cream — The Cocktails — Beyond Reproach

1.5 ounce Galliano
1.5 ounce crème de cacao
1.5 ounce heavy cream*

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake until frosty and stain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass.

*NOTE: You can used coconut cream in place of heavy cream in the same proportion if desired.

The Golden Cadillac (or sometimes just Gold Cadillac) calls for Galliano which is a sweet Italian liqueur flavored with anise, herbs, and vanilla. This sweet and creamy cocktail was invented at a roadside bar in El Dorado, California called Poor Red’s BBQ. According to Poor Red’s website, they invented the cocktail in 1952 when a newly engaged couple came in to celebrate their engagement. They asked bartender Frank Klein to create a special cocktail just for them that would match their brand-new purchased gold-colored Cadillac parked outside. He tried a few things and eventually decided on this sweet creamy cocktail shaken until frothy. He decided to serve them their cocktail in two different glasses, a champagne coupe glass to signify its celebratory nature for her, and a more manly and masculine sidecar glass for him. To this day, when you order a Golden Cadillac at Poor Red’s, they serve it to you in two glasses.

Poor Red’s became famous for the drink throughout the 50s, and eventually Galliano noticed how high sales had climbed in Northern California, and decided to find out what was going on. They eventually ran an advertising campaign with a Golden Cadillac recipe from 1964 to 1967. From there, the drink became famous around the world.

Side note, if you’re not a dairy fan, you can still drink a Golden Cadillac. In the 1970s a bar in the East Village started selling them made with Coconut Cream instead of Heavy Cream, and their version became so popular that many recipes online today call for coconut cream.

2 oz vodka
2 oz khalua
2 oz light cream or half & half

Pour vodka and khalua over ice in a rocks glass & stir. Gently pour the cream over the top. You can stir in the cream to combine everything, but I think it looks nicer if you keep the layer of cream separate on top and let the drinker stir it together themselves.

The recipe for the White Russian first appeared in print in the Oakland Tribune in 1965. The recipe was simple, it called for, “1oz. each Southern, vodka, cream”. “Southern” was short for “Coffee Southern”, which was a popular brand of coffee liqueur that used to be made by Southern Comfort. It’s not around anymore so most people use Khalua today.

The funny thing about the name of the White Russian is that the recipe doesn’t come from Russia and there’s nothing particularly Russian about it. It turns out though, that before the 1950s, vodka wasn’t very popular in the US, and at one point it was considered a strange, foreign spirit that was only consumed in Russia. When people outside Russia first started drinking it, they gave vodka based cocktails names that had the word Russia in them, or at least a nod to Russia, like the Moscow Mule.

It took a few years after the recipe was first published to really take off, but by the 70s, the White Russian was everywhere. It’s strong, easy to make, and easy to drink, and people in the 70s loved it. After the 70s though, popularity fizzled and it almost disappeared until 1998 when The Big Lebowski came out and made it popular again.