Saturday Happy Hour - Pink Squirrel

Yeah, it really looked like this.

I had a hard time writing this entry. I'll get to why in a bit.

I was introduced to the Pink Squirrel at the Peppermill in Santa Clara. The Peppermill was like a little bit of early 1970's Las Vegas in the middle of the Silicon Valley. It was ridiculous, over the top, with fake indoor trees and neon and the water and fireplace. It was also ridiculously cheesy fun, and the drink list included many over the top drinks that went out of favor with the era that the decor represented.

One of those was the Pink Squirrel.

It was actually invented closer to my current home, in Milwaukee at Bryant's Cocktail Lounge. Now comes where I had a problem. The original recipe called for 1 part creme de noyaux, 1 part creme de cacao, and 2 parts ice cream. I started here, and almost completely stopped here. Overly sweet doesn't begin to describe the horror. We drank it, but I couldn't recommend it. So, moving on, I looked at other recipes, and saw that they called for unsweetened cream or half and half instead. This is the recipe I finally ended up enjoying the most. Many people talked about the difficulty of procuring creme de noyaux, but apparently WI residents like the stuff as I didn't have any problem getting a hold of it.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz creme de cacao
• 1 oz creme de noyaux
• 2 oz half and half
• Several ice cubes

Combine ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Pour into large martini glasses.