A split base of gin and Scotch meets chocolatey white crème de cacao and fresh cream in equal measure, shaken cold until the edges round off into something silky and dessert-like. The cocoa leads, the gin keeps it lifted, and the Scotch's faint smoke peeks through the sweetness beneath a dusting of grated nutmeg.
Garnish: Grated Nutmeg
Shaken · Coupe · Up
add
Add the gin, Scotch, white crème de cacao, and cream to a shaker.
shake
Add ice and shake well until chilled and frothy.
strain
Double-strain into a chilled coupe.
garnish
Grate fresh nutmeg over the top.
Nobody knows who first mixed it: the earliest known printing, in Judge Jr.'s 1927 "Here's How," names no creator and offers only a wisecrack that it came out of the Pacific Coast "to get people used to earthquakes." That book poured equal measures of gin, Scotch, crème de cacao and cream over cracked ice in a highball glass, and the Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 carried the same equal-parts build. The name borrows from the Barbary Coast, the old red-light quarter of San Francisco, and the drink is now usually shaken and strained into a chilled coupe instead.