This comes from the legendary Bill Brown, who discovered it at Anthony’s Home Port in Kirkland. Bill had a strange hypothesis, that Anthony’s took it off the menu because “herbie” sounded too much like “herpes.” He’s funny that way.
This is one of those synergistic things, where you can’t tell what the individual liquors are (you’d never guess the Creme de Menthe is there), just that the result is unbelievably good. When we introduced our friend Will to this recipe, he said, “it’s like the Long Island Iced Tea of coffee drinks!”
In a large, heated mug, pour:
4 parts Amaretto (2 T or 1 shot)
2 parts clear Creme de Cocoa (1 T or 1/2 shot)
2 parts orange liqueur (Triple Sec, Curacao, or Grand Marnier) (1 T or 1/2 shot)
1 part clear Creme de Menthe (1-1/2 t or a large splash)
Whipped cream in a pressurized can (we’ve used both regular and chocolate for effect)
Combine liqueurs in a coffee mug or cup, fill with strong coffee (from personal experience, Barry recommends decaf…that was one miserable sleepless night!), and top with whipped cream.
If you are making these for a group, it’s easier to combine the liqueurs in a small pitcher first. For eight moderate servings, use the following proportions:1 C Amaretto
1/2 C orange liqueur
1/2 C Creme de cacao
1/4 C Creme de menthe
40-48 oz coffee
1 can whipped cream
Christmas 2005 note: We just tried this recipe with hot chocolate, too. It was SWEEEEEEET — and the folks with super-sweet tooths were deliriously happy.
Here’s another classic overkill recipe from Bill Brown: Killer Oatmeal