I think that my appreciation for alcohol started early in my life. In Wisconsin, it is legal for your parents to serve you alcohol, so I was very young when I had my first sip of “Grandpa’s Pop.” I apparently liked it because, well, there is a photo of me as a baby where I was trying to steal a swig from Grandpa’s returnable bottle of Old Milwaukee. I only know this because there was a county directory that was printed shortly after I arrived in this world, and that photo ended up being printed there.
The 1970s were a weird time. Not that I remember much of them. (Because I was young, not because I was drunk…geez.)
My family has never shied away from alcohol at family gatherings. To this day, my stepmother will mix up an ice-cream pail-sized batch of “Grasshoppers” for the family to have as we exchange gifts. Now, unless you are from Wisconsin or deal with folks from there a lot, you might have the wrong idea about what I am talking about.
In most of the country, a Grasshopper cocktail is an after-dinner cocktail made from equal parts Crème de Cacao, Crème de Menthe, and cream. In Wisconsin, they have their own spin on it. Theirs uses ice cream instead of the cream and is basically a boozy milkshake. How boozy is up to the person making it. The “official” Supper Club recipe is a half ounce each of green Crème de Menthe and clear Crème de Cacao mixed with three scoops of ice cream and blended well. While I don’t know for sure what my stepmother’s recipe entails, I do know that she includes vodka if not serving it to the kids.
Rural northern Wisconsin is also super weird.
So, Frozen Grasshopper Cocktails make me think of Christmas. And when I saw a Crème de Cacao and a Crème de Menthe, each for over $30 per bottle, I decided to make some for my own Christmas celebration, even if it is just going to be my wife and I and a bunch of dogs. I’ll be honest as far as I know, I’ve never had a Grasshopper made with anything but Phillips or DeKuyper brand liqueurs. The bottommost-shelf of bottom-shelf brands. I had to know what one using booze that cost more than $12 per bottle tasted like. Hell, I needed to know what the liqueurs themselves, at triple the cost, would taste like. Could I actually drink them on their own? Would I be disappointed? Enraged? Excited? No idea. But it’s Christmas, and I was on a mission to try and make a better version than the one I grew up with.
OK, before we get into the meat of this, let’s take a moment to look at the purveyors of these upscale liqueurs. According to their website, Tempus Fugit Spirits is a California company that started out importing European Absinthes when they became legal in the US again in 2007. Along the way, they expanded…you know what? Let’s just let them tell it:
Along with the world’s finest absinthes, Tempus Fugit Spirits was determined to seek out fine rare liquors that were once staples in classic pre-prohibition cocktails, but have been lost in time. In most cases, we re-create these liquors ourselves, using historic 19th century protocols, many cross-referenced in several languages, to arrive as close in taste to these forgotten spirits as is possible, or surpass them – rare fruit, flower and plant liqueurs, bitters, amari, vermouths and chinati – we pride ourselves in finding out what’s missing from the back-bar that our cocktailian friends are searching for.
Our focus is on what is often called a cocktail ‘modifier’; those spirit-based ingredients used to transform whisky, gin, rum, etc. into a cocktail. We find today this category abused by industrial methods of production, artificial flavors and colors. We know these liqueurs were created in the past to be drunk alone, as aperitifs or digestifs, and were made with great pride and care by the best distilleries and liquorists.
So yeah. That sounds exactly like what I was hoping for when I picked up the bottles for my Christmas Grasshoppers. Here are the tasting notes, and then I’ll get to my own recipe.
Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao
Purchase Info: $37.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN
Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.53
Details: 24% ABV.
Nose: Nutty and chocolatey. Think of the best gourmet chocolate bar you've had.
Mouth: Thick and sweet with a wonderful taste of cocoa nibs.
Finish: Sweet and gentle with the lingering flavor of a good candy bar. Notes of milk chocolate, caramel, and vanilla.
Thoughts: This is the best Crème de Cacao I've ever had. It's nutty like Cacao nibs, obviously chocolatey and sweet. Much better than the cheap stuff I used to buy. If it weren’t so sweet, I’d drink this on its own.
Tempus Fugit Crème de Menthe
Purchase Info: $46.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Curiada.com
Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.13
Details: 28% ABV.
Nose: Straight candy cane peppermint
Mouth: Liquid candy cane.
Finish: Long, very minty, and cool.
Thoughts: Very sweet and minty, just like you'd want from a mint liqueur. It is very tasty even if it is less complicated on the palate than the Crème de Cacao. I’m very happy with this as well. Both of these taste like what you’d want them to taste like, not like there are a bunch of artificial flavors in there.
Ok, now, after all that, here is my base recipe for a Frozen Grasshopper. This is just a base. You can adjust all of the ingredients as you wish and even leave some out, or be like my stepmother and add even more booze to it. This is the most forgiving cocktail recipe you’ll make.
Arok’s Frozen Wisconsin-Style Grasshopper
3 small scoops of a good vanilla bean ice cream (about 150-200 grams total)
1 fluid ounce Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao
1 fluid ounce Tempus Fugit Crème de Menthe
a splash of coffee or coffee liqueur
green food coloring (optional, if you want the traditional Grasshopper color that would usually come from the green-colored Crème de Menthe. I tend to leave it out, but I wanted the picture to be accurate)
Blend the ingredients on low to medium-low to mix well but not melt the ice cream. Pour into a suitably vintage glass. Garnish with a mint sprig and/or a crushed-up York Peppermint Patty. And enjoy!
I’ll be taking next week off to enjoy Christmas with my family, so I hope each and every one of you has a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
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