Grasshopper
The Grasshopper is New Orleans’ green dessert: born by the standard account at Tujague’s in the French Quarter around 1918, second prize in a New York competition and first prize in posterity. Green crème de menthe and white crème de cacao share cream in equal thirds, the colour named it, the South adopted it, and the 1950s supper clubs canonised it. The build is the Alexander constitution in mint dress, with one significant difference: the two liqueurs take the base spirit’s place between them, so there is no spirit anywhere in the glass at all. It is the family’s first all-liqueur member, and gentle by construction rather than by any act of restraint. Green crème de menthe is constitutional here, which makes this the one drink where the usual preference for the white bottle inverts. The colour is the name, and any other combination of the two bottles muddies the grasshopper into a khaki brown.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Mint Leaf or nothing green beyond the glass
Ingredients
20ml
Green, constitutionally. This is the one drink where the usual preference for the white bottle inverts, because the colour is the name and the name is the drink.
20ml
The chocolate half, and white rather than brown so the green stays true. The brown bottle turns the whole glass a muddy khaki for no gain in flavour.
20ml
The family third, shaken to silk. Single cream and a genuinely hard shake, because cream that is merely cold rather than aerated leaves the drink flat.
Instructions
Add the crème de menthe, crème de cacao and cream to a shaker with ice.
Shake very hard for 12 seconds.
Double strain into a chilled Nick & Nora.
Float a mint leaf if dressing it.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification; method ours). Last checked 13 August 2026.
Expert Tip
Green menthe and white cacao: the colour arithmetic is the drink, and inverting either bottle ruins it. Crème de menthe comes in green and white, and crème de cacao comes in white and brown, so there are four possible combinations and exactly one of them produces a grasshopper. Green menthe with brown cacao gives a muddy khaki that looks like a mistake; white menthe with either gives a drink with no reason to carry the name. After that it is the Alexander family’s standing law: equal thirds and a genuinely violent shake, because cream needs real aeration to turn silky rather than merely cold. Twelve hard seconds, then double strain so nothing gritty reaches the glass.
Behind the Grasshopper
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Philip Guichet of Tujague’s built it for a 1918 New York cocktail competition, by the house’s own account, taking second prize there and bringing the drink home to the French Quarter, where it never left.
The supper-club decades spread it north through the middle of the century, and the ice-cream blender variants followed close behind. The origin bar still pours the shaken original, which is unusual: very few drinks of that age can be drunk in the room they were invented in, and fewer still made the way they were first made.
The All-Liqueur Thirds
No spirit enters the glass at all. The two crèmes split the base between them, which makes this the Alexander family’s first all-liqueur member and considerably gentler than any of its relatives by construction rather than by intention.
That has a practical consequence: at around fifteen per cent alcohol it is a genuinely low-strength drink dressed as a proper cocktail, which is why supper clubs could serve it after a long dinner without anybody minding. The frozen ice-cream reading beloved across the American Midwest goes further in the same direction and is a legitimate and quite different dessert.
The Colour Arithmetic
Green menthe plus white cacao equals the grasshopper, and every other combination fails visibly.
Crème de menthe is sold in green and white; crème de cacao in white and brown. Green menthe with brown cacao gives a muddy khaki that looks like an accident. White menthe with either produces a perfectly pleasant mint chocolate drink with no reason at all to be called this. The green is doing the naming and the white is protecting it, which is a rare case of colour genuinely dictating a recipe.
Mint and Chocolate
The pairing is so familiar from confectionery that it is easy to miss how well it works in a glass, and the reason is menthol.
Mint reads as cold to the palate independently of temperature, and cacao reads as rich and slightly bitter. Set against each other over cream, the mint keeps the chocolate from settling into sweetness while the chocolate stops the mint reading as toothpaste. It is the after-dinner mint as a drink, and it is considerably better than that description makes it sound.
How to Serve It
Up, cold and unapologetically green, in a chilled Nick & Nora, after dinner in the slot an after-dinner mint would occupy.
A single mint leaf floated on the surface is the only dressing it needs, and it does real work on the nose. Serve it to anybody who assumes a green drink cannot be serious, which is most people, and let a properly made one make the argument. Tujague’s has been doing exactly that for a century.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Crème de MentheA sweet mint liqueur sold in two colours that taste identical, so the choice between white and green is a decision about how the finished drink should look. Crème refers to the sugar content rather than to any dairy.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
Where was the Grasshopper invented?
Why green crème de menthe?
Is there a frozen version?
How strong is it?
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits