Grasshopper Cocktail Recipe
A bright-green blend of chocolate, cream and mint, this winning cocktail is served with an equally colorful history.
At first glance, this pastel-green concoction of chocolate and mint liqueurs blended with brandy and cream may seem innocent enough. Just a sweet little after-dinner drink to help you cap off a delicious Louisiana meal. But one sip will tell you the Grasshopper is anything but ordinary. Featuring five (count ‘em, five!) different spirits, this is not a drink to be taken lightly. It delivers an exciting explosion of flavors with an equally intriguing history.
And it’s a tale Poppy Tooker loves telling. She’s a native New Orleanian whose NPR-affiliated radio show and podcast “Louisiana Eats!” celebrates the state’s vibrant culinary and cultural scene from border to border and beyond. As the story goes, Tujague’s owner Philip Guichet Sr. traveled to New York City to enter a cocktail competition in 1918, on the very eve of Prohibition. This frothy after-dinner drink was the one he entered, and it quickly became a favorite among the contest’s judges.
“He won second place with the drink and brought the recipe home to Tujague’s in New Orleans, where it’s been served ever since,” Tooker says.
Today, you can sip that same recipe in a bar filled with all the flavor of the French Quarter. With claims to fame that include New Orleans’ second-oldest restaurant, the birthplace of brunch and home to America’s oldest stand-up bar, 163-year-old Tujague’s is steeped in local lore. When the restaurant opened next to New Orleans’ first public market in 1856, it was the market’s local workers who dropped in daily for a hearty midday “butcher’s breakfast” that we now know as brunch. Trademark dishes from those days, like spicy shrimp remoulade, are still served there today.
Another fun fact? The mirror standing behind the bar in Tujague’s is said to be older than the United States itself, having been brought over from France in 1856 from a Parisian bistro when it was already 90 years old then. Now more than 250 years old, that mirror — like the bar itself — provides a great place to sit back and reflect on Louisiana’s fascinating past. While sipping a signature Grasshopper, of course.
Ingredients for Grasshopper Cocktail:
- 1 oz. white Crème de Cacao
- ½ oz. dark Crème de Cacao
- ½ oz. green Crème de Menthe
- ¼ oz. white Crème de Menthe
- 1/8 oz. Brandy
- 2 ½ oz. heavy whipping cream
Method of Preparation:
- Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
- Shake vigorously, then strain into a Champagne flute.
- Top with a Brandy floater.
Recipe courtesy of Tujague’s Restaurant.
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