Crème de menthe is a sweet, mint-flavored alcoholic beverage. It is available commercially in a colorless version and a green version. Both varieties have similar flavor and are interchangeable in recipes, except where color is important. It typically has 25% alcohol by volume. Crème de menthe is an ingredient in several cocktails, such as the Grasshopper and the Stinger. It is also served as a digestif and used in cooking as a flavoring. It is also a primary component of the popular South African shooter known as the Springbokkie.
Music
, although otherwise a teetotaler, found that a glass of crème de menthe steadied his nerves when playing the technically demanding piano score in the twenty-fourth variation of his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. He nicknamed the twenty-fourth the "Crème de Menthe Variation."
In "The Visitors" sketch in a 1969 episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Terry Gilliam plays an extremely effeminate, flamboyant, and stereotypically gay character, whose regular drink is a pint of crème de menthe.
On episode 22 of Season 2 of the sitcomFriends, "The One with the Two Parties", the character Phoebe Buffay offers a crème de menthe to Leonard Green to try and stall him from running into his wife.
On episode 7 of Season 3 on the Starz show Outlander, titled "Crème De Menthe", character Jamie Fraser, hides a murder victim in a cask of crème de menthe. He assures his wife, Claire, that no one will find him because he has never seen a Scotsman drink the said liqueur before.
In the popular Billy Connolly joke, "Two Scotsmen in Rome", crème de menthe is suggested to be the Pope's favoured beverage. This results in the two Scotsmen naively drinking the liqueur in pints.
In the twelfth episode of the first season of Mad Men, there is a shortage of alcohol during an office party for the presidential election. In response, members of the party raid a supply closet and fill an entire water cooler with crème de menthe for the party to enjoy.
In the movie 28 Days Later, character Frank suggests that they offer glasses of crème de menthe to Jim and Selena in honor of their first meeting.
In the episode “The Gang Gets Quarantined“ from season 9 of the sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, character Dennis Reynolds claims that he keeps “a flask of crème de menthe behind the jukebox in the bar.”
In the episode “I Right the Wrongs” from season 4 of the sitcom Grounded for Life, bar owners Sean and Eddie Finnety are inadvertently given an enormous supply of crème de menthe from their supplier and are driven to unscrupulous means to unload all of it.
In season 6 episode 5 of Rescue Me Main character Tommy Gavin tries to recall what happened the previous night when he blacked out after drinking a bottle of whiskey that was spiked with GHB. He wakes up in the morning with green lips and finds out that he was seen vomiting a green liquid in the lobby of an apartment building. This turned out to be the result of having also drunk an entire bottle of crème de menthe.
