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Ninotchka

The Ingredients

50 ml Vanilla Vodka, 12 1/2 ml Lemon Juice, 12 1/2 ml White Crème de Cacao

How To make a Ninotchka

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Social and Cocktail says:

The Ninotchka is a pleasant enough dessert cocktail, but no great shakes – we think there are better after dinner cocktails that you can make. The cocktail is fairly easy to make, so good for cocktail novices and is a good opportunity to meld sweet and sour flavours together.

The history of the Ninotchka is slightly cloudy, with one popular theory being that it was named after the 1939 movie of the same name. Some cocktail historians take issue with this account, due to the fact that vodka was still very much an unknown quantity in America at this time, with the only notable cocktail featuring vodka to have been created in America up to that point being the classic Screwdriver. The drink begins appearing in literature and cocktail guides at the beginning of the 1960s and this is the period in which some will argue it was created and most probably in New York.

The Ninotchka which we document here is a slight updated variation, using vanilla vodka instead of the standard version. Vanilla vodka has become a very popular vodka flavour over the last decade, with major brands such as Absolut, Findlandia and Smirnoff all offering their own version.

A plus point of this cocktail is that the citrus notes do seem to go well with the chocolate liqueur and, although far from spectacular, it can be viewed as a well rounded drink.

Did You Know?

The 1939 movie "Ninotchka" received 4 Academy Award nominations.