I have wanted to write about Archer for a long time but there are so many drinks to choose from I had trouble narrowing it down. It is currently winter in my part of the world, and what goes better with hot chocolate than booze? Nothing. Which reminded me of this awesome drink from the show that takes place on a snowy mountain: The Peppermint Patty.
For those of you not familiar with the show, Archer is a long running adult cartoon that centers around Sterling Archer, a narcissistic, binge drinking, womanizing, secret agent and the other completely dysfunctional members of the secret intelligence agency run by his mother. If you like dirty humor, drinking humor, sexual humor, offensive humor and general overall absurdity this show is for you. It has quick, snarky dialogue and lots of pop culture references; these characters have no filter.
The specific episode I am referencing here is “The Archer Sanction”, which is a reference to the obscure Clint Eastwood film, The Eiger Sanction from 1975. In this episode Archer, Lana, and Ray travel to Switzerland to join a mountain expedition so that they can assassinate an assassin. However, Archer has forgotten the target specifics on what he assumes is the back of his toilet at home. With no idea who the target is, they head up the mountain, hoping that they can figure it out based on Archer’s recollection of the target being from one of WWII’s Axis Powers. They meet Crash McCaron, their guide and the rest of the expedition party: Mario Sevino (of Italy), Michiko Ishikawa (of Japan), and Hans Hessler (of Germany). Several members of the party die, Archer reveals who the target is, and causes an avalanche to end a standoff.
The drink is relevant to the episode because of it’s continual presence. We meet “Pattie” in the beginning when Lana is asking about the target. Note the fact that Archer sips on his drink instead of answering her. Later, when Archer figures out the actual target he starts calling them “Paddy”, which is a play on the word “Pattie”. And then we follow up with Archer returning to the drink in the final scene, indicating that the show has come full circle. Peppermint Pattie becomes another member of the assassination party in this episode. It is actually a clever device in this episode and sounded like a perfect drink for a snowy afternoon.
In the first scene Archer interrupts any productive thought exclaiming about this drink. He gives a basic recipe of dark Crème de Cocao, Crème de menthe, peppermint schnapps and hot chocolate. Sounds delicious. So, I figured that all have to do to make it is just perfect the ratios.
Hot chocolate from scratch is amazing. I started making it a couple years ago after reading Chocolat by Joanne Harris and I wrote about it here. You can use a mix for this too though; I tried it both ways and it tasted good each time. After the hot chocolate foundation was complete, I stirred in the liquor and considered it finished.
So, if your looking for something warm, minty and delicious during the coldest part of the year you should totally make this. In true Archer fashion, after I had perfected the recipe I continued to test it out over and over. Nothing like getting a job done correctly!
Archer: Peppermint Patty:
8oz Hot Chocolate
1/2 oz Dark Crème de Cacao
1/2 oz Crème de menthe
1/2 oz Peppermint Schnapps
** These measurements are guidelines but you can add the liquor according to your specific tastes, I am not your supervisor!
- Prepare hot chocolate.
- Add in the rest of the ingedients, stir.
