Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, Brandy Alexander!

It's a good week. Be decadent.

Greetings, Wonketteers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. Although it’s been a good week, I regrettably need to inform you of a crisis: Godiva chocolate liqueur is vanishing from the shelves. The backbone of the best chocolate martinis in my repertoire is no more. Time to roll up our sleeves and make a homebrew version. Along the way, we’ll make a decadent warm version of the classic Brandy Alexander. Here’s the recipe.

Brandy Alexander

1 ½ oz chocolate ganache

1 oz Merkow brandy

½ oz Grand Marnier

½ oz demerara syrup

Boiling water

Orange zest

Measure each ingredient, in order, into the small cup of a 2-part bartender’s shaker: first chocolate, then brandy, then Grand Marnier. Fill the large part of a shaker halfway with boiling water. Submerge the bottom of the small shaker in the boiling water and stir until the cocktail is steaming hot.

Fill one brandy snifter halfway with boiling water. Add the orange zest. Balance the bell of a second brandy snifter on top of the first. Gently pour the cocktail into the second snifter. Serve at once.

Chocolate Ganache

8 oz heavy whipping cream

4 oz 60% cacao chocolate, such as Ghirardelli

Heat the cream in a small saucepan over low heat until barely simmering. Finely chop the chocolate and add to the cream. Stir until the chocolate is completely dissolved. Keep warm until you make the cocktail.

ACHTUNG!

It’s possible that I’m sounding the alarm too early. Godiva closed all of its US retail locations last year. The liqueur isn’t available in Ohio, but I do see it for sale from wholesalers like Total Wine. It’s possible that it’s still available in your location. Still, I can’t help but feel that Godiva is slowly closing its doors, and in the process we’re losing access to the best ingredient ever made for rich, decadent chocolate drinks.

Time to get creative. I decided to start with Brandy Alexander as an initial recipe. This is one of the classic chocolate cocktails, but it doesn’t appeal to me very much as a cold drink. The classic recipe also uses crème de cacao, which is usually “chocolate flavored” at best.

No, if we want to make something seriously decadent, we need real chocolate and real cream. Ganache can be fiddly, and almost too rich, but we don’t want to spare any chance for excess if we’re going to compete with Godiva.

As long as we’re making a warm ingredient, we might as well make a warm cocktail. The double-snifter presentation for warm brandy drinks was taught to me at the country club by a snobby, but passionate, club member. If you could please him, your night was made. He used to drink Grand Marnier neat using this technique. I always got a kick out of handing him something so pretty at 9 p.m. while he played billiards in the back room with his wife. It was so much more elegant than pouring endless vodka sodas for golfers in loud pants — and more profitable, too.

Let’s talk ingredients:

Merkow Brandy: I’m steadily falling in love with brandy as a backbone for cocktails. It’s an aged spirit, but it doesn’t have the same distinct sweetness of bourbon or spiciness of rye. Hennessy is the gold standard for brandy, but the price point is a bit much for me. Merkow is less expensive and still delicious. And as the owner of two black cats, it’s hard for me not to fall in love with the bottle.

Chocolate Ganache: Use your favorite chocolate here. Ghirardelli is readily available, and the quality is excellent. Melting chocolate in cream is pure alchemy. Let it cool, and you’ve got the foundation for truffles. Drizzle it on a chocolate cake, and it’s a glaze. There are a ton of applications for this stuff, and you’ll certainly have some left over after making the cocktail. I do think that this recipe leans hard into rich chocolate notes. If you wanted to stir in a splash of 2% milk to the ganache before adding it to the cocktail shaker, it would be more approachable. As written, this cocktail is meant as a Godiva substitute, but that’s only a starting point in many drinks. Feel free to play and be creative.

Grand Marnier: This beloved liqueur is basically sweetened orange-flavored brandy, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. I grew up eating Terry’s milk chocolate oranges as a holiday treat, so I thought that a splash of orange here would be welcome. If you saved some homemade raspberry liqueur fromlast week’s Clover Club recipe, it would be a great replacement for the Grand Marnier.

Presentation: The hot water in the base snifter of the cocktail keeps the drink warmer longer, but it won’t stay hot forever. More importantly, the orange oil in the hot water perfumes the entire cocktail, contributing to the experience. Balancing one glass on top of the other makes the entire presentation more celebratory. I might explore serving some of theaged eggnog we made in the summer this way (it's still steeping in your closet, right?), with cinnamon and nutmeg instead of orange in the base cocktail. We’re on the edge of change, for a new year and a new season. No reason not to pull out all the stops.

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OPEN THREAD!