Fluffy Duck
A Fluffy Duck is 30ml advocaat, 30ml gin, 15ml triple sec and 30ml fresh orange juice, shaken hard and strained into an ice-filled highball, then topped with 60ml soda water and stirred once, gently. It is garnished with orange and a cherry. About 2.3 UK units. It contains egg. Difford’s Guide found an advertisement for the Cauldron Bubbles restaurant on Farrell Avenue in Darlinghurst, Sydney, in the Potts Point newspaper of 15 December 1971, which suggests the drink was created there. The advertised version mixed gin, Bacardi, vodka, a big dash of advocaat and a freshly squeezed orange. Difford’s also prints a recipe from Helen Spence’s Cocktails for Two of 1985: gin, advocaat, Cointreau and orange juice, topped up with soda, close to this one. Advocaat, the Dutch egg liqueur, is thick and sweet. On its own it is closer to custard than to a drink. Gin cuts it, orange sharpens it, and the soda turns it light enough to drink tall.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Orange slice and Maraschino cherry
Ingredients
30ml
Egg yolk, sugar and spirit in the Dutch style, at about 17% ABV. Thick and sweet, it needs a hard shake to loosen. Contains egg.
30ml
A London dry gin at 40% ABV. Its juniper cuts the richness of the advocaat, as gin does with cream in an Alexander.
15ml
Cointreau or another triple sec. It adds orange peel and some sweetness; keep it at 15ml, because the glass is sweet already.
30ml
Squeezed the same day. It brings the only real acid in the drink; carton juice adds sugar instead.
60ml
Cold and freshly opened. Added last and stirred once, it lightens the shaken advocaat without flattening it.
Instructions
Shake the advocaat bottle, then add the advocaat, gin, triple sec and orange juice to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Strain into a highball glass filled with ice.
Top with the soda water and stir once, gently.
Garnish with an orange slice and a cherry.
Expert Tip
Shake the advocaat bottle before you measure, because it settles. Then shake the drink hard, all the way to 12 seconds. Advocaat is heavy, and only a hard shake loosens it and fills it with air, which gives the soda something to lift. Add the soda last and stir once, slowly. In our experience a proper stir knocks the air out of the advocaat and the bubbles out of the soda, and the drink goes flat. Squeeze the orange. Advocaat and triple sec are both sweet, and fresh juice is all the sharpness the glass gets.
Behind the Fluffy Duck
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Difford’s Guide found an advertisement in the Potts Point newspaper of 15 December 1971 for the Cauldron Bubbles restaurant in Darlinghurst, Sydney, which suggests the drink was created there: “We have just perfected a beautiful cocktail, which we call the Fluffy Duck.” On that evidence the gin-based Fluffy Duck is Australian.
That advertised drink mixed a third of an ounce each of gin, Bacardi and vodka with a big dash of advocaat and a freshly squeezed orange, shaken and strained into a cocktail glass. Difford’s also prints the 1985 recipe from Helen Spence’s Cocktails for Two, in which gin, advocaat, Cointreau and orange juice are topped up with soda, a build close to ours.
Cutting and Lifting
Advocaat needs two things done to it. On its own it is thick and sweet, nearer custard than a drink.
Gin cuts it: juniper and dry botanicals give the richness something to push against. Soda lifts it, turning a heavy base into something you can drink tall. The hard shake comes first, because cold, aerated advocaat takes the soda far better than thick advocaat does.
Two Kinds of Orange
The orange arrives twice. Fresh juice brings acid and brightness; triple sec brings orange peel and sugar.
Nothing else in the glass is sour, which is why the juice has to be fresh. Keep the triple sec at 15ml. Any more and the drink tips into sweetness halfway down.
The Advocaat Pair
Advocaat has two well-known long drinks, and side by side they show how far the same bottle can move.
Advocaat long drinks
Fluffy Duck
- Advocaat
- 30ml
- Spirit
- 30ml gin, 15ml triple sec
- Other
- 30ml orange juice, 60ml soda
- UK units
- 2.3
Snowball
- Advocaat
- 50ml
- Spirit
- None
- Other
- 10ml lime, 120ml lemonade
- UK units
- 0.9
| Drink | Advocaat | Spirit | Other | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fluffy Duck | 30ml | 30ml gin, 15ml triple sec | 30ml orange juice, 60ml soda | 2.3 |
| Snowball | 50ml | None | 10ml lime, 120ml lemonade | 0.9 |
The Snowball is the lighter and sharper of the pair. The Fluffy Duck carries more alcohol and a dry gin edge under the custard.
How to Serve It
Serve it long, in an ice-filled highball, dressed with orange and a cherry, as soon as the soda goes in, while the head is still light.
Advocaat contains egg. Ask before you make one for a guest.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, juniper must lead the taste, the floor is 37.5% ABV, and the route the flavour takes sets the grade: plain gin, distilled gin or London gin. Our recipes count it at 40%, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Fluffy Duck?
How strong is a Fluffy Duck?
What is advocaat?
Does a Fluffy Duck contain egg?
Why gin with advocaat?
How is it different from a Snowball?
Why has mine gone flat?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Fluffy Duck” (secondary source: advertisement of 15 December 1971 in the Potts Point (NSW) newspaper for Cauldron Bubbles, Farrell Avenue, Darlinghurst (gin, Bacardi, vodka, a big dash of advocaat and a freshly squeezed orange, shaken and strained into a cocktail glass); Helen Spence, Cocktails For Two (1985): two parts gin, two parts advocaat, one part Cointreau, one part orange juice, soda to top up).
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026