Canary Flip (Difford's Guide Recipe)

This is a simple and delicious dessert drink that breaks from the Flip format of whole egg, cream and nutmeg. This cocktail uses the creamy egg yolk advocaat liqueur in place of raw egg and opts for a citrus zip from lemon juice and tart sauvignon blanc.

While I've had Port and Sherry Flips in the past, this flip was probably the best for enjoying more than one. It isn't that it is less rich--there's plenty of sugar and richness there--it is just a little thinner and goes down quickly with a wine and vanilla finish. No nutmeg means that it isn't a winter spice cocktail, so it feels appropriate for dessert any time of the year.

• 2 oz. advocaat liqueur (homemade used)
• 2 oz. sauvignon blanc
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• lemon twist garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon zest over the glass and drop it in. 

 

Apple & Custard

 

This is a simple idea that really hits the spot on winter nights. It stands to reason that apple flavors go great with custard in this dessert drink stand-in for the typical eggnog. 

Advocaat is a Dutch traditional egg and vanilla spirit that is sweet and creamy, even though there is no dairy added. The richness comes from egg yolks which are cooked with sugar and brandy into a stable liqueur. This recipe pairs that with distilled apple cider in the form of calvados, apple brandy or applejack. Most apple brandies, like Calvados, lose a lot of the apple flavor in distilling and aging and leave you with something that tastes like expensive brandy. Laird's Applejack 86 has enough real apple flavor to not require any apple schnapps (which taste like fresh apples, not baked apples). I avoid American schnapps because of the fake flavoring that always tastes like candy and not even close to real fruit. I've found that with Applejack 86, you don't need to add schnapps.

My homemade advocaat also has a ton of vanilla in it, so I omitted vanilla syrup from the recipe and just used a splash of simple. You can easily add vanilla extract to any simple syrup and get similar results.

• 2 oz. advocaat (homemade used)
• 1 1/2 oz. Calvados (Laird's Applejack 86 used)
• 1/2 oz. apple schnapps (omitted above)
• 1/4 oz. vanilla syrup (simple syrup used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Alexander's Sister

It was bound to happen. The creamy Alexander cocktail needed a spin-off dessert drink with mint flavor. The good news is that this gin drink, which is usually great to enjoy in the winter months, is even more festive with creme de menthe.

Juniper in gin and mint make for an amazing holiday cocktail to be enjoyed with cookies. A good creme de menthe makes all the difference. I like it with higher proof stuff. So if you are shopping and see a 15-percent alcohol creme de menthe, pass it up and get one closer to 40-percent. It keeps the drink drier and less cloying.

The recipe says to use either the green or the white creme de menthe, but if you have green and it's almost Christmas, then flaunt it.

• 1 1/2 oz. gin (Filibuster dual cask used)
• 1 oz. green or white creme de menthe (Dekuyper green used)
• 1 oz. half-and-half
• freshly grated nutmeg

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Sprinkle with nutmeg. 

Bull's Milk

This is a funny nightcap cocktail with both brandy and dark rum, and a ton of milk. There's a ton of rich "Milk" or "Cow" named drinks that all have this same rich profile. See the Tiger's Milk and Mother's Milk as examples--the Irish Cow and Liebfraumilch for others. Most of them are pretty bad--just saying. This one is at least strong and cold, though I could see it done hot. The nutmeg sprinkles are really a feature of most of these "Milk" drinks, which also makes them suitable for winter drinking as well as nightcaps.

• 2 1/2 oz. brandy
• 1 1/2 oz. dark rum (Appleton Estate special blend used)
• 5 oz. milk
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients except nutmeg in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled highball glass and sprinkle with fresh ground nutmeg.

Suissesse Cocktail

This cocktail is a nod to Switzerland's love and history of making absinthe. It also uses the French spelling of Switzerland or Swiss to honor Pernod's contribution to dessert absinthe drinks. After drinking Pernod or absinthe by itself, this drink seems very light and spaced out, much more approachable for the after dinner drinker. This is the first egg white cocktail that I've done with Pernod, thought the Pernod Flip is a good example of something even heavier with its whole egg, if you want to move in that direction.

• 2 oz. Pernod
• 1/2 oz. half-and-half
• egg white

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Toasted Almond

Coffee liqueur is supposed to add a toasty flavor to amaretto in this dessert drink with a kick. And it does this very well. Even though amaretto tastes more like cookies than almonds, there is more of a nutty note in this drink due to the roast of coffee in the liqueur.

The only coffee liqueur I keep on my home bar is MurLarkey coffee whiskey, which I sweeten with a teaspoon of sugar syrup to get it closer to a dessert ingredient that will work in a creamy drink.

• 2 oz. coffee liqueur (MurLarkey coffee whiskey and 1 tsp. sugar syrup used)
• 1 1/2 oz. Amaretto (Lazzaroni used)
• 2 oz. half and half

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into an Old Fashioned glass. 

