Liquid Cocaine Recipe

The Liquid Cocaine is a long, sweet bar drink: four half-ounce pours of liqueur over pineapple and cranberry juice, topped with lemon-lime soda. The name is bar slang for a drink that has been in online recipe databases since 1996, and it covers at least seven unrelated recipes, from this tall-glass version to a family of high-proof shots. This is the tall version we make, followed by what is actually in it, what the other drinks with the same name are, how many standard drinks each one holds, and where the name came from as far as the record shows.

Last verified September 14, 2026. Ingredient ABVs are from producer sites and Virginia ABC listings; legal classes from 27 CFR part 5; recipe history from the Webtender database (entries dated 1996 to 2001); standard drinks from NIAAA; mixer sugar and calories from USDA FoodData Central and the Coca-Cola product label. Full list at the end.

How strong the tall version is

Four half-ounce pours sounds like a lot of liquor. It is 2 oz of liqueur in a glass that holds about 9 oz, and most of those liqueurs are low proof. NIAAA defines a standard drink as 0.6 fl oz (17.7 mL) of pure alcohol, and the formula for any recipe is to add up (volume x ABV) for each ingredient and divide by that. With the usual bottles (DeKuyper triple sec and Peachtree schnapps at 15 percent, Disaronno or Bols amaretto at 28 percent, Southern Comfort Original at 35 percent) the drink comes to 0.8 of a standard drink, a little less than a 12 oz beer. Swap in Cointreau (40 percent) and Southern Comfort 100 proof and it is 1.1. The soda and juice add sugar, not alcohol.

Ingredient (0.5 oz each)	ABV	Pure alcohol
DeKuyper Triple Sec	15%	2.2 mL
Amaretto (Disaronno or Bols)	28%	4.1 mL
Southern Comfort Original	35%	5.2 mL
DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps	15%	2.2 mL
Total		13.8 mL = 0.8 standard drinks

What is actually in it

All four liqueurs are cordials under US law (27 CFR 5.150): flavored distilled spirits containing at least 2.5 percent sugar by weight, with no minimum alcohol content, which is why they can run as low as 15 percent. Southern Comfort is the odd one out. Its recipe card at most bars says “peach liqueur,” and its label says “Spirit Whiskey with Natural Flavors.” Under 27 CFR 5.143, spirit whisky is a mixture of neutral spirits with at least 5 percent whisky, so Southern Comfort is a flavored whiskey product rather than a fruit liqueur. It was created in New Orleans in 1874 by M.W. Heron, who first called it “Cuffs and Buttons”; Brown-Forman owned it from 1979 to 2016, during which time the base was neutral grain spirit; the Sazerac Company bought it on March 1, 2016 for $542.4 million (with Tuaca) and put whiskey back in the formula in 2017. It is sold at 70, 80 and 100 proof.

Bottle	Producer	ABV (proof)	US class
DeKuyper Triple Sec	DeKuyper	15% (30); a 24% (48 proof) version is also sold	Liqueur, type Triple Sec
Cointreau	Rémy Cointreau, France, since 1875	40% (80)	Liqueur, type Triple Sec
Disaronno Originale	ILLVA Saronno, Italy (renamed from Amaretto di Saronno in 2001; made from apricot kernel oil, not almonds)	28% (56)	Liqueur, type Amaretto
Bols Amaretto	Lucas Bols	28% (56)	Liqueur, type Amaretto
Southern Comfort Original	Sazerac Company (since 2016)	35% (70); also 40% (80) and 50% (100)	“Spirit Whiskey with Natural Flavors”
DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps	DeKuyper	15% (30)	Liqueur (schnapps)

The mixers carry the sugar. USDA lists unsweetened pineapple juice at 53 calories and 10 g of sugar per 100 g and bottled cranberry juice cocktail at about 67 calories and 12 g; Coca-Cola’s label puts Sprite at 140 calories and 38 g of sugar per 12 oz. So the 3 oz of pineapple, 3 oz of cranberry and 1 oz splash of Sprite in this recipe add about 126 calories and 23 g of sugar before the liqueurs, which contribute roughly 76 calories from alcohol plus their own sugar (no USDA entry exists for them). Call the glass 200 to 260 calories.

The other drinks called Liquid Cocaine

Order one at a bar without saying which and you may get a shot. The Webtender database, a user-submitted archive that dates its entries, holds the earliest recipes anyone has found under this name, and they are not the same drink.

