This Was Elizabeth Taylor’s Favorite Nightcap

The Chocolate Martini — an indulgent dessert cocktail with Hollywood pedigree — blends vodka, crème de cacao, chocolate liqueur, and cream. Chocolate has long been used in drinks, dating back to ancient civilizations, but legend has it that this particular concoction was dreamed up on a movie set in the 1950s.

The popular story goes that while filming Giant in Marfa, Texas, in 1955, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson came up with the decadent drink during their downtime. The friends were known to enjoy vodka Martinis; after experimenting with chocolate syrup and liqueur, they supposedly landed on their new favorite on-set nightcap: the Chocolate Martini, forever linked to Taylor’s glamorous legacy.

Old-school dessert cocktails like the Grasshopper and Brandy Alexander — created well before the mid-century — had all but vanished during Prohibition. By the 1950s, however, postwar optimism renewed America’s appetite for entertaining and for sweet, celebratory drinks. While Hudson and Taylor helped put the Chocolate Martini on the cultural map, the broader mid-century cocktail revival solidified its reputation as a luscious, guilty-pleasure classic.

Why the Chocolate Martini works

The original version Taylor and Hudson sipped was likely very boozy, very sweet, and not particularly complex. This variation takes its cues instead from classic cream-based cocktails. Equal parts spirits keep the drink balanced, with earthy, layered crème de cacao — made by distilling raw cacao beans — providing depth. Rich chocolate liqueur and a touch of heavy cream add silky texture and gently round the edges. The result is velvet-smooth chocolate decadence in a glass — the perfect holiday nightcap.