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Stinger

Cognac and white crème de menthe, stirred and served cold — the classic after-dinner drink.

Difficulty
easy
Prep time
3 min
Strength
29% ABV
Glassware
Coupe glass
Base
brandy
Serves
1

Ingredients

  • Cognac
    50ml
  • White crème de menthe
    20ml

Garnish: Mint leaf (optional)

Scale for a party

Method

  1. Chill a coupe glass.
  2. Add the cognac and crème de menthe to a mixing glass filled with ice.
  3. Stir for about 25 seconds, until very cold.
  4. Strain into the chilled coupe. Garnish with a single mint leaf, if you like.
Compared with the IBA specification

The International Bartenders Association lists this drink among its The Unforgettables. Its specification is a standard for training and competition — one reference, not the only right way to make the drink.

CocktailHQ

  • 50ml cognac
  • 20ml white crème de menthe

IBA

  • 50 ml Cognac
  • 20 ml White Crème de Menthe

IBA ingredients as published at iba-world.com, retrieved 29 October 2026.

Allergen information

None of this recipe's ingredients, as commonly made, is associated with the fourteen major allergens.

Products vary, and this describes ingredients rather than the bottles you use — check every label. It is not a guarantee that a drink is suitable for anyone with an allergy. How this is worked out

Your version

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Your measures
How you rate your version

Equipment

Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.

  • Mixing glass

    Household swap: A sturdy pint glass or small jug.

  • Bar spoon

    Household swap: A long-handled teaspoon.

Glass and ice

No ice in the glass

Served up, the drink was chilled and diluted in the shaker or mixing glass and goes into a chilled glass without ice.

Over a large cube it stays cold longer, but keeps diluting — it becomes a different, slowly lengthening drink.

About 93ml once mixed

The recipe's coupe glass is typically 150–250ml.

Workable:
nick & nora glass, martini glass, champagne flute
Oversized but acceptable:
rocks glass, wine glass
Unsuitable:
highball glass

Needs a glass of about 98–104ml brimful.

How this is worked out
  • A drink with no ice needs a little of the glass left empty — about a tenth — so it can be carried without spilling and has room for aroma.
  • Filled to the top with cubes or packed crushed ice, roughly half to three-fifths of a glass is left for the drink.
  • A drink built in the glass dilutes from the ice already there, so its melt water is not added on top.
  • One large cube takes up roughly 65–125ml, from a sphere to a 5cm cube.
  • Glass capacities are brimful and vary by maker — your own glass, measured with water, is the figure to trust.

Missing an ingredient?

Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.

  • Instead of Cognac

    Best substitute: Apple Brandy

    This is the base in this drink.

    Quantity: Same amount

    Flavour impact: Fresher and orchard-fruity rather than grape-rich.

    What changes

    Expect more acidity and less intensity. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.

    Acidity ↑
    More acidity makes the drink taste fresher and drier, and can push a balanced sour over into sharp.
    Intensity ↓
    A milder ingredient gets buried by whatever else is in the glass, and the drink loses the thing it was named for.
    Character
    Both are fruity, oaky and warm, and you lose refined, and you gain apple. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.

    To correct for it

    • Use slightly less of it, or add a touch more sweetener to hold the balance.
    • Increase the measure, or accept a gentler drink and reduce the components competing with it.
    Moderate confidenceShifts the drink

Make it better

  • Start at 50:20 and move towards 50:15 if your crème de menthe is very sweet. Brands differ more than the label suggests.
  • Many older recipes shake it; shaking gives a colder, cloudier, slightly frothy drink. Stirring keeps it clear and silky.
  • Served over crushed ice in a rocks glass it becomes a summer drink rather than an after-dinner one.
  • Chill the glass in the freezer for a few minutes beforehand — a warm glass takes the edge off a well-made drink fast.
  • Adjust sweetness gradually and taste as you go — it's easy to add more syrup, impossible to take it out.

