A pousse-café is a style of layered drink prepared by gently adding each ingredient from densest to least dense in order to create colored stripes when the drink is viewed from the side. Some bartender guides list a drink containing, from bottom to top, grenadine, yellow chartreuse and green chartreuse as the original pousse-café. The drink is made primarily as a delight for the eye rather than for its taste. It is sipped, sometimes through a silver straw, one liqueur at a time. The drink must be created and handled carefully, as the layers created will mix into a brown sludge if handled roughly.
The name literally means "it pushes the coffee" in French. Colloquially, the term is equivalent to a "chaser" for coffee. A digestif, an alcoholic cordial sometimes consumed after a meal to aid digestion, is called a "pousse-café" or coffee-chaser. In France, there is no tradition for the type of elaborate recipe that follows.
A more elaborate recipe is:
Eric Felten (September 16, 2006). "Neither Shaken Nor Stirred". Wall Street Journal. p. 9. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115835765770164823.html.
Tyler, S. and Herbst, R. The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide. New York: Broadway Books, 1998.