Good evening and welcome to the bar...

Last week we discussed brandy so this week I'll be making you an unforgettable Brandy Alexander:

- Add a single measure of cognac to a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
- Add a single measure of brown crème de cacao.
- Add a single measure of cream.
- Shake well
- Strain into a cocktail glass
- Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg
- Serve

Mhhmmm, there's a reason this is often served as a dessert cocktail. It's rich and creamy. Sweet and flavourful.

This drink works wonderfully as an after dinner drink because it’s sweet enough to replace dessert. You can make it even sweeter by topping it with whipped cream and drizzling chocolate syrup over the top. Alternatively, drizzle the syrup in the glass before pouring the drink, as you do with the Chocolate Raspberry Martini and finish with whipped cream.

The original Alexander was gin based. Mixing gin, sweet cream and white crème de cacao. It's rarely seen these days and I would posit this is because gin and cream are an... interesting mix. Well, at least that's my opinion on the matter.

There are more than a few rumours about how this creamy concoction came to be. There have been many famous Alexander's throughout history and many of them have had their story tied to this particular cocktail.

Drama critic and Algonquin Round Table member Alexander Woollcott claimed that it was named after him. Other sources say it was named after the Russian Tsar Alexander II.

A popular origin story is that the drink was named after Troy Alexander, a bartender at Rector's, a New York City restaurant, who created the drink in order to serve a white drink at a dinner celebrating Phoebe Snow, a character in a popular advertising campaign in the early 20th century.

During Prohibition, drinkers struggled to get hold of the gin and began swapping it  for other spirits, and cognac was the one that stuck. As I said before, I feel this was the better choice.

Variations on the Alexander besides gin and brandy include using a coffee liqueur instead which makes for a delightful after dinner drink that tastes like a festive liqueur coffee. Swap the swap some of the Kahlua for vodka and you get an Alexander the Great. Using triple sec, gin and curacao will give you Alexander's Big Brother which is a delightful shade of light blue that wouldn't look out of place on the set of  sci-fi film. Crème de menthe and gin approaches the grasshopper in taste and is know as Alexander's Sister. Meanwhile  vodka and cherry liqueur will make a pastel pink, Cherry Alexander.

There's also a non-creamy cocktail called an Alexander that was published in 1910. It is quite different and seems to bear no relation to the more famous cocktail I have described today.

Anyway, I'll let you enjoy that slowly. I'll see you next time when I turn my hand to some mocktails...

_Dr Wilko's Campaign for Better Beverages is a production of Tinker Tailor Soldier Sponge Productions. It was researched, written and produced by Dr Wilko. With additional writing by Bethany Goss. The cocktails were mixed by Dr Wilko...and drunk by Dr Wilko. The music was George Street Shuffle Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod of Incomptech.com._

_You can support this podcast on Patreon via the Shownotes and the website, drwilko.org/patreon._