Screaming Orgasm
A Screaming Orgasm is 25ml of vodka with 12.5ml each of amaretto, coffee liqueur and Irish cream, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass. No garnish. About 1.8 UK units. It contains dairy, and some amaretto contains nuts. Take out the vodka and you have a plain Orgasm, three liqueurs and no spirit; the vodka is what makes it screaming. Under the name it is a sound dessert drink. Coffee liqueur brings roast and the only bitterness in the glass, amaretto brings almond, Irish cream brings body, and the vodka adds strength without a flavour of its own.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: None
Ingredients
25ml
Unflavoured, at 40% ABV. It is the screaming: strength without a flavour the almond, coffee and cream would have to make room for.
12.5ml
About 28% ABV, as Disaronno is listed by Drinkfinder. The Oxford Companion says amaretto is generally made from apricot kernels; read the label for anyone with a nut or egg allergy. Choose one with a slightly bitter finish.
12.5ml
About 20% ABV. The roast and the only bitterness in the glass, which stops three sweet ingredients stacking into something you cannot finish.
12.5ml
About 17% ABV and made with dairy cream, which rules the drink out for anyone off milk. Shaken through, it gives body rather than forming a layer.
Instructions
Add the vodka, amaretto, coffee liqueur and Irish cream to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Strain into a rocks glass over fresh cubed ice.
Expert Tip
Shake for 10 to 12 seconds and no longer. Cream liqueurs foam quickly, and a long shake turns silk into froth. Pick an amaretto that tastes faintly bitter at the finish. At 12.5ml it is a fifth of the drink, and a cheap, sugary bottle reads as sweetness and nothing else against coffee and cream. Strain over fresh ice. The shaking ice is already half melted, and cream liqueurs turn cloying as they warm and thin out.
Behind the Screaming Orgasm
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The plain version is three liqueurs; vodka makes it screaming; further variants add more and are named to match.
Names like this sold drinks across a loud counter, and the mild embarrassment of ordering one was part of the appeal. The Slow Comfortable Screw comes from the same impulse.
What Each Bottle Does
Four bottles, three of them sweet, and each does a different job.
Coffee liqueur is the floor: roast bitterness, the one thing in the glass pushing against the sugar. Amaretto adds almond and a faint bitterness of its own. Irish cream brings body and texture. Vodka brings strength and nothing else.
Take one out and the balance goes. Without the coffee it is cloying. Without the vodka it is the plain Orgasm, sweeter and gentler.
Three Coffee and Cream Drinks
The Screaming Orgasm beside its relatives
Orgasm
- Spirit
- None
- Liqueurs
- Amaretto, coffee liqueur, Irish cream
- How it is made
- Usually shaken
Screaming Orgasm
- Spirit
- 25ml vodka
- Liqueurs
- 12.5ml each of amaretto, coffee liqueur, Irish cream
- How it is made
- Shaken, over fresh ice
B-52
- Spirit
- None
- Liqueurs
- Coffee liqueur, Irish cream, orange liqueur
- How it is made
- Layered in a shot glass
| Drink | Spirit | Liqueurs | How it is made |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orgasm | None | Amaretto, coffee liqueur, Irish cream | Usually shaken |
| Screaming Orgasm | 25ml vodka | 12.5ml each of amaretto, coffee liqueur, Irish cream | Shaken, over fresh ice |
| B-52 | None | Coffee liqueur, Irish cream, orange liqueur | Layered in a shot glass |
Shaken, Not Layered
The B-52 uses coffee liqueur and Irish cream too, and Difford’s Guide says layered drinks are formed from ingredients of different specific gravities, the heaviest at the bottom.
Shaking does the opposite. It gives one texture, which is what a cream drink over ice needs; layers would collapse into the ice within a minute.
The Eighties, Honestly
The names were daft and commercial, but many of the recipes under them are sound: real liqueurs in sensible proportions, built quickly and the same every time.
What failed later was the ingredients. Cheap flavoured syrups replaced liqueurs, and the drinks lost what had made them work. Made with decent amaretto and a real coffee liqueur, this one holds up.
How to Serve It
Shaken, strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, and served after dinner in place of pudding.
For coffee and cream with vodka alone, make a White Russian.
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. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 its minimum is 37.5% ABV and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin; our recipes count it at 40%. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Screaming Orgasm?
What is the difference between an Orgasm and a Screaming Orgasm?
Should it be layered like a B-52?
Does the amaretto brand matter?
How strong is a Screaming Orgasm?
Does a Screaming Orgasm contain dairy or nuts?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Alia Akkam), “almond liqueurs” (secondary source: amaretto is generally made from apricot kernels macerated in brandy and sweetened; Disaronno steeps herbs and fruits in crushed apricot kernel oil; Lazzaroni infuses Amaretti di Saronno).
- Difford’s Guide, “B-52 Shot” (secondary source: coffee liqueur, Irish cream and Grand Marnier layered in a chilled glass; layered cocktails are formed from ingredients of different specific gravities, the heaviest at the bottom).
- Baileys, “Baileys Original Irish Cream” (producer’s product page: 17% ABV).
- Drinkfinder, “Disaronno 50cl” (UK retailer listing: Disaronno 28% ABV).
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White Russian
A White Russian is 50ml vodka and 25ml coffee liqueur stirred over one large cube in a rocks glass for 15 to 20 seconds, then 30ml of fresh single cream poured gently onto the surface from a spoon. Nothing else garnishes it: the cream marbling down through the dark liquid is the finish. About 2.5 UK units. It is the Black Russian with cream. The IBA lists it only as a note to that drink, which is 50ml vodka and 20ml coffee liqueur: float fresh cream on top and stir it in slowly. Our extra 5ml of liqueur holds the coffee against the cream. The Oxford Companion dates its final form and name to 1965, when Southern Comfort used it to promote its short-lived Coffee Southern. The Oxford Companion says that in the Coen Brothers’ cult film The Big Lebowski the White Russian is the Dude’s main source of sustenance, and that it has become something of a cult drink.
B-52
A B-52 is a layered shot: 15ml of coffee liqueur, then 15ml of Irish cream floated on it, then 15ml of Grand Marnier floated on that, built in a chilled shot glass and taken in one. About 1.2 UK units. The Irish cream contains milk. Difford’s Guide says a bartender named Peter Fich is most often credited with creating it in 1977 at the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, and that he tended to name his drinks after favourite bands, songs or albums, this one after the B-52s. Difford’s says the 1977 date fits the bar books of the time. The three settle in that order because each is lighter than the one under it. Cold bottles, a bar spoon and a slow hand are all the build needs. Drunk in one, the top layer arrives first: orange, then cream, then coffee.
Shaft
A Shaft is 15ml each of vodka, coffee liqueur and Irish cream with 45ml of cold espresso, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, then drunk through a straw in one go. About 1.2 UK units. The Irish cream makes it a dairy drink, and the espresso makes it a strong coffee. It is Canadian, and two cities claim it. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, credits Mark Smith of The Living Room in Calgary, around 2000, with an espresso shot with a splash of Kahlúa and skimmed milk, named after John Shaft of the 1971 film. Flavour Network says British Columbians credit a bartender at Hugo’s in Victoria’s Strathcona Hotel instead, and Difford’s calls the drink ubiquitous in Victoria. The espresso is the point. Coffee liqueur is already sweet coffee, and real espresso brings the acid and bitterness that stop the drink tasting like a milkshake.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026