Grasshopper
Mint, chocolate and cream, green as a spring lawn.
Photo: Grasshopper cocktail by TexasDex · CC BY-SA 3.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 240 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 240 ml line. Crème de menthe - The white one if you can find it; the green gives the drink its famous colour
- 240 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 240 ml line. Crème de cacao - White crème de cacao, for a clean mint-chocolate flavour
- 240 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 240 ml line. Double cream - Or single cream for a lighter drink, or whole milk for a kinder one
- 12 sprigs Mint sprig (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Shake equal parts mint, chocolate and cream hard with ice, strain, done.
Method
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 720 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Chill a coupe glass.
- Fill a shaker with ice and add the crème de menthe, crème de cacao and cream.
- Shake hard for fifteen seconds, until the tin is properly cold.
- Strain into the chilled glass and rest a mint leaf on the surface.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Grasshopper
After-dinner in 1950s New Orleans, where a mint-chocolate-cream drink was exactly the sort of thing the city decided it needed. It went out of fashion for a few decades, which was a mistake: made with good liqueurs and shaken properly, it is a beautiful, silken, faintly ridiculous thing - and the only drink in this book that is legitimately a dessert.
Getting it right
Equal parts is the classic build, and it is a balance worth keeping. The colour comes from green crème de menthe, so if you use the white sort the drink will look like a milkshake and taste identical, which is sometimes the point. Cream, not milk, is what gives the Grasshopper its body, and it must be shaken hard - cream needs cold and violence. Serve it properly chilled in a glass that has been waiting in the freezer, and do not make it in advance.
Tasting notes
Cool mint, soft chocolate and a long, sweet, creamy finish. Gentle, nostalgic and impossible to take seriously, in the best way.
For a Grasshopper's richer cousin, replace the cream with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and blend it - which is what a great many American bars quietly do.