The Grasshopper is a green, creamy dessert drink. Its New Orleans credit goes to a French Quarter restaurant, and that credit is a story the restaurant tells, not one anyone has proved.
The restaurant
Tujague’s says it has been a favorite “for over 170 years,” and calls itself New Orleans’ second oldest restaurant. Its history page says Guillaume and Marie Abadie Tujague established it in 1856. After Alice Tujague Anouilh sold it, Philip Guichet Sr. bought it with his partner, Jean-Dominic (John) Castet, and both worked behind the bar. As of November 2026, the restaurant’s site lists its address as 429 Decatur Street.
The same history page says the bar is known for “signature cocktails it introduced to the world, such as the Grasshopper and Whiskey Punch.” It gives no details about how or when the drink was created.
Who is credited, and when
Wikipedia’s entry puts it carefully: Tujague’s “claims” its owner, Philip Guichet, invented the drink in 1918.
A May 2026 Alcohol Professor article by Kelly Magyarics repeats the bar’s version through its bar manager, Camilla Ramirez. She says Guichet made it for a national cocktail competition in New York City and came in second place, that people were ordering it regularly the following year, and that it was designed as a dessert cocktail.
Other accounts change the details. Difford’s Guide calls him Philibert Guichet, dates the claimed New York win to 1919 or the Prohibition era, and states flatly that “there is no documentary evidence to support this win or his creation of the cocktail.” So the year is 1918 in one telling, 1919 in another, and the first name is Philip or Philibert depending on who is writing.
An older drink with the same name
Difford’s also points to a 1908 book, William Boothby’s World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them. It gives a two-ingredient Grasshopper, crème de menthe layered over crème de cacao in equal parts, and credits it to “Harry O’Brien, late of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco.” Difford’s says cream was added later to make the shaken version known today, though it does not name a source for that step.
That does not disprove the Tujague’s claim, but it does mean a drink called the Grasshopper was in print a decade before 1918. If Guichet created anything, it was at most the creamy, shaken version, and no source here says so directly.
What is in it
The usual modern build, as Wikipedia describes it, is equal parts green crème de menthe, white crème de cacao, and cream, shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass. Difford’s lists 1 1/6 fluid ounces of each of its three ingredients (peppermint crème de menthe, white crème de cacao, and whipping cream), shaken, fine strained into a chilled coupe, and garnished with a mint leaf or the tip of a mint sprig.
Tujague’s own recipe, which the Alcohol Professor article prints “courtesy of Tujague’s,” is richer and stranger. It calls for:
- ¾ ounce green crème de menthe
- ¾ ounce white crème de menthe
- ¾ ounce crème de cacao
- ¾ ounce heavy cream
- ¾ ounce whole milk
- ½ ounce brandy
The ingredients are shaken with ice and strained into a chilled Champagne flute, with 1 teaspoon of brandy floated on top. The brandy and the milk are what separate it from the equal-parts version.
After New Orleans
Wikipedia says the Grasshopper gained popularity during the 1950s and 1960s throughout the American South, and lists the variations that followed: a vodka version called the “flying” grasshopper, a frozen version, a milkshake, and a Girl Scout Cookie version made with peppermint schnapps.
What this means for the story
The honest summary is short. A restaurant says its owner invented the drink in 1918. The restaurant’s own history page does not tell the story, other sources dispute the details, and one source calls the claim undocumented. An earlier two-ingredient Grasshopper was in print in 1908. A Grasshopper ordered at Tujague’s is the version the restaurant presents as the original, with its own recipe.
