Tootsie Roll Shot

A 2-ingredient wonder that magically tastes just like the classic chocolate candy. Viral TikTok favorite.

The Tootsie Roll Shot replicates the flavor of one of America's oldest continuously produced penny candies — the Tootsie Roll, created in 1896 by Leo Hirschfield, an Austrian immigrant who opened a small candy shop in New York City at 597 Broome Street in Manhattan. Hirschfield named the chewy chocolate-taffy confection after his daughter Clara, whose nickname was Tootsie. The Tootsie Roll was innovative at its introduction for two reasons: it was one of the first penny candies to be individually wrapped in paper, making it more hygienic and portable than loose candy, and its chocolate-flavored taffy consistency — created by mixing chocolate with a taffy base rather than coating pure chocolate over another confection — produced a flavor that was simultaneously familiar and distinct. The Tootsie Roll Industries company, incorporated in 1922, has been publicly traded since 1952 and has maintained continuous production of the original product for over 125 years. The shot's formula — Kahlúa coffee liqueur with orange juice — creates an orange-and-chocolate combination that produces the Tootsie Roll's specific flavor through a chemical coincidence: the interaction between coffee liqueur's caramelized sugar compounds and orange juice's citrus esters produces a flavor resembling the chocolate-orange-caramel combination that defines the candy.