Cara Sposa

This dessert drink is named after an Italian romantic comedy from the seventies. The name translates to "dear wife."

The intended drinker must like coffee, because Cara Sposa is a coffee and orange liqueur cocktail with an ounce of half-and-half. But to keep it a little drier, I used Belle Isle cold brew coffee moonshine. This spirit is heavy on real coffee taste and stronger than coffee liqueurs. I relied on the Cointreau to do the sweetening, as it should. The effect was a rich cocktail that tasted a little like a holiday treat with fresh oranges and real coffee with cream.

• 1 1/2 oz. coffee liqueur (Belle Isle coffee moonshine used)
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• 1 oz. half-and-half

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Yellow Fingers

This is a fun, funny dessert drink cocktail with a tropical accent. Banana liqueur and blackberry brandy are the sweetener for this creamy cocktail. But banana liqueur tastes so fake and sugary. I was glad to use the richly flavored MurLarkey Banana Whiskey. Coupled with their gin, you get a dessert drink with traction. Whiskey flavors as well as real dried banana and a mouthful of gin botanicals bombard your senses.

For the blackberry brandy, I used my homemade blackberry brandy by dissolving blackberry preserves in cognac and fine straining out the liquor.

• 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
• 1 oz. half-and-half
• 1 oz. blackberry brandy (homemade used)
• 1 oz. creme de bananes (MurLarkey banana whiskey used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Peaches and Cream

This is a simple dessert drink that you can make with only two ingredients. Peach liqueur, whether it's peach schnapps (which I don't recommend, or some other kind of peach brandy or whiskey will work. Then all you need is equal parts half-and-half. I added the peach slice because I have it.

• 2 oz. peach liqueur (Bird Dog Peach Whiskey used) 
• 2 oz. half-and-half Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. 

 Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. 

Capri

Capri is a beautiful island on Italy's coast, full of high end shops and terraced houses. What the hell does this drink have to do with that. I could see using Galliano in this to make it Italian, but this is just a chocolate banana dessert drink.

On the bright side, you don't have to use a really sweet creme de bananes--the creme de cacao is sweet enough. MurLarkey makes a banana whiskey that is not sweet, has natural banana flavor, and a great whiskey taste that gives dessert drinks more traction.

• 1 oz. creme de cacao
• 1 oz. creme de bananes (MurLarkey banana whiskey used)
• 1 oz. half-and-half

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. 

Pacific Pacifier

I think that as far as dessert drink names go, this cocktail acts exactly as advertising. There is no spirit that represents the Pacific Ocean, but anything tropical tasting, like banana and orange, will suffice. There's also the pacifier part of the name. It could just be calming, a nightcap for adults, but one can't help think of baby pacifiers and a baby's love of milk.

Here Cointreau is a must to prevent the cocktail from being overly sweet, which cheap triple sec will do. Then the drink calls for banana liqueur, and I thought that banana rum (which is just as sweet) would do fine. It did!

• 1 1/2 oz. Cointreau
• 1 oz. creme de bananes (Cruzan banana rum used)
• 1 oz. half-and-half

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. 

Grasshopper

A standard Grasshopper (of which there are many variations that I have yet to do for the blog) is an all liqueur dessert drink. That doesn't mean it is weak. All that sugar, though, is pretty dangerous for your brain and your waist size. I forget how good these things are and manage to go years between making them for myself or guests. They are addictive, however. Proceed with caution.

• 2 oz. green creme de menthe
• 2 oz. white creme de cacao
• 2 oz. half-and-half

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Banshee

The Banshee is an Irish mythological creature of ill omen, but the cocktail named after it is very sublime. Banshee stories are a bunch of malarkey, as the Irish say. While the ingredients, creme de bananes in particular, have nothing to do with monsters that I can tell, your choice of spirit can be somewhat Irish.

MurLarkey banana whiskey gives this creamy drink more traction. You taste real bananas, not fake liqueur, you get a real-looking yellow color, and there's a bit of whiskey spice to keep it interesting. Heed this banshee's call.

• 2 oz. creme de bananes (MurLarkey banana whiskey used)
• 1 oz. white creme de cacao
• 1 oz. half-and-half

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Silver Stallion

This is the strangest Fizz I've ever seen. It's blended, it includes ice cream, it is packed with lime juice too! And it is also so good, I can't even describe that tangy frozen cream flavor.

I wondered a bit about going full-flavored with the gin selection. With Copper Fox Vir Gin you could have a real flavor bomb of a creamy Fizz. But usually when gin and cream are involved, I err on the side of mellowness. So Filibuster Dual Cask gin gets my vote. It has oak and really subdued botanicals. They don't stick out or draw your attention when you are enjoying a dessert drink. I wouldn't use it in a majority of Fizzes where it gets lost against so much citrus, but here it was quite good.