Rescue this drink

Tastes of toothpaste
Too much crème de menthe. Cut it to 15ml.
Harsh
Not cold or diluted enough. Stir a little longer with plenty of ice.
So cold you cannot taste itgeneral guidance
Spirit-forward drinks served up have a window: too warm and the alcohol burns, too cold and the aromatics stop volatilising and the drink reads as flat and numb. If it arrives correct and improves over the first few minutes, you have over-chilled it — shorten the stir slightly rather than skipping the freezer glass, because a warm glass ruins more drinks than a cold one.

Make ahead & storage

Batches well

Everything in this can be mixed days ahead and kept cold. It is one of the drinks to build a party menu around.

Add about 22% water to the batch to replace what the ice would otherwise contribute, or it will pour noticeably harsher than a fresh one.

Make it lighter

As written, about 2.5 UK units at roughly 29% ABV once diluted. 1 of six ways to lighten it work for this recipe. Units are an estimate of what is in the glass, not advice about drinking.

  • A smaller serveSupportedabout 1.7 units, 29% ABV

    Every measure at two-thirds. The balance is untouched because the proportions are; the only trade-off is a smaller drink — use a smaller glass so it doesn't look stingy.

    • 33ml Cognac
    • 13ml Crème de Menthe
Not recommended for this drink: a longer serve; reverse the ratio; split the base with a lower-strength modifier; give it the spritz treatment; replace part of it with an alcohol-free bottle
  • A longer serve. A stirred, spirit-and-vermouth drink is about concentration and texture. Soda turns it into something thin and confused. Note: the same alcohol in more liquid — weaker per sip, not fewer units.
  • Reverse the ratio. There is no wine-strength modifier — vermouth, sherry or Lillet — to swap measures with.
  • Split the base with a lower-strength modifier. The recipe has no wine-strength modifier to move measure into, and choosing one for it would be writing a new drink.
  • Give it the spritz treatment. Sparkling wine for the base spirit leaves a fizzy vermouth, not a lighter version of the drink. Add the fizz last, at the glass.
  • Replace part of it with an alcohol-free bottle. No bottle in this recipe has an alcohol-free counterpart in the catalogue, and we won't name one we haven't written up.

Or make something lighter by design: Grasshopper. All lighter drinks

What it tastes like

The taste, and what drives it

sweet, soft, medium — a spirit and modifier drink served straight up, no ice.

Sweet

Dry → Sweet

Openly sweet, and balanced by something else rather than hidden.

What drives it: White crème de menthe — carries the most sugar into the glass.

Medium

Light → Rich

Medium weight: enough texture to feel like a made drink, not enough to fill you up.

What drives it: Cognac — adds most of the weight.

Very bold

Delicate → Bold

Very bold — concentrated, and served small for that reason.

What drives it: Cognac — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.

What you smell first

  • MintLeadsBefore the first sip

    From White crème de menthe, Mint leaf (optional)

  • Orchard fruit

    From Cognac

  • Vanilla

    From Cognac

  • Oak

    From Cognac

Aromas marked as sitting above the drink reach you before the first sip — skipping that garnish changes the drink more than its size suggests.

How it was worked out

Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. Almost everything in this drink has detailed ingredient data behind it.

How balance actually works →

If it isn't right

What goes wrong with this drink, and why

Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — open one for the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.