Version	Build	Earliest dated record	Standard drinks
Tall version (this page)	0.5 oz each triple sec, amaretto, Southern Comfort, peach schnapps; 3 oz pineapple juice; 3 oz cranberry juice; splash of lemon-lime soda	Undated on CocktailBuilder and DrinksMixer; closest early match is Webtender #5, January 30, 1998 (vodka, amaretto, Southern Comfort, Cointreau, pineapple, 7-Up)	0.8 to 1.1
Webtender #1 (shot)	Equal parts Grand Marnier, Southern Comfort, vodka, amaretto, splash of pineapple; shaken	December 6, 1996	0.9 (1.5 oz shot)
Jägermeister shot	3 parts Jägermeister, 2 parts Bacardi 151, 1 part Rumple Minze; 1.5 oz total	July 29, 1997 (Webtender #3)	1.3
Golden Elk style shot	Equal parts Jägermeister (35%), Goldschläger (43.5%), Rumple Minze (50%); 15 mL each	Undated	1.1
Five-spirit shot	0.5 oz each silver tequila, vodka, gin, light rum, Everclear 190	January 30, 1998 (Webtender #4)	2.1

Two of those need a note. Bacardi 151 was discontinued in 2016, so any recipe that calls for it now uses a substitute, and the strength changes with it. And the five-spirit shot is 2.1 standard drinks in a single 2.5 oz pour, which is the reason this drink’s name has the reputation it does. The tall version on this page is the mildest of the family by a wide margin.

Where the drink came from

Recipe sites often call it a 1980s drink. We could not find a source for that. The oldest dated records are the Webtender entries from December 1996, and Difford’s Guide has no entry under the name at all. What the 1980s did produce were the ingredients: DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps launched in the fall of 1984, sold 12 million bottles in its first year, and by 1987 the trade press was reporting the Fuzzy Navel as America’s most popular drink, with the Long Island Iced Tea second. The tall Liquid Cocaine belongs to that peach-schnapps-and-juice school, and the shot versions belong to the Jägermeister shooter wave of the 1990s. The safest thing to say is that the name has been in circulation since at least 1996 and that nobody owns it.

Frequently asked questions

What is in a Liquid Cocaine drink? The tall version: triple sec, amaretto, Southern Comfort and peach schnapps (0.5 oz each), pineapple juice, cranberry juice and a splash of lemon-lime soda over ice. The shot versions are usually Jägermeister with Goldschläger, Rumple Minze or Bacardi 151.

How strong is it? The tall version is 0.8 of a standard drink with 15 percent triple sec and schnapps, 28 percent amaretto and 70 proof Southern Comfort. The Jägermeister shots are 1.1 to 1.3; the five-spirit shot with Everclear is 2.1.

Is Southern Comfort a peach liqueur? No. Its label reads “Spirit Whiskey with Natural Flavors,” and since 2017 it is made with whiskey in the base. It is sold at 70, 80 and 100 proof.

Can I make it without Southern Comfort? Yes. Another 0.5 oz of peach schnapps or an apricot liqueur keeps the fruit; a bourbon keeps the whiskey. Recompute the standard drinks from the ABV on the bottle.

Why is it called that? Bar slang, recorded since 1996 and attached to several unrelated recipes. There is no documented inventor.

Sources

• Webtender database entries: Liquid Cocaine #1 (December 6, 1996), #3 (July 29, 1997), #4 and #5 (January 30, 1998); CocktailBuilder, Original Liquid Cocaine, checked September 14, 2026
• Southern Comfort, Our story, Sazerac, Southern Comfort, Brown-Forman, sale to Sazerac completed (March 1, 2016) and AFP, Southern Comfort to add whiskey (May 13, 2017), checked September 14, 2026
• Virginia ABC listings (state retailer, used for ABV): Southern Comfort 70 proof, 100 proof, Disaronno, Bols Amaretto, DeKuyper Peachtree, DeKuyper Triple Sec, Jägermeister, Goldschläger, Rumple Minze, checked September 14, 2026
• 27 CFR 5.150, Cordials and liqueurs (eCFR) and 27 CFR 5.143, Whisky, including spirit whisky, checked September 14, 2026
• PUNCH, on the 1984 Peachtree launch and the 1987 Fuzzy Navel, checked September 14, 2026
• Wikipedia, Bacardi 151 (discontinued 2016), Disaronno and Cointreau, checked September 14, 2026
• NIAAA, What is a standard drink, checked September 14, 2026
• USDA FoodData Central: pineapple juice, unsweetened (168187) and cranberry juice cocktail (171903); Coca-Cola product facts, Sprite 12 oz, checked September 14, 2026

Saucey carries the triple sec, amaretto, Southern Comfort, schnapps, juices and soda for this recipe, with delivery in as fast as 25 mins in the cities we serve. More recipes are in our cocktail recipes section.