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.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Orange slice and Maraschino cherry
Ingredients
45ml
Unflavoured, at 40% ABV. Under 120ml of orange and a Galliano float it adds strength rather than flavour, so a mid-priced bottle is enough.
120ml
Squeezed the same day. It is most of the drink, so it decides the flavour, and carton juice tastes cooked beside it.
15ml
Galliano L’Autentico, at 42.3% ABV, sweet with vanilla and anise. It is the only sweetener and the only layer, so pour it last and gently.
Instructions
Squeeze the orange juice the same day.
Fill a highball glass with cubed ice and add the vodka.
Pour in the orange juice and stir once.
Float the Galliano over the back of a bar spoon held at the surface.
Garnish with an orange slice and a cherry, and serve unstirred.
Our version
Recipes vary in their proportions. Ours fixes them at 45ml of vodka, 120ml of fresh orange juice and a 15ml Galliano float, and keeps the Galliano floating rather than stirred in, so the first sips taste of it.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Pour the Galliano last, slowly, over the back of a bar spoon held just at the surface. Poured fast it punches through and mixes; poured gently it stays on top for the first few sips, and that layer is the drink. Squeeze the oranges. At 120ml the juice is most of the glass, and carton juice tastes cooked beside fresh. Hand it over unstirred. Stirred behind the bar it becomes sweetened orange juice with vodka, which is pleasant and not what was ordered.
Behind the Harvey Wallbanger
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The recipe is usually credited to Donato “Duke” Antone, who tended bar at the Black Watch in Hollywood, perhaps as early as the 1950s. No print record from that time has been found, and some accounts tie him to the later marketing instead.
Harvey and the Campaign
The fame belongs to McKesson Imports, which brought Galliano into the United States. George Bednar, its marketing man, had the artist Bill Young draw a cartoon Harvey, and the character sold the liqueur through the 1970s, down to a joke Harvey for President campaign in 1972.
The story of a real surfer named Harvey who walked into walls after a few too many is repeated widely. It has never been traced to a source, and the cartoon is the only Harvey on record.
How the Float Works
Poured slowly over a spoon onto cold orange juice, the Galliano spreads across the surface and stays there for a while. The drink then comes in order: vanilla and anise first, orange and vodka in the middle, and a plain Screwdriver as the layer mixes down.
If the Galliano sinks straight through, the pour is too fast. Slow down and hold the spoon closer to the surface. The New York Sour floats red wine the same way.
The Galliano Bottle
Galliano L’Autentico is Italian, sold in a tall, tapering bottle and bottled at 42.3% ABV. Vanilla leads, with anise behind it over a base of herbs.
It is also the only sweetener in the glass. There is no syrup, so the 15ml of Galliano carries the sugar, the scent and the colour on top, which is why the measure is fixed.
An open bottle keeps well and has other uses: the Golden Cadillac shakes it with white crème de cacao and cream.
The Screwdriver Family
The Harvey Wallbanger and its Screwdriver relations
Screwdriver
- Base
- 50ml vodka
- Added
- None
- Orange juice
- 120ml
- UK units
- 2.0
Harvey Wallbanger (ours)
- Base
- 45ml vodka
- Added
- 15ml Galliano float
- Orange juice
- 120ml
- UK units
- 2.4
Slow Comfortable Screw Against the Wall
- Base
- 25ml vodka
- Added
- 15ml each of sloe gin, Southern Comfort and Galliano
- Orange juice
- 90ml
- UK units
- 2.5
| Drink | Base | Added | Orange juice | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screwdriver | 50ml vodka | None | 120ml | 2.0 |
| Harvey Wallbanger (ours) | 45ml vodka | 15ml Galliano float | 120ml | 2.4 |
| Slow Comfortable Screw Against the Wall | 25ml vodka | 15ml each of sloe gin, Southern Comfort and Galliano | 90ml | 2.5 |
How to Serve It
Tall, over plenty of ice, with an orange slice and a cherry, handed over unstirred so the drinker works down through the float.
For the drink without the float, make a Screwdriver; for the whole family in one glass, a Slow Comfortable Screw Against the Wall.
Make it at home
The Spirit
VodkaVodka is spirit made from a farmed crop, usually grain or potatoes, distilled and refined so that the taste of that crop is deliberately reduced. Its legal minimum is 37.5% ABV, most bottles are 40%, and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Galliano taste like?
Who was Harvey?
Can I stir the Galliano in?
How strong is a Harvey Wallbanger?
How is a Harvey Wallbanger different from a Screwdriver?
Why does my Galliano sink?
You Might Also Like
Sex on the Beach
Sex on the Beach is 40ml vodka, 20ml peach schnapps, 40ml fresh orange juice and 40ml cranberry juice, built over ice in a highball and garnished with half an orange slice. It works out at about 2.0 UK units, made to the measures on the IBA’s Contemporary Classics list. It belongs to the peach schnapps boom of the mid-1980s. The story usually told puts it in a Florida bar during spring break in 1987, at a promotion for the new schnapps; it is repeated everywhere and documented nowhere. Equal orange and cranberry is what holds it together. Orange alone with peach schnapps is soft and sweet, cranberry alone is thin and sharp, and between them the drink stays upright.
Tequila Sunrise
A Tequila Sunrise is 45ml of blanco tequila and 90ml of fresh orange juice over ice in a highball, with 15ml of grenadine added last, which sinks and shades the glass from red to orange. It is served unstirred, with a straw. About 1.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures. The version most people know was made in the early 1970s by Bobby Lozoff and Billy Rice at the Trident in Sausalito, California. At a party there to open the Rolling Stones’ 1972 American tour, Mick Jagger drank one, and the band went on ordering them across the country. An older Tequila Sunrise, from the Arizona Biltmore, was a different drink. Fresh orange juice and a grenadine made from pomegranate turn it from a sweet party drink into a bright, simple long one.
Moscow Mule
A Moscow Mule is 45ml of vodka and 10ml of fresh lime juice over ice in a copper mug, topped with 120ml of cold ginger beer and stirred once, with a lime wedge. Those are the IBA’s measures. About 1.8 UK units, all from the vodka. It is usually dated to 1941 and credited to John G. Martin, who was trying to sell Smirnoff vodka to Americans who did not drink it, and Jack Morgan of the Cock ’n’ Bull in Los Angeles, who had ginger beer he could not shift. Other accounts put the first one in a New York hotel bar, or credit the Cock ’n’ Bull’s bartender. The ginger beer decides the drink. At 120ml it is two thirds of the glass, so a soft, sugary one gives a soft, sugary Mule. Use the fieriest you can find, and keep the lime short: good ginger beer brings its own bite.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026