  • It's too sweet
    Likely cause
    White crème de menthe is carrying the sugar here, and it is the easiest thing in the drink to over-pour — syrup clings to a jigger and a "splash" is rarely the same twice.
    What to change
    Cut white crème de menthe by about a third and rebuild. If it is already made, a little more of the base spirit or a dash of bitters will pull it back faster than starting again.
    What that does
    It will taste drier, and the base and any bitter or herbal notes come forward from behind the sugar.
    The trade-off
    Sugar carries body as well as sweetness, so you lose a little weight along with it.
    Crème de Menthe: how it behaves
  • It's too strong
    Likely cause
    Cognac dominates by design here — this is a drink built to be sipped, and the proportion of spirit to everything else is the point of it.
    What to change
    Stir a little longer, or add a measured 5–10ml of water. For a lasting change, pour a smaller measure of the base and keep the rest of the spec the same.
    What that does
    Alcohol presence drops and the aromatics open up — a slightly diluted spirit-forward drink usually smells better, not worse.
    The trade-off
    Go too far and it stops being the drink it was: spirit-forward drinks lose their character faster than long drinks do when watered.
    Stirring: what it does to a drink
  • It tastes harsh or hot
    Likely cause
    Almost always under-dilution. Stirring is how this drink gets its water — around 25% of the finished drink — and stopping early leaves alcohol heat that dilution would have rounded off.
    What to change
    Stir for longer — taste a drop off the spoon, and stop when the burn has receded rather than at a fixed count.
    What that does
    The heat recedes, the drink tastes rounder, and flavours that were masked by alcohol come forward.
    The trade-off
    Dilution is a target, not a direction: past it the drink goes watery and loses concentration, which is harder to undo than harshness.
    Stirring: what it does to a drink
  • It's watery
    Likely cause
    Stirring adds water while it chills, and the two cannot be separated. Wet ice from a freezer door, or small cubes, will over-dilute before the drink is properly cold.
    What to change
    Use bigger, drier, colder ice and stop sooner. Chilling the glass first buys you time you would otherwise spend diluting.
    What that does
    More flavour concentration at the same temperature.
    The trade-off
    Under-dilute instead and the drink will taste harsh — the aim is the right amount of water, not the least.
    Dilution and temperature
  • It isn't cold enough
    Likely cause
    Served without ice, this drink is at its coldest the moment it leaves the mixing glass and warms from the first sip. A room-temperature glass takes a surprising amount of that cold straight back out.
    What to change
    Chill the coupe glass first — ten minutes in the freezer, or filled with ice and water while you mix — and strain the moment you stop stirring.
    What that does
    The drink stays in its best range for longer, and the first sip tastes the way it was balanced.
    The trade-off
    Very cold drinks smell of less, because aroma needs some warmth to leave the glass. A smaller serve that is finished cold beats a bigger one that is finished warm.
    Dilution and temperature
  • It doesn't smell of anything
    Likely cause
    The aroma you are missing is probably mint, which sits above the drink rather than in it — skipping or under-expressing the garnish removes it entirely.
    What to change
    Express the peel over the surface with the skin facing the drink, then drop it in. Herbs go in the glass, not on the side.
    What that does
    Aroma arrives before flavour does, so the whole drink reads as more intense without a single measure changing.
    The trade-off
    The oil does land in the drink, though — an over-expressed peel adds a faint bitterness to the first mouthful.
    Garnish techniques
  • It tastes one-dimensional
    Likely cause
    With 2 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a drink this simple is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
    What to change
    Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
    What that does
    More going on at the same strength and sweetness.
    The trade-off
    Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one — and a better bottle costs more.
  • It's cloudy when it should be clear
    Likely cause
    It was shaken, or stirred so hard it was churned. Both whip air and tiny ice shards into a drink made only of clear ingredients, and that is what you are seeing.
    What to change
    Stir smoothly with the back of the spoon against the glass, using fresh, clean ice, and strain through a fine strainer if your ice is chipped.
    What that does
    A clear drink with the dense, silky texture a stirred drink is meant to have.
    The trade-off
    Stirring takes longer than shaking to reach the same temperature, and the drink will be a little less cold for the same effort.
    Stirring: why it keeps a drink clear
  • My batch tastes worse than the first glass
    Likely cause
    Even a batch of shelf-stable ingredients drifts if it is stored warm or half-empty: aromatics fade and an air gap in the bottle speeds that up.
    What to change
    Store it cold, in a bottle filled close to the top, and keep anything wine-based refrigerated. Decant into smaller bottles as it goes down.
    What that does
    The last glass from the batch tastes like the first.
    The trade-off
    Adding components at service brings some of the work back to the moment you were trying to free up — measure them out in advance to keep it quick.
    Batching: what keeps and what does not
  • One ingredient drowns out the rest
    Likely cause
    White crème de menthe is one of the most intense things a drink can contain, and here it is 29% of the liquid. A heavy hand with it, or a bottle stronger in character than the one the recipe was balanced on, and it is all you taste.
    What to change
    Take white crème de menthe down by 5ml and change nothing else. Taste, and go down another 5ml only if it still leads.
    What that does
    The other components come back into view and the drink reads as a whole rather than as one bottle.
    The trade-off
    White crème de menthe is part of what makes this drink itself; take too much out and it becomes a different, flatter drink rather than a better-balanced one.
    Crème de Menthe: how it behaves
  • The garnish wilts before I serve it
    Likely cause
    Mint leaf loses water at room temperature, so a garnish cut or picked well ahead looks tired by the time a round goes out.
    What to change
    Keep sprigs standing in cold water in the fridge, like cut flowers, and garnish each drink as it is served.
    What that does
    A garnish that looks fresh and still gives off its aroma.
    The trade-off
    Garnishing at the last moment is one more step per drink during service — set the garnishes out in order before guests arrive.
    Garnish techniques

