Silk Stocking
A Silk Stocking is 45ml of blanco tequila, 22.5ml of white crème de cacao, 22.5ml of single cream and 10ml of grenadine, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled Nick & Nora glass, with ground cinnamon dusted on top. About 2.3 UK units. It contains dairy. It is the Alexander’s frame of spirit, cacao and cream with tequila as the spirit. Blanco’s pepper and green agave cut through the cream the way juniper does in the original gin Alexander, and the grenadine adds pomegranate tartness and the pink colour. It is younger than it looks. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, gives the earliest book reference it has seen as Helen Spence’s Cocktails for Two of 1982, where it is a blended drink. The shaken version most bars pour now owes much to Ryan Chetiyawardana’s 2009 recipe, which Difford’s says he shared in London during the UK finals of the World Class competition.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Ground cinnamon dusted over the silk
Ingredients
45ml
A blanco tequila made from 100% agave, at 40% ABV, with pepper and green agave that hold up against dairy. Aged tequila adds more round notes to a drink that already has plenty.
22.5ml
White, at our working figure of 24% ABV; an LWC listing gives 25% for Giffard’s white. Dark crème de cacao muddies the pink; the cocoa flavour is much the same.
22.5ml
Single cream, which is dairy. Double cream makes a heavier drink that is hard to finish; milk is too thin to carry the cacao.
10ml
Made from pomegranate. It adds tartness under the cocoa and colours the drink pink; a plain red syrup only colours it.
Instructions
Chill a Nick & Nora glass.
Add the tequila, crème de cacao, cream and grenadine to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled glass.
Dust the surface lightly with ground cinnamon.
Our version
Our measures: 45ml blanco, 22.5ml each of white crème de cacao and single cream, and 10ml grenadine, shaken, with cinnamon. Helen Spence’s 1982 version, as Difford’s Guide prints it, was blended with a dash of grenadine; Ryan Chetiyawardana’s 2009 shaken version, also on Difford’s, uses more tequila and less grenadine.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Choose a blanco with some bite. A very soft tequila sinks into the cream, and the drink ends up tasting of cocoa and milk. Use white crème de cacao. Dark crème de cacao tastes much the same but turns the pink a muddy brown. Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds to whip a little air into the cream, then double strain to catch the ice shards.
Behind the Silk Stocking
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Difford’s Guide credits no one with the Silk Stocking and dates it to the late 1970s or early 1980s. The earliest book reference Difford’s has seen is Helen Spence’s Cocktails for Two, published in 1982, which blends tequila, white crème de cacao, cream and a dash of grenadine.
The shaken version is more recent. Difford’s Guide says Ryan Chetiyawardana shared his recipe at The Cabinet Room in London in 2009, during the UK finals of that year’s World Class bartending competition, with more tequila and less grenadine than ours.
The Alexander Frame
Spirit, crème de cacao and cream is the Alexander family’s structure. The Oxford Companion says the Alexander is made with gin or brandy, that its formula is found in Hugo Ensslin’s 1916 book, and that Harry MacElhone replaced the gin with brandy in his ABC of 1922, a version that also became quite popular. The frame takes almost any spirit with enough character to stand out against two soft, sweet ingredients.
Our Silk Stocking tilts the frame toward the spirit: 45ml of tequila against 22.5ml each of cacao and cream, where our Alexander runs equal parts. That extra spirit is what keeps the tequila audible through the dairy.
Why Blanco
Blanco tequila has raw agave, white pepper and a citrus edge, and none of it needs oak to be noticed. Against cream, those sharp notes are exactly what the drink is missing.
Reposado and añejo spend time in barrels, which rounds them off. In this drink that rounding adds another soft note to a glass that already has two, so keep the aged bottles for drinks that need weight.
The Grenadine
Ten millilitres of grenadine is what separates this from a plain tequila Alexander. Pomegranate is tart under its sweetness, so it gives the cream a second thing to work against and stops the cacao having the sweet side to itself.
It also sets the colour. White crème de cacao and an unaged spirit keep the drink pale, so the grenadine can turn it pink. Dark cacao or an aged tequila turns the same drink beige.
Three Drinks in One Frame
Our Alexander, Brandy Alexander and Silk Stocking
Spirit
- Alexander
- 30ml gin
- Brandy Alexander
- 30ml cognac
- Silk Stocking
- 45ml blanco tequila
Crème de cacao
- Alexander
- 30ml white
- Brandy Alexander
- 30ml dark
- Silk Stocking
- 22.5ml white
Cream
- Alexander
- 30ml
- Brandy Alexander
- 30ml double
- Silk Stocking
- 22.5ml single
Extra
- Alexander
- None
- Brandy Alexander
- None
- Silk Stocking
- 10ml grenadine
Garnish
- Alexander
- Grated nutmeg
- Brandy Alexander
- Grated nutmeg
- Silk Stocking
- Ground cinnamon
UK units
- Alexander
- About 1.9
- Brandy Alexander
- About 2.0
- Silk Stocking
- About 2.3
| Element | Alexander | Brandy Alexander | Silk Stocking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit | 30ml gin | 30ml cognac | 45ml blanco tequila |
| Crème de cacao | 30ml white | 30ml dark | 22.5ml white |
| Cream | 30ml | 30ml double | 22.5ml single |
| Extra | None | None | 10ml grenadine |
| Garnish | Grated nutmeg | Grated nutmeg | Ground cinnamon |
| UK units | About 1.9 | About 2.0 | About 2.3 |
How to Serve It
After dinner, up, in a chilled Nick & Nora, with a light dusting of cinnamon in place of the Alexander’s nutmeg. It is rich, so serve it where a pudding would go.
For the gin original, make an Alexander; for cognac and dark cacao, a Brandy Alexander.
Make it at home
The Spirit
TequilaTequila is a Mexican spirit distilled from the blue agave plant, made, the Oxford Companion says, only in Jalisco and municipalities of four other states; our recipes use 40% ABV. A label reading 100% agave means every sugar came from the plant, where plain tequila needs only 51%. Most of our 26 tequila recipes ask for 100% agave blanco.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Silk Stocking cocktail?
Where does the Silk Stocking come from?
Why blanco tequila in a cream drink?
How does it compare with an Alexander?
Does a Silk Stocking contain dairy?
Does the grenadine have to be real?
How strong is a Silk Stocking?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Silk Stocking” (secondary source: recipe from Ryan Chetiyawardana, 2009, shared at The Cabinet Room, London, at the UK finals of World Class; originated in the late 1970s or early 1980s; earliest book reference seen: Helen Spence, Cocktails For Two, 1982, blended (three parts tequila, two white crème de cacao, three cream, a dash of grenadine); his version 60ml tequila, 22.5ml white crème de cacao, 7.5ml grenadine, 22.5ml whipping cream).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (David Wondrich), “The Alexander Cocktail” (secondary source: gin or brandy, crème de cacao and cream; in print in the United States in 1914; Ensslin’s 1916 compendium; MacElhone replaced the gin with brandy in his 1922 ABC).
- LWC, “Giffard Creme De Cacao (White) 70cl” (UK wholesaler listing: 25% ABV).
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026