Sitting at a bar in Jackson that shall remain unnamed as I hope to enjoy this privilege again, my girlfriend asked the bartender for a specific drink she had enjoyed with the owner’s family on several occasions.
“Sure, I’ll see what I can do,” the bartender replied.
My girlfriend looked at me and beamed. “Usually they just tell you no,” she said.
It was later in the evening. While many diners were still mid-meal, new parties were not waiting in line to be seated. This was stop three of the evening, to get some dessert following a meal and cocktails.
I had no idea what was going on. The bartender flagged down a server who had been with the establishment for some time. The waitress gave a knowing nod to my girlfriend and started assembling a drink in a cocktail shaker that included a litany of liqueur I could barely identify and a trip back to the kitchen for a scoop of ice cream, all shaken together.
They placed two glasses in front of us and said, “enjoy.”
The contents looked like the smoothest milkshake you have ever seen with a muted green glow and a soft chunk of ice-cream still constituted in the middle of the glass.
“What are these,” I asked my girlfriend.
“Grasshoppers,” she said.
St. Patrick’s Day gets a, shall we say, specific rap. Often associated with booze for breakfast, lunch and dinner, daytime revelry and, of course, parades, drink recommendations rarely go beyond green beer and Irish car bombs.
However you decide to spend St. Patricks day, perhaps the best way to top it off is with the boozy dessert known as a “Grasshopper” cocktail, made with equal parts creme de menthe, cream de cacao and heavy creme, shaken with ice and strained into a cocktail glass.
The name derives from its distinct green shade from the creme de menthe, the green ingredient that also gives its signature look to grasshopper pie.
New Orleans food historian, Poppy Tooker, traces the drink back to Tujague’s restaurant and bar, a 160-year-old establishment in the French Quarter. She claims the drink first appears on record just before prohibition and was likely a popular under-the-table order at the restaurant. She should know; she wrote the book on the place.
It was likely invented by the owner, Phillip Guichet.
The drink had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s at suburban cocktail parties, catching on particularly in the south and midwest, most notably Wisconsin, the birthplace of the variety that utilizes ice cream known as a “Frozen Grasshopper” or “Grasshopper Milkshake.”
The drink is open to variations. Reportedly, Tujague has more recently taken to serving the drink with a brandy float on top.
Replace the cream with vodka and you have a “Flying Grasshopper.”
An “After Eight” adds dark chocolate liqueur to the standard recipe and a “Girl Scout Cookie” substitutes peppermint schnapps for the creme de menthe.
I finished my drink in that restaurant. It was delicious, creamy and sweet with a cool zing of mint. It was the perfect topper to a nice evening.
No matter how you mix it, it ends up being the perfect nightcap whether it is to a night of revelry or a quiet evening with friends. Enjoy a grasshopper this St. Patrick’s Day or any other day.
Ingredients:
• 1 oz. creme de menthe
• 1 oz. creme de cacao
• 1 oz. heavy cream
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker, shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Optional: garnish with a mint sprig.
