Skip to main content
Drink

Brandy Smash

A chilled cocktail of brandy, mint, sugar, water, shaved ice, and orange garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mint and orange work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 549 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Brandy Smash

Ingredients

Directions

Build the drink

  1. In a small bar glass, combine the sugar and water.

  2. Press the mint into the mixture to extract the flavor.

  3. Add the brandy and fill the glass two-thirds full with shaved ice.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir thoroughly and garnish with half a slice of orange and a few fresh sprigs of mint.

  2. Serve with a straw.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mint + orangetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together549 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Mint + brandytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brandy
Forms the spirit base of the drink and carries most of its flavor.
Mint
Adds a fresh aroma and herbal flavor as its oils are released into the liquid.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the alcohol and the mint's fresh bite.
Shaved ice
Chills the drink and slowly dilutes it as it melts, softening the spirit.

The step that matters

Press the mint into the mixture to extract the flavor.. Gentle pressing releases aromatic oils. Pressing too hard breaks up the leaves and releases bitter green compounds, so the drink can taste harsh.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy, orange):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, orange. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Orange SyrupOrange Syrup47 recipesOrange Water IceOrange Water Ice28 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipes