranberry highballs that grew from "Red Devil," a drink Ocean Spray promoted in 1945, which picked up the Cape Codder name only in the early 1960s. Adding orange juice to that base is what set the Madras apart, alongside juice-swapping siblings such as the Sea Breeze and Bay Breeze, though no fixed proportions were ever agreed. Its name is borrowed from Madras cloth, the light, vividly patterned cotton plaid called after the old name for Chennai in India — a nod to the layered colour of the drink.