Stinger
A Stinger is 50ml of cognac and 20ml of white crème de menthe, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over crushed ice in a rocks glass, with a sprig of mint if you want one. About 2.5 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s, which strains it up into a chilled cocktail glass instead. It appears in New York around 1890 and may descend from the Judge, a mix of brandy, crème de menthe and syrup that William Schmidt printed in 1892. It was served after dinner, as a digestif, and it stayed a drink of the well-off until it fell from fashion in the late 1970s. There is no citrus and no bitters, so the cognac does most of the talking. The peppermint cools the finish and takes the edge off the brandy’s heat. Use white crème de menthe: the green is the same liqueur with colouring, and it turns the glass the colour of mouthwash.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Mint sprig (optional)
Ingredients
50ml
A VS or VSOP at 40% ABV, with clear fruit. It is five sevenths of the drink and sets its character, so a harsh brandy shows straight through 20ml of mint.
20ml
Clear peppermint liqueur, about 24% ABV (bottlings run 20 to 30%). White rather than green, which is the same liqueur coloured. It sweetens the drink as well as cooling it, so measure it.
Instructions
Fill a rocks glass with crushed ice.
Add the cognac and white crème de menthe to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain over the crushed ice.
Add a mint sprig, if using.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification; strained over crushed ice in a rocks glass where the IBA serves it up; method ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Buy white crème de menthe, never green. They taste alike, and the green is dyed; at 20ml against 50ml of cognac it turns the drink a pool-water colour that no amount of good brandy rescues. Hold the crème de menthe at 20ml. Older recipes ran as far as equal parts, which tastes of mint sweets. At the IBA’s two and a half to one, the mint sits behind the cognac and cools the finish. Stir for 20 to 30 seconds, then strain over fresh crushed ice, not the cubes you stirred with. Crushed ice melts fast, so serve it at once; the drink is at its best in the first ten minutes.
Behind the Stinger
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The Stinger appears in New York around 1890. It may descend from the Judge, a mix of brandy, crème de menthe and syrup in William Schmidt’s The Flowing Bowl of 1892. It became a society drink, and it was served after dinner as a digestif rather than before it as a cocktail.
By 1905 William Boothby was naming cognac as its base. It did well in Prohibition, when the mint covered the taste of poor brandy, and it held its place until the late 1970s, when it dropped out of fashion.
A Society Drink on Screen
Films show how ordinary it once was. Cary Grant orders a round at lunch in The Bishop’s Wife of 1947, and in High Society, 1956, Stingers are handed out as a cure for the night before. Ian Fleming gave one to James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever.
The Ratio
With two ingredients, the ratio is the recipe. Cognac brings fruit, oak and the strength; crème de menthe brings sugar and cold peppermint. The IBA’s 50ml to 20ml keeps the brandy in front and the mint as a cool finish.
Move towards equal parts and the drink turns sweet as the mint takes over. Move towards three to one and it becomes a cognac with a chill on it.
White, Never Green
The two crèmes de menthe are the same peppermint liqueur, and the green one is coloured. White is clear, so the Stinger arrives the pale gold of the cognac.
Green, at 20ml against 50ml of brandy, turns the glass a bright artificial green. It tastes the same and looks like a novelty.
The IBA and Ours
The IBA’s Stinger and ours
Cognac
- IBA
- 50ml
- Ours
- 50ml
White crème de menthe
- IBA
- 20ml
- Ours
- 20ml
Method
- IBA
- Stirred with ice
- Ours
- Stirred 20 to 30 seconds
Glass
- IBA
- Chilled cocktail glass, served up
- Ours
- Rocks glass over crushed ice
Garnish
- IBA
- Optional mint leaf
- Ours
- Optional mint sprig
UK units
- IBA
- About 2.5
- Ours
- About 2.5
| Element | IBA | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| Cognac | 50ml | 50ml |
| White crème de menthe | 20ml | 20ml |
| Method | Stirred with ice | Stirred 20 to 30 seconds |
| Glass | Chilled cocktail glass, served up | Rocks glass over crushed ice |
| Garnish | Optional mint leaf | Optional mint sprig |
| UK units | About 2.5 | About 2.5 |
How to Serve It
After dinner, over crushed ice in a rocks glass, in place of a dessert wine. Make it to order; crushed ice does not wait.
For cognac with amaretto, make a French Connection; for Scotch with Drambuie, a Rusty Nail; for cognac with orange liqueur and lemon, a Sidecar.
Make it at home
The Spirit
CognacCognac is a brandy distilled twice from white wine in copper pot stills in the Cognac area of western France, aged at least two years in oak and sold at no less than 40% ABV. The letters on the label are minimum ages: VS at least two years, VSOP four, XO ten. A VS or VSOP is what our cocktails assume.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Stinger?
Where does the Stinger come from?
Why must it be white crème de menthe?
Should a Stinger be shaken or stirred?
What is the right ratio?
Should it be served up or over ice?
How strong is a Stinger?
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French Connection
The spirit with amaretto in a French Connection is cognac. The drink is 35ml of each, poured over ice in a rocks glass and stirred, with no garnish. That is the International Bartenders Association specification, and the only change here is the ice: one large cube rather than a glass of small ones. It belongs to the run of two-bottle after-dinner drinks usually placed in the 1970s, alongside the Godfather, which pours Scotch where this pours cognac. No inventor is recorded, and the name is generally linked to the 1971 film The French Connection. Equal parts puts the almond beside the brandy rather than behind it. The cognac brings dried fruit and oak, the amaretto sweetness and a bitter edge, and one glass carries about 2.4 UK units. Choose an amaretto with some bitterness under the sugar; a confectionery one turns the drink to marzipan.
Rusty Nail
A Rusty Nail is 45ml Scotch whisky and 25ml Drambuie, stirred for 15 to 20 seconds over one large ice cube in a rocks glass and finished with a lemon twist, expressed and dropped in. About 2.8 UK units. The IBA gives the same measures, a little under two parts whisky to one of liqueur. Drambuie is itself Scotch whisky, sweetened with heather honey and flavoured with herbs and spices, so the drink pairs a spirit with a sweeter version of itself. The pairing first appears in 1937 as the B.I.F., named after the British Industries Fair, and went through several names before Rusty Nail stuck in early-1960s New York. The ratio is the whole recipe. More Drambuie makes a honeyed after-dinner drink; more whisky makes it drier and leaves the honey as an accent.
Sidecar
A Sidecar is a cognac sour: 50ml cognac, 20ml Cointreau or another triple sec and 20ml fresh lemon juice, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe under an expressed strip of lemon peel. The IBA gives these measures, which put the cognac at two and a half parts to one each of orange and lemon. The first printed recipes appeared in 1922, in Harry MacElhone’s Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails and Robert Vermeire’s Cocktails: How to Mix Them, both at equal parts. Both named Pat MacGarry of Buck’s Club in London; MacElhone later credited himself, and the Ritz in Paris has a claim of its own. The sugared rim came later: its earliest known mention is from 1932. Ours has no rim. Each Sidecar carries about 2.8 UK units.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026