The drink follows the classic cocktail principle of balancing strong (alcohol) with weak (fruit juice) and sweet and sour.[1][2]
A bay breeze, or a Hawaiian sea breeze, is similar to a sea breeze except for the substitution of pineapple juice for grapefruit juice.[2][3] 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).[4]
History
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.[5] This was near the end of the Prohibition era. In the 1930s, a sea breeze had gin, apricot brandy, grenadine, and lemon juice.[6] Later, a Sea Breeze recipe would contain vodka, dry vermouth, Galliano, and blue Curaçao.[6]
In the 1930s, a cranberry growers' cooperative evolved into Ocean Spray, which promoted cranberry juice as a mixer with alcohol, first with gin and later with vodka.[4] Ocean Spray created the Red Devil, later called the harpoon or Cape Codder, in 1945,[7] and its descendants such as the greyhound, the salty dog, the bay breeze, and the sea breeze were later created.[4] Starting in the 1960s, the breeze drinks were sporadically in the top ten most popular mixed drinks.[4]
According to some, the sea breeze, along with the Cape Codder and bay breeze, did not become very popular until the 1970s.[8] This was because in 1959, the U.S. Department of Health stated that cranberry crops were tainted with toxic herbicides, collapsing the cranberry industry.[8]
^"With cranberry juice he adds vodka and a dash of fresh lime and comes up with a "Red Devil Cocktail."" (Ocean Spray's Cranberry Cooperative News: Volumes 6-10 by Cranberry Canners, Inc., 1945)
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