Nutcracker Shot

Amaretto, Kahlúa, and Irish cream — named for Tchaikovsky's 1892 Nutcracker, the San Francisco Ballet's 1944 production cementing the Christmas association.

The Nutcracker Shot takes its name from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, which premiered on 18 December 1892 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on a double bill with his opera Iolanta. Its choreography is credited to Marius Petipa and, after illness removed Petipa, his assistant Lev Ivanov, and the story was adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by way of Alexandre Dumas. The premiere drew a lukewarm response, though the concert suite Tchaikovsky drew from the score was admired at once. The ballet's Christmas association built gradually through the 20th century; the San Francisco Ballet gave the first complete US production, choreographed by Willam Christensen, in 1944, and began the annual holiday tradition that spread across North America. The shot borrows that festive, wintry association for a sweet, nutty combination of amaretto, coffee liqueur and Irish cream.