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. In our view the vanilla of the Galliano meets 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, as the legend goes in Cheers, a drinks trade magazine, 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 on Galliano’s own page, which puts anise and peppermint first and vanilla in the lingering finish. It is sweet on its own, so the drink needs no sugar.
30ml
White rather than dark, for the colour, at our working figure of 24% ABV. In our view 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. In our view 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
Alcademics places Poor Red’s, a barbecue restaurant in El Dorado, in the California gold country, and dates the drink to 1952. Cheers, a drinks trade magazine, tells the legend: a couple visited in 1952 to celebrate their engagement and asked the bartender, Frank Klein, to create a cocktail to match their newly purchased gold-coloured Cadillac.
Cheers says the drink made Poor Red’s the largest consumer of Galliano in North America, and that in 2017 the bar had reclaimed its status as the largest in the world; since reopening in April 2016, it says, the bar had sold more than 31,000 Golden Cadillacs.
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.
In our view, 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 on its maker’s site. Galliano Vanilla, at 30% with a vanilla distillate added, is also sold, by its maker’s account; 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?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Alcademics, “Happy 60th Birthday, Golden Cadillac Cocktail” (secondary source, a drinks blog (Camper English, 24 October 2011): Poor Red’s BBQ in the California gold country; a cocktail created in 1952; quotes the bar’s history (a couple, long-time bartender Frank Klein)).
- Cheers, “California Bar’s Golden Cadillac Driving Galliano Sales Again” (drinks trade magazine, 10 February 2017: Poor Red’s Bar-B-Q, El Dorado, CA; “as the legend goes” a couple visited in 1952, bartender Frank Klein; the largest consumer of Galliano in North America, reclaimed as the largest in the world; more than 31,000 Golden Cadillacs since April 2016).
- Galliano, “Galliano Autentico” (producer’s own page: 42.3% alc./vol.; anise and peppermint most prominent on the palate; a lingering smooth vanilla).
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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 on its own page that Philip Guichet invented it in 1918 for a cocktail competition in New York City, where it came second, and gives its drink as white and green crème de menthe, white and dark crème de cacao, cream and brandy. The Oxford Companion, in an entry by Robert F. Moss, dates the legend to 1928 or thereabouts, says no documentary evidence substantiates it, and finds the first printed reference to a Grasshopper cocktail in February 1950, with the Midwest the likeliest place of origin.
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 Oxford Companion says the drink was likely the work of the bartender Donato “Duke” Antone, who may have made it as early as the early 1950s at the Black Watch in Hollywood, calling it the Duke Screwdriver, and that McKesson Imports, Galliano’s importer, built a marketing campaign around it in 1969. It says George Bednar of McKesson had the New York marketer Bill Young create a cartoon surfer called Harvey, with the catchphrase “My name is Harvey Wallbanger and I can be made”. 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 19 October 2026