Golden Cadillac
A Golden Cadillac is 30ml of Galliano, 30ml of white crème de cacao and 30ml of cold single cream, shaken very hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass. No garnish. About 2.0 UK units. It contains dairy. It is a Grasshopper with Galliano in place of the crème de menthe. The vanilla and soft anise of the Galliano meet chocolate and cream in equal thirds, and the drink comes out gold, thick and plainly a dessert. It comes from Poor Red’s, a barbecue restaurant in El Dorado, California, where by the bar’s own account it was first mixed in 1952 for a couple with a new gold Cadillac.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: None
Ingredients
30ml
Galliano L’Autentico, at 42.3% ABV: vanilla first, then soft anise and herbs. It is sweet on its own, so the drink needs no sugar.
30ml
White rather than dark, for the colour, at about 24% ABV. Dark tastes much the same and turns the drink brown.
30ml
Single cream, cold, shaken hard until light and silky; double cream makes it heavy. A third of the glass is dairy, which matters to anyone with a milk allergy.
Instructions
Chill a Nick and Nora glass.
Add the Galliano, white crème de cacao and cream to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake very hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled glass.
Expert Tip
Shake it harder than you think. Cream drinks need air as well as cold, and a polite shake leaves a flat, slightly greasy glass. Use white crème de cacao, not dark. Dark tastes much the same and turns a drink named for a gold car a muddy brown. Use cold single cream. Shaken hard it turns light and silky; double cream makes the drink heavy.
Behind the Golden Cadillac
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Poor Red’s is a barbecue restaurant in El Dorado, in the California gold country. Its story is that in 1952 a newly engaged couple, celebrating the purchase of a gold Cadillac, asked the bartender, Frank Klein, to make them a drink to match.
Most cocktail origin stories of the period cannot be checked. This one has some support in the sales: the bar has been reported as one of the largest single customers for Galliano anywhere, on the strength of one drink.
The Grasshopper Swap
A Grasshopper is equal thirds of green crème de menthe, white crème de cacao and cream, and tastes like an after-dinner mint. Take out the menthe, put in Galliano, and change nothing else.
Against chocolate and cream, Galliano reads as vanilla almost entirely. Where the Grasshopper is cool and sharp, this is warm and round: the same structure and method, the opposite sensation.
Why the Thirds Do Not Move
Everything in the glass is sweet. Galliano and crème de cacao are liqueurs, and cream reads as sweet too. Most drinks would fix that with acid; here there is none.
The ratio holds it together. At a third each, the cream carries the two liqueurs rather than drowning under them. Push either liqueur up and the drink turns to syrup.
Three Cream Drinks in Thirds
The Golden Cadillac and its relatives
Golden Cadillac
- First third
- 30ml Galliano
- Second third
- 30ml white crème de cacao
- Cream
- 30ml
Grasshopper
- First third
- 20ml green crème de menthe
- Second third
- 20ml white crème de cacao
- Cream
- 20ml
Brandy Alexander
- First third
- 30ml cognac
- Second third
- 30ml dark crème de cacao
- Cream
- 30ml
| Drink | First third | Second third | Cream |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Cadillac | 30ml Galliano | 30ml white crème de cacao | 30ml |
| Grasshopper | 20ml green crème de menthe | 20ml white crème de cacao | 20ml |
| Brandy Alexander | 30ml cognac | 30ml dark crème de cacao | 30ml |
Galliano’s Two Careers
The tall yellow bottle has had two great moments. One is the Harvey Wallbanger, which floats Galliano on vodka and orange juice. The other is this.
In the Wallbanger, Galliano is a finishing touch; in the Golden Cadillac it is the reason the drink exists.
How to Serve It
Shaken very hard, double strained into a chilled Nick and Nora and drunk cold, before it warms. No garnish.
It is a dessert, so serve it in place of pudding, not beside it.
For the mint original, make a Grasshopper; for the same thirds with cognac, a Brandy Alexander.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GallianoGalliano L'Autentico is an Italian herbal liqueur led by vanilla and anise, at 42.3% ABV, the strength of the 1896 original. A sweeter Galliano Vanilla at 30% is also sold; every Galliano line in our recipes means L'Autentico. It goes in small measures: 15ml floated on a Harvey Wallbanger, 30ml shaken with crème de cacao and cream in a Golden Cadillac.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the Golden Cadillac come from?
What separates it from a Grasshopper?
Should I use white or dark crème de cacao?
What does Galliano taste like?
How strong is a Golden Cadillac?
Can I make a dairy-free Golden Cadillac?
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Grasshopper
A Grasshopper is 20ml of green crème de menthe, 20ml of white crème de cacao and 20ml of fresh cream, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass, with an optional mint leaf. About 1.0 UK unit. The measures are the IBA’s. There is no base spirit. Two liqueurs at about 24% ABV share the job, so it is one of the gentler drinks served up. The cream is dairy, so it is not for anyone avoiding milk. Tujague’s restaurant in New Orleans says its owner, Philip Guichet, created it in 1918 for a cocktail competition in New York, where it took second prize. That account is the restaurant’s own. The drink spread through the American South in the 1950s and 1960s.
Harvey Wallbanger
A Harvey Wallbanger is 45ml of vodka and 120ml of fresh orange juice over ice in a highball, stirred once, with 15ml of Galliano floated on top over the back of a spoon and an orange slice and a cherry to finish. About 2.4 UK units. It is a Screwdriver with a vanilla and anise float. The recipe is usually credited to Donato “Duke” Antone, a Hollywood bartender, perhaps as early as the 1950s. Its fame came later, from McKesson Imports, which brought Galliano into the United States: George Bednar, its marketing man, had the artist Bill Young draw a cartoon Harvey, and Galliano sales climbed through the 1970s on the back of him. The float is what makes it more than sweetened orange juice. The first sips taste of Galliano, the middle is orange and vodka, and the end is close to a plain Screwdriver.
Brandy Alexander
A Brandy Alexander is 30ml of cognac, 30ml of dark crème de cacao and 30ml of cold single cream, shaken very hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass, finished with freshly grated nutmeg. About 1.9 UK units. It contains dairy. The IBA uses exactly these measures. It lists the drink simply as the Alexander and makes it with cognac and brown crème de cacao. The earlier Alexander, still made, uses gin and white crème de cacao. Equal thirds and no acid make it a dessert in a glass. The cacao brings chocolate and a little bitterness, the cognac oak and dried fruit underneath, and the nutmeg is the only thing cutting across the cream. The hard shake matters most: it whips air into the cream, so the drink has texture as well as weight.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026