The Widow’s Kiss

, a cocktail best known from George J. Kappeler’s well regarded 1895 book, Modern American Drinks, is an improbable assemblage of apple brandy, yellow Chartreuse, and Bénédictine—unless it’s Bénédictine, green Chartreuse, maraschino, and an egg (Harry Johnson), or yellow Chartreuse, Bénédictine, maraschino, and Parfait Amour, with egg white (William Schmidt), or rye whisky, sugar, and egg yolk, with seltzer (Jack Grohusko), or simply Bénédictine and cream, as the New Orleans Times-Democrat held in 1903. See Johnson, Harry; Schmidt, William;, Grohusko, Jacob Abraham “Jack”. In point of fact, the name seems to have been applied not specifically but generically, to any strong, sweet mixture, widows’ kisses being semi-proverbial at the time as “hot stuff.” They were generally intended as after-dinner drinks. The first person recorded using the name for a drink was Schmidt, in 1891. The most popular version, however, was Kappeler’s.

Modern mixologists will occasionally deploy Kappeler’s Widow’s Kiss, since classic cocktails with an apple brandy base are few.

*Recipe (Kappeler’s): Shake with ice 45 ml apple brandy, 22 ml yellow Chartreuse, and 22 ml Bénédictine; strain into coupe. Note: while drinks without citrus are traditionally stirred, the high strength of everything in here means the drink responds best to shaking.

See also Stinger, Kappeler, George J.

“He Could Not Be a Barmaid.” New York Sun, October 20, 1891, 5.

Pitkin, Helen. “In Feminine Fields.” New Orleans Times-Democrat*, November 8, 1903, 32.

By: David Wondrich