As coffee becomes more sophisticated, so do the cocktails that use it to add depth of flavor. Here are new coffee-based cocktails to get guests buzzing for daytime or nighttime events.
Correction: The cocktail from Fixe has been updated.
For imbibers with a sweet tooth, Fixe in Austin, Texas, serves a coffee cocktail topped with shaved chocolate. Taylor’s Fin D'Noir features Godiva white chocolate liquor, frangelico, tellamore dew, wild cold-brew coffee, Storm King imperial stout, and fresh shaved chocolate.
For an update on a classic cocktail, the Lambs Club in New York serves a White Russian, Munich style. The restaurant’s cocktail historian and mixologist, Brian Van Flandern, ensures that the drink isn’t too sweet or too strong by recreating classic liqueurs instead of mixing something off the shelf. “We find a way to make everything fresh,” he says. “We make our own by adding vodka to espresso and a house-made bitter chocolate simple syrup blended with whole milk, which leads itself to a better tasting cocktail.”
The Rickey, a new lounge at Dream Midtown in New York, features a craft cocktail menu from mixologist Johnny Swet. Among the offerings is the Cartel, made with Sailor Jerry rum, pineapple, and cracked Colombian coffee bean, served with a coconut water ice block.
In New Orleans, the bakery and restaurant Willa Jean has a coffee program that includes coffee- and tea-inspired craft cocktails. Among them is the Afternoon Delight, which mixes Intelligentsia coffee with Tito’s Vodka, Licor 43, vanilla milk, and orange peel. The drink complements the Southern-tinged menu from chefs Kelly Fields and Lisa White; the restaurant is part of chef John Besh’s Besh Restaurant Group.
A new initiative at Wyndham Grand hotels focuses on cold-brew coffee, a method of coffee brewed with cold or room-temperature water that’s popular with discerning coffee drinkers. The “Brew Parlor” program features a menu of cold-brew cocktails from mixologist Ivy Mix and nonalcoholic drinks from chef Stephanie Izard. Among Mix’s creations is the “Initial Ascent” with bourbon, crème de cacao, lemon, framboise, and fresh raspberries.
Izard’s cold-brew mocktails include Five Spice Shaken Iced Coffee with Thai chili, cinnamon, clove, star anise, and sweetened condensed milk. Brew Parlor is an “amped-up happy hour,” as Mark Anderson, vice president of food and beverage for Wyndham Grand, called it during a preview event in New York. The program debuted in January in Chicago; Doha, Qatar; Shenzhen, China; and Istanbul, Turkey. It’s expected to roll out to the brand’s 33 properties globally by the end of the year.
The speakeasy-style bar Jimmy Chicago at the James Chicago hotel serves a seasonal specialty cocktail called Kentucky Coffee. A play on a mint julep, it’s made with Four Roses bourbon, Sparrow coffee, and mint whipped cream.
Cold-pressed coffee is the base of a drink called the “Last Man Standing” at the Betty in Chicago. It combines with Genever, Jamaican rum, oloroso sherry, whole egg, and nutmeg.
Juliet, an Italian eatery in Austin that opened last summer, serves two coffee cocktails. The Espresso Martini mixes coffee liqueur, Bailey’s, vodka, and espresso, and the Italian Coffee has espresso liqueur, amaretto, maraschino, and coffee, with whipped cream on top.
New to the winter cocktail menu at Austin smokehouse and beer garden Freedmen’s is the Molto Bella. The drink, served over ice, features Knob Creek rye, Fernet Branca, housemade chicory-coffee syrup, and chocolate bitters. Bar manager Brandon Garvey says the syrup—made with equal parts turbinado sugar and strongly brewed Cafe du Monde coffee—adds the right amount of sweetness.
For a tiki take on a coffee cocktail, Chicago’s Three Dots and a Dash developed a drink dubbed the "Cacchan Some Rays." It mixes cold-brew coffee with reposado tequila, dark Jamaican rum, overproof rum, passion fruit, lime, and pineapple.