• 2 oz. gin (Filibuster Dual Cask used)
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream
• sparkling water

Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until thick and smooth and pour into a chilled highball glass. 

Tahoe Julius

This can't be a common cocktail. Something about a blended creamy egg and orange juice and vodka drink just says that it is oft overlooked, and making it well is challenging. The effect, if you get it blended very smoothly like I did, it goes down like an orange ice cream. The vodka is sort of an afterthought, however this Divine Clarity is itself very creamy.

• 2 oz. vodka (Divine Clarity used)
• 4 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. half and half
• 1 whole egg
• 1 tsp. sugar

Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice (like a whole cube tray) and blend until smooth. Pour into a chilled wine glass. 

Velvet Kiss

I can see what this cocktail is doing. It is so much like a tropical smoothie, but it is easy to make in a shaker without crushed ice. So this must be a cocktail glass serving of a boat drink.

But then everything about the Velvet Kiss is unusual. You don't usually see gin in a banana flavored cocktail. You don't usually see pineapple juice and cream used together either. Then you taste it and realize that none of that matters. The spice of gin botanicals adds to the tropical spice notes. The banana spirit makes it exotic, especially if it is real banana flavor not some sugary creme de bananes. Even the little bit of grenadine is used for tropical sweetness rather than for color. So this is a cocktail that is all about the flavor combination that is more than the sum of its parts, almost to the exclusion of appearance.

• 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
• 1/2 oz. creme de bananes (3/4 oz. MurLarkey Banana Whiskey used)
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. half-and-half
• 1 dash grenadine

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice (adding half-and-half last to prevent curdling). Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Mudslide

This pretty cocktail is a favorite of mine from the 1980s. There's been plenty of versions of this drink, but it is pretty much a Bailey's cocktail with vodka and coffee liqueur. The recipe I used doesn't include chocolate syrup, but I feel like it is a nice touch. Chill the glass first, then add the syrup in fun patterns like the floral one above or swirls. Be imaginative.

I used two MurLarkey products for this drink in addition to Bailey's Irish Cream Liqueur. First I needed vodka, and Divine Clarity fits the bill. Coffee liqueur is also necessary, but since Bailey's adds plenty of sweetness in itself. You don't need a sweet coffee liqueur, though. So MurLarkey Coffee Whiskey is perfect and keeps the cocktail strong when a sweet coffee liqueur would make for a weaker cocktail. So go strong with this recipe.

• 1 1/2 oz. vodka (Divine Clarity used)
• 1 1/2 oz. Bailey's Irish Cream
• 1 1/2 oz. coffee liqueur (MurLarkey Coffee Whiskey used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (with an optional chocolate syrup garnish.) 

Huntress Cocktail

This is the creamy female version of the Hunter's Cocktail with rye and cherry brandy. Bourbon gives this cocktail a vanilla-forward flavor with cream and cherry from the Heering as sort of a flourish. Another flourish--that dash of Cointreau that keeps even this heavy dessert drink tasting nice and bright.

• 2 oz. bourbon
• 1 oz. cherry liqueur (Heering used)
• 1 oz. half-and-half
• dash Cointreau

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Pink Lady

This drink should be pink and fluffy with egg white foam, but I used a homemade grenadine with less die. This is probably a good thing, but it made the photo wash out unappetizingly.

I like Vitae rum-based gin for its wetness in dessert drinks. This one is already pretty sweet and I feared that too much cream and juice will water it down. Vitae is 45% alcohol, so no danger of that.

There's a lot that can go wrong with this drink and I took special pains to prevent the tsp. of half-and-half from curdling into a ball in the middle of the shaker. If you are at all worried about this happening with your good gin, omit the cream altogether.

But the cream makes egg white bubbles firmer when mixed with lemon juice. So I see where this is going. Just shake all ingredients first, strain out the liquid into another shaker and add the cream. Shake again to create foam, then pour.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 tsp. grenadine
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. half-and-half
• egg white

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice (or follow above paragraph on how to prevent curdling). Shake and strain (and follow above paragraph on using a second shake for the cream) into a chilled cocktail glass.

Blue Angel

This is a dessert drink that uses cream, blue curacao, and vanilla liqueur with brandy to give a blue-white glow to a cocktail. There's a few problems with it though. First, there's not enough blue curacao to make all that cream look blue. (It really is blue-ish, even if the photo doesn't show it.)

The other problem with the color is that there's a lot of brown liquor in there, which turns the drink a little green-ish. Finally, lemon juice curdles cream. It's a nice touch, but this cocktail would be better made if it was sweetened with coconut cream instead to prevent separation. This drink is pretty bad--just sayin'.

• 1 oz. brandy (Remy Martin VSOP used)
• 1/2 oz. blue curacao
• 1/2 oz. vanilla liqueur (Tuaca used)
• 1/2 oz. half-and-half
• dash lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.