The Chocolate Peppermint Stick tastes exactly like you’d expect from the name. The main flavor is strongly peppermint, but the creme de cacao is powerful, too, and then there’s just a hint of berry.
If you’ve ever had one of those peppermint sticks that has a chocolate ribbon woven through it instead of the usual red fruity ones, that’s about what this drink tastes like.
This drink should be regarded as a double, and therefore might not be your best choice for a party (particularly if people will be driving themselves home).
It’s wonderful to sip along on a night in. It’s also sweet enough to substitute for dessert – like a chocolate after dinner mint with a kick. Except, a lot of chocolate-mint candies use dark chocolate, and the Chocolate Peppermint Stick has more of a milk chocolate flavor.
Around Christmas time, when you can get candy canes, I garnish these by just dropping a cane in. But during the rest of the year, you can buy starlight mints, crush them up, and rim your glass with crushed hard peppermint candy.
And if putting a candy rim on the glass is more trouble than you want to go to, just sprinkle the crushed peppermint over the top.
And of course, you can also do a chocolate garnish if you prefer. Drizzle chocolate syrup down the insides of the glass, or rim it with cocoa powder.
You can also make this one with dark creme de cacao, and the color of the drink will be a light, creamy brown. It’ll taste pretty similar either way, so it’s just a matter of whether you want a pure white cocktail or light brown.
Some people prefer that a chocolate cocktail have some brown coloration.
Chocolate Peppermint Stick Cocktail Recipe
This delicious drink blends creme de cacao with cream and peppermint schnapps. It tastes like its namesake, or of chocolate thin mint cookies. It's absolutely delicious and very easy to make. It looks great at parties when you decorate it with mini candy canes.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 ounce white creme de cacao
- 1 ounce cream
- 1 ounce peppermint schnapps
- 1 teaspoon grenadine
- 1 mini candy cane
Instructions
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
- Pour in the creme de cacao, cream and peppermint schnapps.
- Skake well until chilled.
- Strain ingredients into a chilled martini glass.
- Slowly drop the teaspoon of grenadine right in the middle so it settles to the bottom.
- Garnish with a small peppermint candy cane (or, optionally, crush the candy cane and sprinkle it on top) and serve.
