To celebrate the premiere of the new season of “Twin Peaks” (after being off the air for a cool 25 years), YouTube chef Binging With Babish and cocktail specialist Cocktail Chemistry collaborated to create two recipes from the popular TV show about the investigation of the death of Laura Palmer by FBI agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan of “Blue Velvet” and “Portlandia” fame).
Even though it was cancelled after two seasons (it first aired in 1990), the show has since gained a cult following because of its eccentric, odd characters, dark humor, surrealism, supernatural goings on, and the unique, patented Lynchian cinematography. The new series takes place 25 years later, with agent Cooper still stuck in the town of Twin Peaks.
As we begin to catch up, “the owls are not what they seem” and some mysteries still linger. Like, what did agent Cooper’s doppelganger do all those years while he was trapped in Twin Peaks? And what is the recipe for “Black Yukon Sucker Punch”, the cocktail that Judge Sternwood orders in season 2? It’s obviously a popular drink in town because the bartender knows exactly how to make it.
Youtuber Cocktail Chemistry (aka Nick Fisher) must have been plagued with curiosity about this cocktail because he decided to try his hand at recreating it, even with very little information to go on.
Take a look at the video and see for yourself. The drink is as mysterious as a red business suit. All he had to go on was what the drink looked like and Sternwood saying, “You have to watch these. They sneak up on ya.”
Nick assumes that the cocktail is a take on the classic Irish Coffee because, “It’s got black in the name, they’re drinking it during the daytime, and if we look at the bar in the beginning of the scene we can see this pot of black coffee.” His interpretation consists of coffee, whiskey, blue curacao, sugar, whipping cream, and egg whites (beat into “stiff peaks” with a little help from Binging With Babish). So, it’s pretty much exactly like an Irish coffee but with curacao for some reason. Since it’s at a bar in Twin Peaks, there’s really no reason to wonder why this is so. You might as well just add it to the giant bag of strangeness surrounding the town.
Keeping with the trend of Coffee, Binging With Babish (aka Andrew Rea) released a how-to video on the coffee and pancakes from Twin Peaks. Similar to the “Black Yukon Sucker Punch” video, this one had a cameo from Fisher. You can watch it below:
Agent Cooper really loves griddle cakes with ham and maple syrup because, as he says, “Nothing beats the taste sensation when maple syrup collides with ham.” Since the cocktail contained enough mysteries for one day, the pancakes and coffee are pretty straight forward (with the usual fanfare from Rea and Fisher). But, if you pair them with the aforementioned cocktail and turn on Showtime on demand to catch up on the first two episodes of the new season, you’ll probably be happier than “a man smiling in a bag”, whatever that means.
