All In

It's been a big month for Garnish! After a year and a half of quietly blogging, a lot of things seemed to happen at once. I was pretty amazed to hit 2000 Instagram followers this week - if you're one of them, thank you! I'm so flattered that people enjoy my photos and my drinks. I got to attend my first cocktail competition, the Boston qualifier for the Diplomático World Tournament (which I sort of live-tweeted, if you want to take a look at the nine entries). I met a bunch of my fellow Boston bloggers in person, including Mr. Muddle and Boston Bar Hopper, which was really fun. And I had some great collaborations with Hooch, Drizly, and Cocktail Builder.

On top of all that, I've just started a new collaboration that I'm particularly excited about. Garnish is now officially partnered with Muddle & Stir, a fantastic site that sells bar tools, glassware, and mixers such as bitters, shrubs, and syrups. I'm going to do a post soon featuring a few of their products to give them a proper introduction, but I definitely wanted to let you guys know as soon as possible that Garnish readers can get 10% off and free shipping on everything at Muddle & Stir with the discount code MS10GB. This is a great deal, as their prices are already quite good. So go check out their products and buy something new for your bar! And stay turned for more about our partnership and details on some of my favorite products on the site.

Let's celebrate with a cocktail, shall we?

I've come a long way from the days when I thought that the only good use for crème de cacao was in a chocolate martini or a Brandy Alexander. The Flushing - Main Street and the 20th Century both convinced me that this can be a much more versatile spirit than I realized. So when I saw this recipe pairing it with Campari, I was, well, all in. This cocktail is a riff on the Old Pal, which is made with equal parts rye, Campari, and dry vermouth. The All In changes up the proportions a bit and makes the critical addition of crème de cacao. The hint of chocolate plays beautifully with the bitter, citrusy flavor of the Campari and the rich, spicy rye.

History: The All In comes from Natasha David at Nitecap in New York City.

All In

1 1/2 oz. rye
3/4 oz. dry vermouth
3/4 oz. Campari
1/4 oz. creme de cacao

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled. Strain into a coupe and garnish with a lemon twist.

Recipe from Punch.

20th Century

I've already gone on at length about how much I love Tempus Fugit's Crème de Cacao. After buying it, I started encountering their other spirits at a lot of bars, in particular the Gran Classico and the Kina L'Aero D'Or (great name, right?). The Gran Classico is an amaro, and the Kina L'Aero is a kind of aperitif wine called a kina or a quinaquina. These wines are infused with citrus and spices, most importantly cinchona bark, which contains quinine (see my Gin and Tonic post for more on this). The most well-known spirit in this category is Lillet Blanc, which used to be called Kina Lillet. It was reformulated in the 80's and is no longer as bitter as it once was. Kina L'Aero D'Or would make a good substitute in something like a Vesper, which was created when Lillet was more bitter.

Anyway, I eventually decided to buy both the Gran Classico and the Kina L'Aero D'Or, and I've been thoroughly enjoying both of them. The Kina L'Aero came with a couple of classic cocktail recipes on the side of the bottle, including this one: the 20th Century. It also makes use of the crème de cacao, so I definitely wanted to give it a try.

It may sound odd to add crème de cacao to bitter wine, gin, and lemon, but it blends surprisingly well with the other bright flavors, giving them a lovely richness. I think the Kina L'Aero D'Or probably has a lot to do with how nicely the recipe works; Lillet might not hold up as well against the sweetness of the crème de cacao.

History: Though you may not have heard of the 20th Century before, it's actually quite an old cocktail, invented in 1937 by a Brit named C.A. Tuck. The recipe was published in the 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book by William J. Tarling. It was recently resurrected by Ted Haigh's book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.

Tuck named this cocktail for the Twentieth Century Limited train that ran between Chicago and New York City from 1902 until 1967. It was advertised as "the most famous train in the world," and it was quite a fancy way to travel - a red carpet was literally rolled out for passengers as they got on and off. Naming the 20th Century after the train was a nod to its elegance and sophistication, and I think the cocktail fits the bill.

