A study in simplicity, the B&B cocktail is a combination of brandy and French herbal liqueur, Bénédictine. Though the pairing dates back at least to 1910, when it appeared as a layered pousse-café in Raymond E. Sullivan’s The Barkeeper’s Manual, the drink is most often associated with Prohibition-era New York City. Legend credits a bartender at the storied 21 Club in the 1930s with popularizing the stirred, after-dinner version we know today: rich, herbal, and elegant.
The two-ingredient cocktail became so popular in the U.S. that by 1937, Bénédictine introduced a pre-mixed bottling made with 60% Bénédictine and 40% French brandy.
Why the B&B works
Traditionally mixed in equal parts, this variation pulls back on the liqueur, yielding a drier, more nuanced drink that lets the brandy’s bright fruit notes shine without sacrificing Bénédictine’s warm, herbal complexity.
Produced in France since the 19th century, the Cognac-based liqueur is made with a proprietary blend of 27 herbs and spices and finished with honey. Naturally sweet, with notes of warm baking spice and citrus, it finds balance when paired with a dry brandy, resulting in a cocktail that’s layered, warming, and finished with a velvety smoothness.
