Layered Drinks

[Rachel Perlow]

I am fascinated by layered drinks like the Pousse Cafe, however I am embarrassed to order them in bars because I suspect they are passé.

Does anyone make or order them anymore? What is an easy one to make at home so I can experiment? Do you taste the individual liquors as you drink these or are they supposed to get mixed up?

[Kingcocktail]

Layered drinks with the exception of the disco shooters like B52 are pretty much a thing of the past…and because of that maybe ripe for revival by a clever young bartender looking for an angle. Everything old is new again. Why not create a menu showcasing some of the classic Pousse Café recipes starting with the famous recipe illustrated in the Jerry Thomas 1862 The Bon Vivants Companion called Pousse L’Amour. It had three layers cognac on top Vanilla cordial in the middle and maraschino liqueur on the bottom. Jerry Thomas in his book gives four recipes for the pousse style drinks. One from a bartender owner in a New Orleans saloon of the 1850’s called Santina’s Saloon., one from New York City by M. Faivre, proprietor of the French Saloon, one from Paris called the Parisian Pousse Café, and the Pousse L’Amour, which I assume is his own recipe..

I suppose the proper way to drink the Pousse style drinks is layer by layer, but everytime I have made one the guest admired the layers and showed it off for a couple minutes then stirred the layers together to drink.

Dale