20th Century

1 1/2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. kina (Lillet Blanc, Cocchi Americano, or Kina L'Aero D'Or)
3/4 oz. crème de cacao
3/4 oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

Recipe from Tempus Fugit.

Flushing - Main Street

As I mentioned in my post about Crème de Cacao, the Flushing - Main Street from Tiger Mama was the cocktail that made me decide I needed to buy a bottle. I'd never seen chocolate liqueur in a cocktail with ingredients like Blanc Vermouth and Green Chartreuse, and I certainly didn't expect it to taste so good. While it is sweet, it's extremely well-balanced with nice hints of bitterness and citrus. If I didn't know there was crème de cacao in this cocktail, I'm not sure I would even guess it, but the chocolatey notes are definitely there once you look for them.

Though I did buy the crème de cacao, I had to make a couple of other substitutions in this recipe. It calls for Akasi White Oak Japanese Whiskey and Dolin Blanc vermouth, neither of which I own. For the whiskey, I subbed in a blended Scotch, and I used dry vermouth instead of blanc. I hope neither substitution is too egregious; I still find the cocktail very good. From what I've read about the flavor of the Akasi, my version is probably lighter and less smoky. There's definitely a color difference. And the dry vermouth is less sweet than the blanc, which actually suits me just fine, as this is already a pretty sweet cocktail.

History: The Flushing - Main Street comes from Tiger Mama in Boston's Fenway area. I got the recipe from Fred Yarm's blog Cocktail Virgin Slut. He says it's actually a Manhattan variation, and the name comes from a train station in Queens. The recipe was (probably) developed by Charles Coykendall, the bar manager at Tiger Mama. Here's a brief interview with him about his work there.

Flushing - Main Street

2 oz. Akashi White Oak Japanese Whiskey (I used blended Scotch)
1/2 oz. Dolin Blanc Vermouth (I used Dolin Dry)
1/4 oz. Green Chartreuse
1/4 oz. Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao
1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a flamed lemon twist.

Recipe from Cocktail Virgin Slut.

Bottle Buy: Crème de Cacao

I don't make a lot of desserty cocktails, so a bottle of crème de cacao was never that high on my list of things to buy. Don't get me wrong - I love chocolate. Love it. And I wouldn't say no to a chocolate martini if you handed me one. But it's not really something I'd like to make on a regular basis. So of all the spirits I'd like to buy, I didn't think crème de cacao had much of a place in my bar.

There was a particular cocktail that changed my mind. My husband and I were checking out the tiki bar at Tiger Mama, a funky southeast-Asian inspired restaurant in the Fenway area that opened up a few months ago. While I opted for something appropriately Tiki-themed and served in a coconut, the hubby went straight for a drink called the Flushing - Main Street. The ingredients were so bizarre it seemed they might work: Akashi White Oak Japanese whiskey, dry vermouth, Green Chartreuse, and crème de cacao. We loved it. I'll post the recipe soon so you can try it yourself and see if you agree.

I asked the bartender about the unusual inclusion of crème de cacao in the recipe, and he told me they use the one from Tempus Fugit. This was the first time I'd heard of Tempus Fugit, but it wasn't the last - their Gran Classico and Kina L'Aero d'Or seem to be making their way into drinks at every bar in Boston. All of their labels are gorgeously vintage-styled, and their spirits are excellent. The bartender at Tiger Mama assured me that no other crème de cacao would do. "It's the best," he said. I went on the hunt for it and found it at Liquor Land on Mass Ave. When I asked one of the employees if they had it, he pointed it out to me and added, "It's the best." Okay, then.

If you're like me, when you hear "crème de cacao" you think of a sugary, cheap, Dekuyper-esque liqueur. And that's probably not far off for a lot of brands on the market. John Troia, co-founder of Tempus Fugit Spirits, says the decline of crème de cacao from an elegant liqueur to a sickly sweet bottom-shelf mixer had to do with the rise of the cocktail. When the liqueur was no longer being consumed by itself, it was easier to skimp on quality and make more sugary products with artificial flavoring. But like many classic ingredients, crème de cacao is making a comeback.



