While coffee has a great flavor that fits well in deserts, baking, and cocktails, it isn’t always the easiest ingredient to use to mix drinks. You get your classic hot coffee drinks like the Irish Coffee, but when you want a cold drink then using hot coffee can be awkward. Firstly, you need to chill it down or it’ll melt all your ice too fast and make the drink watery, and secondly, coffee which tastes great when it’s hot can taste bitter or flat once it’s cooled down.
That’s why I like to use cold brew coffee for mixing cocktails. You can easily prepare this ahead of time yourself — just make sure to brew your coffee stronger than you usually would so that it can stand up to strong liquors (you can always add water if you want to drink it on its own). But another option is to use a coffee liqueur like Mr Black. It’s a vodka-based liqueur made with real coffee, and it is most often seen in the espresso martini.
There are tons of options for cold brew-based cocktails though, and the Mr Black band has shared some ideas for cool coffee cocktails for the summer.
Curtain Call
Courtesy of Summer Goff, Death & Co Denver
Ingredients:
- 1 oz Denizen Vatted Dark Rum
- 0.5 oz Lemonhart 151
- 0.5 oz Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur
- 0.5 oz Amaro Averna
- 0.75 oz Pineapple Juice
- 0.75 oz Orange Juice
- 0.75 oz Coco Lopez
Method:
Add a handful of small ice cubes to a shaker along with other ingredients and shake until the ice is completely melted. Strain into a tulip glass filled with pebble ice and garnish with mint, an orange slice, and grated coffee bean.
Carajillo with a twist
Courtesy of Mr Black Spirits
Ingredients:
- 45ml/1.5oz Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur
- 30ml/1oz Cold Brew
- 15ml/0.5oz Cinnamon Orange Syrup (recipe below)
- Cinnamon Stick
Method:
To your cocktail shaker add Mr Black, cold brew and cinnamon-orange syrup. Shake hard with ice and strain into a rocks glass, over 1 large ice cube. Place a cinnamon stick across the glass rim and briefly light the cinnamon with a matchstick before blowing out the flame and serving.
Cinnamon Orange Syrup Recipe:
- 2 Oranges, peeled & juiced (3/4th cup juice approx.)
- 1 cup Caster Sugar
- 2 Cinnamon sticks
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla bean extract
- 1 pinch Salt
- 1/4th cup water
Place everything in a saucepan, including the spent halves of the juiced oranges. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 6-8 mins. Allow to cool and strain into a sterilized bottle. Store in the fridge.
