Stinger

The Gilded Age’s after-dinner drink

The Stinger belongs to a specific moment: New York in the 1890s, when a drink taken after dinner was supposed to settle the stomach. Reginald Vanderbilt is usually credited with popularising it, and its reputation rested on the idea that mint liqueur helps a heavy meal sit better. True or not, it is one of the few classic cocktails built from exactly two ingredients.

The ratio, and the argument about it

One and a half ounces of brandy to half an ounce of white crème de menthe. Modern taste runs in this direction because the liqueur is 25 to 30% sugar and swamps everything at equal parts. Older books list it one-to-one, and trying that shows why the drink fell out of fashion: it tastes like drinking toothpaste. A good brandy — a VSOP cognac or an Armagnac — repays the money, because there is no juice or soda to hide behind.

White, never green

Only white crème de menthe works here. The green version dyes the drink an alarming colour and usually tastes harsher. Check the age of the bottle as well: mint liqueur fades, and an old one tastes of sugar syrup with a menthol echo.

Shake or stir?

The books disagree and both are defensible. Shaking for ten seconds with cubed ice gives a frosty, slightly aerated drink that suits peppermint; stirring keeps it silky and clear. What matters is the temperature. A Stinger has to be served very cold in a small stemmed glass with no ice in it — ice in the glass makes it taste like mouthwash within five minutes.

Strength

About 30% ABV before dilution and roughly 160 calories, which makes it a small, strong, sweet glass.

Common mistakes

• Equal parts, which is the historic recipe and a modern disappointment.
• Using a cheap brandy, whose flaws are completely exposed.
• Serving it warm, which exaggerates the mint and makes the drink feel medicinal.

Variations

A Stinger on the rocks is the 1950s hotel version, built over a single large cube. A Green Dragon adds a dash of green crème de menthe to cognac and serves it as a shot.

Is a Stinger a digestif?

That is how it was sold for fifty years. Serve it after a heavy meal, in a small glass, alongside coffee.

Can you use crème de cacao instead?

That becomes a different drink, closer to a Brandy Alexander without the cream. It is pleasant, but it is not a Stinger.