Frozen Grasshopper Ice Cream Drink

Creamy, cool and minty, with just the right hint of booze, the Frozen Grasshopper Ice Cream Drink is a tasty cocktail or dessert drink.

I think that ice cream drinks are the perfect intersection of cocktail and dessert. Rich, creamy and flavorful, they come in many varieties from the Chocolatey Brandy Alexander to the Banana Banshee. Your imagination is the only limit!

But perhaps the most popular of all is the minty Grasshopper Ice Cream drink.  

What is a Grasshopper Cocktail?

The Frozen Grasshopper Ice Cream Drink is a variation on the cream-based Grasshopper cocktail.

Per Wikipedia “a Grasshopper is a sweet, mint-flavored, after-dinner drink. The name of the drink derives from its green color… A typical Grasshopper cocktail consists of equal parts green crème de menthe, white crème de cacao, and cream shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass.”

But of course, I think it’s even better made with ice cream! Wisconsin girl here! 

Why You’ll Love This!

Tasty. Mint and ice cream with a hint of chocolate makes a perfect flavor combo!

Festive. You can’t help but have fun enjoying an ice cream drink with friends!

Refreshing. Cold and smooth, it’s perfect on a hot day—or any day really!

What You’ll Need

Ingredient Notes

• Creme de Menthe. This provides the minty flavor.  Green colored rather than clear is my first choice but either can be used.
• Creme de Cacao.  This provides a hint of chocolate flavor and mellows the mint.  Clear rather than chocolate colored is my first choice but either can be used.
• Vanilla Ice Cream.  This makes it sweet, creamy and thick!
• Whipped cream, chocolate syrup. Optional garnish.

Special Tools

• A good blender is helpful for making these but I have heard of bartenders making them hand-mixed!

Step by Step Directions

Measure out the creme de cacao and creme de menthe into a watertight container. Place in freezer for a couple hours or overnight.  (It won’t freeze)

Using a blender, combine  about 1/3 of the ice cream with the alcohol and blend until smooth.

With the blender running add the rest of the ice cream a scoop at a time until all blended together.

Divide into two glasses, top with whipped cream and serve with a spoon and straw

Liqueur Options

Liqueur Color(s)

If you’re buying crème de cacao and crème de menthe for the first time, you’ll notice you have color options to pick from. Both liqueurs come in colored (brown for cacao and green for menthe) or clear varieties.

The difference between them isn’t flavor but strictly color, so you would generally base your choice on that. For this drink, I used a clear crème de cacao and a green crème de menthe to get a green drink.

I actually own both colored and clear versions of each, but I’d probably just add green food coloring if I had clear crème de menthe. Yes, if I thought of things like that earlier, I might not have (what my kids call) the worlds best stocked liquor cabinet!

Alcohol Content

Another difference that you may find is the alcohol content. In a quick and totally unscientific survey, I found crème de cacao ranging from 50 proof (25% alcohol) to 81 proof (40.5 % alcohol).  Since alcohol has a very low freezing point, too high a percentage will reduce the thickness of the final drink.

Your goal is a very thick drink, so go with a lower proof option if you can. This drink is a challenge to get thick in the first place and less is more here. Adding more ice cream to compensate is an option but too much ice cream will start to decrease the mint flavor.

How to Serve

This cocktail works wonderfully as a dessert after a nice dinner. It’s a tasty way to cap off a fun evening and some restaurants make them extra big to share!  It’s also a nice drink for a special cocktail hour, a ladies night out or any special event.

This can be served as a single serving in a standard martini glass or in a larger glass like a brandy snifter for multiple servings.

Top with whipped cream and serve with a spoon and a straw. Any drink this thick deserves both!

And finally, sometimes chocolate syrup is added as a garnish, drizzled in the glass or atop the whipped cream.

Variations

Avoiding ice cream? You can make the original Grasshopper Cocktail by mixing one ounce of crème de cacao, one ounce of crème de menthe and two ounces of cream.

There is an even boozier version of the original called a Flying Grasshopper. This is made with ¾ ounces each of crème de cacao, crème de menthe and vodka.

The flavor concept has even made its way into foods–often, but not always, sans booze. Take the grasshopper ice cream pie for example, with mint ice cream inside a chocolate cookie crust. For directions just use mint ice cream instead of coffee in my coffee fudge ice cream pie.

Tips & FAQs

A good ice cream drink should stand up in the glass. This, alas, means a lot of ice cream and not a lot of booze. A standard cocktail would have at least 1½ ounces of a lower proof alcohol and this could only handle half of that and be consistently thick. But the sweet minty flavor came through anyway, along with a very slight kick.  And if you pour the whole thing into one big glass and eat it all by yourself, it does count as a full cocktail.  Just sayin’.

I think there are a variety of factors that can influence thickness from the density of the ice cream to the model of blender used. I am hoping to do some controlled trials this summer and will report back if I learn anything interesting. Yes, another tough job.

Lately I’ve been freezing my alcohol from a couple hours to overnight first (it doesn’t freeze solid in my experience). I figure it can use all the help it can get.

Wednesday #DairyMonth Recipes

• Breakfast Frozen Yogurt Parfait Popsicles by The Spiffy Cookie
• Homemade Banana Pudding by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Easy Homemade Creamy Fudgesicles by Blogghetti
• Eclair Cake by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Grasshopper Ice Cream Drink by Art of Natural Living
• Pesto Buttermilk Dressing by Jolene’s Recipe Journal
• Pineapple and Cottage Cheese Ambrosia by Palatable Pastime
• Pepper Jack Cheese Wedges by Jen Around the World
• Stem Ginger Cheesecake Icecream by Magical Ingredients

Frozen Grasshopper Ice Cream Drink

Yield: 2

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Additional Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes

Creamy, cool and minty, with just the right hint of booze, the Frozen Grasshopper Ice Cream Drink is a tasty cocktail or dessert drink.

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Ingredients

• 3/4 ounce crème de menthe, plus 1 teaspoon for garnish
• 3/4 ounce crème de cacao (clear if possible)
• 2 cups ice cream
• (optional) whipped cream, chocolate syrup for garnish

Instructions

Measure out the creme de cacao and creme de menthe into a watertight container. Place in freezer for a couple hours or overnight.  (It won't freeze)

Using a blender, combine  about 1/3 of the ice cream with the alcohol and blend until smooth

With the blender running add the rest of the ice cream a scoop at a time until all blended together.

Divide into two glasses, top with whipped cream and serve with a spoon and straw

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