Drink · 3 min · Amounts not specified
Stinger
Cognac and crème de menthe, stirred and served very cold. Two ingredients, and it was the drink of choice for most of the last century.
The sheet · 1 coupe · 3 min
easyWhy tonight. Cognac and crème de menthe, stirred and served very cold. Two ingredients, and it was the drink of choice for most of the last century.
What it needs
Nothing confirmed on your shelf yet — this list is the whole ask.
- cognac
- creme de menthe
Method
- 2 oz cognac, ¾ oz white crème de menthe, stirred long over ice and strained up.
- White crème de menthe, not green, and stirred rather than shaken — this is a spirit-forward drink wearing a dessert's clothes.
- No garnish. It does not want one.
- Traditionally the last drink of the night, and it makes more sense at midnight than it ever does at seven.
Technique coach
What the method is trying to make happen
Sequence, correction, heat and texture, equipment workarounds, scaling, and component reuse are available with this cook sheet.
An educational pour, not a reprint of a licensed spec. No allergen or alcohol-safety claim.
Cook or pour it, then edit the shelf if you emptied a bottle or used the last of something.
Going wrong while you cook it? Say what it is doing and the triage will tell you what is happening, the smallest move, and the instinct to resist.
Watch the technique behind this one
Third-party video. Opens in a new tab — nothing is embedded and nothing is fetched from a video platform until you click.
Reviewed video matched to this method, not to the cuisine. Opens in a new tab.
- Cocktail structureHow to make a Wisconsin Old Fashioned with Anders Erickson - Wisconsin Old Fashioned cocktail recipeTruffles On The RocksA regional Old Fashioned built against the classic template, which shows where the template bends.Link checked 2026-09-08
- Cocktail structureBasic Cocktails - How To Make A DaiquiriCocktail ChemistryThe plainest sour there is, which makes base-acid-sweet balance easy to taste rather than merely read.197K+ views at the September 2026 review. · Link checked 2026-09-08
- Cocktail structureMartini vs. Martini with Educated Barfly | How to DrinkHow To DrinkTwo martinis side by side, so ratio and stirring time stop being abstractions.Link checked 2026-09-08
Why each of these is on the list
What the ingredients are actually doing
- cognac
- Grape spirit with fruit and oak, which makes it rounder and less spiky than whiskey in the same drink.
- creme de menthe
- Aggressive, cold and sweet, and it is very easy to make a drink taste like toothpaste.
Missing one of them? The substitutions are written against those jobs rather than against a chart, so they say what each replacement costs this dish in particular.
Cooks from the same box
If you bought for this, you can already make these
Shares cognac
Cognac soda
Cognac and soda with a lemon peel, which is how it is drunk in France and almost nowhere else.
Shares cognac
French Connection
Two ingredients, rocks. Almond sweetness against grape brandy.
Shares creme de menthe
Grasshopper
Crème de menthe, crème de cacao and cream. Dessert in a coupe, and much better made with real cream than the version most people remember.
Shares creme de menthe
Menthe frappé
Crème de menthe, soda, lime, crushed ice if you have it. A café drink. This is the green highball, not a grasshopper — no cream.
Next
Cook it, then tell the shelf what you used.
The ranking is only as honest as the shelf behind it. Empty the cream, and everything that leaned on cream should stop being offered.