If you don’t often frequent chain restaurants, you may be more familiar with the Mudslide’s trendy cousin, the White Russian. Though similar in flavor, the Mudslide gets a little extra kick by substituting Irish cream for boring old regular cream. It also adds ice cream, which really is the defining ingredient of the Mudslide, taking it from after dinner drink to a course all its own.
The Mudslide supposedly got its start in the 1950s at the Wreck Bar & Grill on Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, where the drink is still on the bar’s menu today. But over the years it’s become a fixture at Applebee’s, Chili’s and anywhere else that boasts oversized menus and sweet cocktails. And sweet it is. The Mudslide may be the original spiked milkshake—a precursor to the boozy soda fountain drinks of today. It’s fitting that it was created in the Cayman Islands, as mixing ice cream and vodka screams, “I’m on vacation!”