Pink Squirrel co*cktail (Supper Club Classic Recipe!) (2024)

The Pink Squirrel is a pretty and pink retro co*cktail that is sweet, creamy and tastes like almond and cocoa. Served chilled and garnished with a sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg it’s a great after dinner drink recipe that’s been a staple in the Midwest for decades!

Three ingredients and a co*cktail shaker (or mason jar) are all you need to transport yourself to the finest supper club and make this bright pink and velvety smooth co*cktail.

If you love a Wisconsin co*cktail as much as I do be sure to check out my Brandy Old Fashioned, Grasshopper co*cktail, and Brandy Slush recipes!

Pink Squirrel co*cktail Recipe

This is just a brief overview, find detailed instructions in the recipe card below!

1. Add crème de noyaux to a co*cktail shaker filled with ice. Followed by the white crème de cacao.
2. Add the heavy cream. Then shake the co*cktail to the high heavens.
3. Strain into a serving glass. And garnish with nutmeg.

Crème de Noyaux substitute

Crème de Noyaux is a liqueur made from the pits of apricots, peaches, and/or cherries. It has a beautiful and bright pink color and tastes like almond, even though there are no almonds in it.

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It tastes like almonds because apricots, peaches, cherries, and other stone fruits are in the same family as almonds. Noyaux actually roughly translates to “stones” from French. Like stone fruit!

That’s why if you’ve ever opened a peach pit, you may have found what appeared to be an almond inside. They’re related!

If you cannot find Crème de Noyaux at your local grocery or liquor store, you can substitute amaretto which is another almond-flavor liqueur (though it also doesn’t contain almonds!).

If using amaretto you may want to add a drop or two of red food coloring to the co*cktail shaker, as amaretto is not bright pink like the crème de noyaux.

White vs Regular Crème de Cacao

This recipe uses white crème de cacao, which is a clear version of the chocolate liqueur crème de cacao.

It’s rich and chocolatey, with hints of vanilla. Using white crème de cacao means no brown will muddy the perfectly pristine pink color of the drink.

If you can’t find white crème de cacao you can easily substitute regular crème de cacao. The drink may just not be as bright and vibrant, but it will be just as delicious!

In fact, in my grasshopper co*cktail and my no-churn grasshopper ice cream, I use regular crème de cacao and don’t notice an effect on the bright green hue of the crème de menthe.

Making a co*cktail in a mason jar

A co*cktail shaker is a great piece of equipment when you’re going to be mixing up co*cktails like a lillet rose martini, raspberry gin fizz, or a pumpkin spice espresso martini.

But! Not everyone has a co*cktail shaker. Or, the shaker might leak, or break, or any number of things. So, what’s the fix?

Use a mason jar and a leakproof lid as a makeshift co*cktail shaker! We have a store of mason jars from all the canning we do and leakproof lids can be found on Amazon or at stores like Target.

Voila. A homemade co*cktail shaker for your homemade co*cktail recipes!

Converting ounces to tablespoons

Not everyone has a co*cktail jigger (that’s the fancy double-ended metal contraption bartenders use to measure out ingredients), but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying great supper club-quality co*cktails at home.

Here’s a very easy conversion to remember when it comes to making co*cktails at home: 1 fluid ounce = 2 tablespoons

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So, for this recipe that conversion looks like 3 tablespoons crème de noyaux, 3 tablespoons white crème de cacao, and 4 tablespoons (which is ¼ cup!) heavy cream.

Try adding ice cream

Much like a grasshopper co*cktail or the Brandy Alexander, the original purpose of the pink squirrel was to be a digestif, something enjoyed after a meal.

Of course, in Wisconsin we took “digestif” to mean “dessert” and turned this simple co*cktail into a boozy milkshake when we created the Pink Squirrel with Ice Cream that can be found on the menus of most supper clubs here!

Watch the recipe video!