Stinger – This classic cocktail recipe is a blast from the past

Newscaster Rachel Maddow is also a great lover of classic cocktails. Discovering her amusing video on six classic Cocktails of the Fifties on YouTube reminded me that I hadn’t had a Stinger in ages. This classic cocktail recipe is easy to prepare and is great as an after dinner drink or to sip anytime you want (or need) a cocktail. This cocktail’s name, and its potential for double meaning, have resulted in mentions in many movies. I always get a laugh from the scene in The Bishop’s Wife where the angel Dudley (Cary Grant) suggests that the catty group of gossips order Stingers with their luncheon.

The Stinger is easy to make; it’s what’s known as a Duo, a cocktail with only two ingredients: a liquor and a liqueur. A Stinger is made with Cognac (or Brandy) and white Crème de Menthe. Some Stinger recipes go as high as a 1:1 ratio of ingredients; they must either love Crème de Menthe or be using bad Brandy! I like mint, but not that much. The recipe below is 2:1 Cognac to Crème de Menthe, but you can go as high as 3:1 and still enjoy the Stinger experience. Experiment until you get just the taste you like. By the way, if you don’t have white Crème de Menthe you can use green. The taste will be the same, but you will actually be drinking a Green Hornet.

Stinger

2 oz Cognac (or Brandy)

1 oz Crème de Menthe (white)

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with cracked ice. Stir briskly until it’s ice cold while imagining your parents at a swank cocktail party in the fifties (this may be quite a stretch). Strain into a chilled cocktail glass enjoy!