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White Russian

By Robert Simonson
Photo of a white russian vodka cocktail in two glasses with gold holders.
Photo by Colin Price

This rather unsubtle, postwar favorite was restored to relevancy by the Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, in which Jeff Bridges’s sublimely unfazed Dude drinks them religiously. It’s a good drink if you’re not inclined toward a lot of thinking at the moment (which was just about any moment for the Dude). The vodka ensures it doesn’t approach the flavor complexity of a Brandy Alexander. But if vodka and cream and coffee are among your favorite things, this may be your jam.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Makes 1 cocktail

Ingredients

1½ oz. vodka
¾ oz. Kahlúa
¾ oz. heavy cream

Preparation

  1. Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled and well integrated, about 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled Old-Fashioned glass.

3-Ingredient Cocktail cookbook cover with illustration of three martini glasses in blue, orange, and tan.
Excerpted from 3-Ingredient Cocktails: An Opinionated Guide to the Most Enduring Drinks in the Cocktail Canon © 2017 by Robert Simonson. Photography © 2017 by Colin Price. Reproduced by permission of Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Buy the full book from Amazon.
TagsCocktailAlcoholBeveragesKahluaLiqueurVodkaQuickEasy5 Ingredients or FewerCookbooks

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