Grasshopper – Classic Recipe & History

The History Of The Grasshopper Cocktail.

A quick google search will pull up about three different origin stories for the grasshopper. The most popular origin story goes that Philibert Guichet invented the grasshopper in 1918 while working at Tujague’s in New Orleans, across the street from Cafe Du Monde, to enter a cocktail competition. Although while looking for another cocktail, I found the grasshopper in the 1908 cocktail book by Hon. WM. T. Boothby (That’s a long name) “The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them.” He credits Harry O’Brien (A regular length name) of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco for inventing the drink. The recipe in the 1908 book is a little different than the Philibert Guichet one, but all liqueurs are the same. His recipe is equal parts Creme de Cacao, and Creme de Menthe layered on top of each other. Again it’s different, it’s missing cream and is not shaken, but the flavor would be similar, and the intent is the same, and it predates the Guichet recipe by a full ten years.

To add to the original grasshopper being a Pousse Café styled drink, I found other recipes around the same time and later that are more like the Boothby recipe than the Guichet recipe. In the 1935 book The Bar Keeper’s Golden Book by, he has the Grasshopper as a 50×50 creme de cacao and creme de menthe layered drink. Regardless of who invented it or whether it’s a layered drink or not, it’s a fun little dessert cocktail that tastes like an Andes Chocolate Mint, and you can’t beat that. Also, the Guichet recipe is by far the most well-known and popular version today. It’s also the drink Kermit orders when he thinks Miss Piggy left him in The original Muppet Movie, and Rowlf sings “I Hope That Somethin’ Better Comes Along.”

Recipe Resources

• 1908 The World’s Drinks and how to Mix Them – Boothby