Crème de cacao was invented by monks in France in the 16th century. Chocolate was still a pretty new import to Europe at the time, but it never seems to take long for people to figure out how to make booze out of something. It's is not a cream liqueur; it gets its name from its thick, creamy texture. It's made by distilling cacao, otherwise known as cocoa beans. If you're not familiar with where your Hershey's chocolate bar comes from, let me briefly enlighten you: chocolate comes from the seeds of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which is native to Central and South America. Its fruits are oval-shaped pods that turn yellow or red when ripe. Inside, there's a sweet white flesh (that actually tastes pretty good on its own, though nothing like chocolate) surrounding the real treasure: the cacao beans. These are fermented, dried, roasted, and cracked open to remove their shells. What's left are what we call cocoa nibs, which are ground up into a paste and mixed with sugar and milk to make chocolate.

If you're making booze instead, you don't have to go through quite that much trouble. Though I'm having a little difficulty finding out the details of the process, it appears that real crème de cacao is made by distilling the raw cocoa beans. The distillate is then macerated with more crushed cacao and vanilla beans. I'm sure sugar is added as well. You may notice that there are "white" and "brown" varieties out there. In the cheaper brands, the brown usually comes from artificial coloring. I guess the goal is to make it look more like the real thing: the brown color of Tempus Fugit's crème de cacao is natural.

The inside of a cacao pod, with the white flesh surrounding the beans.

Tempus Fugit's crème de cacao smells intensely chocolatey, like cocoa powder or a chocolate bar. When you sip it, the first thing you notice is the texture. You understand the "crème" in the name immediately - this stuff is thick and velvety in a completely unexpected way. The flavor is beautiful and rich. Obviously the main taste is chocolate, but there are also strong notes of vanilla and caramel.

I don't normally endorse a single brand, but as far as I know, Tempus Fugit makes the only real quality crème de cacao out there at the moment. You could reach for something cheaper if you want to try it out before you take the plunge, but you'd already be more than halfway to a bottle of really great stuff. If you're not ready to shell out $30 on chocolate liqueur, you could do what a lot of craft cocktail bars are doing and make your own from vodka, cacao nibs, sugar, and vanilla.

Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao

Price: $30
Alcohol Content: 24%
Popular Cocktails: Brandy Alexander, Grasshopper, Chocolate Martini, 20th Century

Though I've already made a number of other, less sweet cocktails with my bottle of crème de cacao (the Flushing - Main Street was the first one), I thought I should use the classic Brandy Alexander to showcase this spirit. Rich, sweet, slightly chocolatey, and extremely elegant, the Brandy Alexander is an adult's version of the sickly-sweet drinks crème de cacao usually makes its way into. It's the kind of dessert drink I actually could have every night.

There are a few different recipes out there, but I decided I liked using equal parts brandy, crème de cacao, and cream the best. If you don't have cream or half and half (or you want to make a slightly less caloric drink), you can substitute milk. It will be a much lighter, more watery cocktail, but I still like it just fine.

History: The Brandy Alexander is a version of the Alexander, which was originally made with gin, crème de cacao, and cream. It was (probably) invented by Troy Alexander at Rector’s in New York in honor of (somewhat bizarrely) a cartoon woman named Phoebe Snow who was used to advertise clean-burning coal for railroads. Phoebe wore all white, emphasizing just how clean the coal was. For the dinner in her honor, Alexander wanted to make a white cocktail to match. Somewhat incongruously, he named it after himself. This gin Alexander appears in Hugo Ensslin’s 1915 Recipes for Mixed Drinks.

An advertisement featuring Phoebe Snow in her white dress.

As for when the gin became popularly replaced by brandy, no one was is really sure. It may have something to do with the royal wedding of Princess Mary. Mary was the daughter of George V and the sister of two kings, Edward VIII, who abdicated, and George VI, who is famously portrayed by Colin Firth in The King’s Speech. In 1922, she married Viscount Henry Lascelles, and the Brandy Alexander was supposedly created in their honor.

Brandy Alexander

1 oz. brandy or Cognac
1 oz. crème de cacao
1 oz. cream, half and half, or milk

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled and frothy. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with grated nutmeg.