Something else wrong? Open this drink in the Recipe Doctor.

Taste profile

Sweetness
3/5
Sourness
0/5
Bitterness
0/5
Strength
4/5
Fruitiness
1/5
Freshness
3/5
Creaminess
0/5
Smokiness
0/5

Nutrition & alcohol

Estimate only
Calories
165 kcal
Sugar
7 g
Carbohydrates
7 g
Alcohol units (UK)
2.48
US standard drinks
1.39
ABV
29%
Serving size
85 ml
Show calculation assumptions

Source: Calculated from standard measures

Calorie breakdown: ~136 kcal from alcohol, ~29 kcal from sugar and mixers.

Likely range: 124–206 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.

Assumes cognac at 40% ABV, crème de menthe at 24% with about 35g sugar per 100ml, and about 20% dilution from stirring.

These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.

Variations

  • White Spider

    Vodka in place of the cognac.

  • On crushed ice

    Build over crushed ice in a rocks glass and stir.

What kind of drink this is

The structure behind the recipe

A stirred build: a spirit and modifier brandy-based drink, served straight up, no ice — silky and dense in the mouth.

Spirit and modifier

Spirit combined with an aromatised or flavoured modifier and little else — concentrated, and served small for exactly that reason.

  • Base

    Cognac

  • Sweet element

    White crème de menthe

Technique

stirred

The liquid is moved around the ice rather than against it, so it chills and dilutes with almost no air incorporated and almost no ice broken up.

A heavy, silky, completely clear drink. Alcohol reads more sharply than in the same drink shaken, because nothing has softened it.

What it ruins: Nothing outright, but it will not combine egg, dairy or thick syrup — those need force.

Everything about stirring →How the technique works →

Dilution

During mixing, then strained

Water from ice typically makes up around 25% of the finished drink for a stirred build (commonly 20–30%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.

Why dilution is an ingredient →

Served

Straight up, no ice

Coupe glass · 85ml

Chilled during mixing and then strained away from the ice, so it arrives at its coldest and most concentrated and warms from the first sip — which is why 85ml is the right size for it.

Texture and aroma

Silky and denseMint leaf (optional)

Stirred without aeration, the drink stays heavy and slightly viscous in the mouth.

These components are doing aromatic work: you meet them at the nose before the first sip, and they shape how everything underneath reads.

Where to go from here

Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.

Where it comes from

Origin and family

Origin of the Stinger

Appears in American bar books from the early 1900s and was established as a society after-dinner drink by the 1910s; no inventor is documented.

Matches the IBA's 50ml cognac to 20ml white crème de menthe. Early recipes run from equal parts to three parts brandy to one of crème de menthe.

1800s–1919Other pre-prohibition drinks →

On drinks history

Cocktail origin stories are frequently repeated and rarely evidenced. Our history section separates what is documented from what is folklore rather than picking whichever version reads best.

History and culture →

Try this next

  • Caipirinha

    You may like this because it shares a strong-forward profile with the Stinger, but uses rum instead of brandy.

  • Horse's Neck

    You may like this because it shares a refreshing taste profile with the Stinger.

  • French Connection

    You may like this because it shares a sweet taste profile with the Stinger.

Use up your ingredients

Bought a bottle just for this? Here's what else it's good for.

Related tools

Scale this for a party

Work out bottles, mixers, ice and total alcohol units for any number of guests.

How far a bottle goes

Drinks per bottle, which bottle runs out first, batching — and the cost, at your own prices.

Recipe confidence

A stable, well-documented two-ingredient classic; ratios vary by source.

High confidence