Peppermint Patty Cocktail: Hot or Cold

This is a great chocolatey and minty cocktail, either hot or cold. You can certainly make these without alcohol for children, or for adults who don't drink alcohol, by using some peppermint essence in chocolate milk. You can adjust the amount of ingredients depending upon the size of the glass you use.

 

Ingredients for about a 6 ounce drink:

 

4 ounces milk

1 or 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

1 ounce peppermint schnapps 

1 ounce creme de cacao

whipped cream for topping

peppermint patty, chopped

 

For hot: heat the milk, but do not boil. Pour into a cup or mug, add the chocolate syrup and stir well to mix it in, then add the peppermint schnapps and creme de cacao and stir to mix; top with whipped cream and pieces of peppermint patty.  For cold: use good cold milk, add the chocolate syrup, peppermint schnapps, creme de cacao and a few ice cubes; stir well; top with whipped cream and chopped peppermint patty.

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Dull-This word is related to "dust," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "fume," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. It goes back to Indo European "dheu/dhew," which meant "vapor, smoke, dust." This seemingly produced the variant "dhewel," which meant "dim, cloudy, hazy." This gave Old Germanic "dulaz," meaning, "foolish, dulled in the mind, confused, mad/crazy." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "dol" meaning "foolish," which then became "dul," and "dull." The idea of "foolish" led to "not sharp in the mind;" thus, in reference to objects, "blunt, without sharpness," and later to "not exciting, boring." (Note: In Old English "dol" was also used as a noun meaning "foolishness, stupidity.") The verb form seems to date from circa 1200 and was tied to many of the adjectival meanings; thus eventually settling on: "to lessen the sharpness of something of physical objects and of the senses or mind of living things, to lessen the brightness of something, to dim or obscure in some manner, to reduce activity." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "toll," meaning "crazy, mad," but also in every day speech "great, fantastic," as in : "Es ist eine tolle Party" ("It's a great party"),^ Low German at least had "dul," but I'm uncertain about a truly modern form, North Frisian has "dull/doll," but I didn't find a modern West Frisian form, Dutch has "dol" (mad, crazy, wild), Icelandic has "dulinn" (disguised, concealed), Swedish once had "dul/dol."

 

^ German "toll" meaning "great, super," is an example of how generally negative words can sometimes be used for positive emphasis, as in, "Dinner was awfully good," doesn't mean the dinner was bad, it means it was VERY good.