Kettner Exchange’s Thin Mint milkshake cocktail

• Claire Sexton
• Kettner Exchange
• 2001 Kettner Boulevard
• Little Italy

“It’s like a Thin Mint Girl Scout cookie,” says Claire Sexton, Bar Director at Kettner Exchange, about her cocktail, the Scouts Honor. The recipe was partially inspired by her own childhood shenanigans. “I was a very good cookie salesman back in the day! My dad’s favorite was the Thin Mint cookie. He used to keep them in the freezer, and I used to sneak down and eat them at night,” she says, reminiscing. “So, this is like my Thin Mint milkshake cocktail.” As someone who grew up eating Dairy Queen Dilly Bars, Sexton says with confidence, “If you like mint chocolate chip ice cream, this is for you.”

Mint leaves and crushed mint-chocolate cookie topping create a stark visual contrast with the cream-colored cocktail, which uses a clear spirit. “Copalli is a rum from Belize; they infuse it with cacao so it gives that chocolate taste to it,” explains Sexton. “Then we’re using a Tennessee dirty cream, which is like the ‘classic’ cream liqueur. And then crème de menthe, which is gonna be that minty flavor that you get behind there.” And for this drink, she opts to use demerara for sweetness. “It’s gonna have a richer flavor to it, it’s a little bit thicker. So it’s like a richer simple syrup, one made with dark sugar.”

For the topping, “I wanted to do some sort of cookie crumble. And I was thinking of Irish coffees. And then being at Erin Rose…” she says, thinking back to one of her favorite travel stops, a classic bar in New Orleans. “They do the best Irish coffee, with that cookie-coffee crumble on top of it. It’s amazing. And I was like, ‘I want to do something like that!’” Avoiding the need for a blender, she uses crushed ice and cream liqueur to recreate the rich texture of ice cream. “All going back to the milkshake dreams… Boozy milkshakes. Nothing’s better than a boozy milkshake.”

An avid traveler, Sexton says she is “always doing R&D, all the time. My favorite thing to do is research and development, aka try everybody else’s drinks,” she jokes. “I did mess with the specs a lot; I tried to use crème de cacao at one point and then went back… there’s always trial and error.”

She cites Christmas indulgence as another motivation behind the Scouts Honor. “It’s like you get to put your sweaters on, you’re not in a bikini, let’s have a cookie and a milkshake, ice cream — all those gluttonous things we like to do in the wintertime.”

• Kettner Exchange’s
• Scouts Honor
• 1 ½ oz. Copalli cacao rum
• ¾ oz. crème de menthe
• ¾ oz. Tennessee cream
• ½ oz. demerara

• Whip ingredients with crushed ice and pour into Collins glass over more crushed ice. Top with crumbled mint Oreo cookie and garnish with mint leaves. Optional: try blended.