chocolate flip

1 1/2 oz Cruzan Blackstrap Rum
1/2 oz Creme de Cacao
1/2 oz Rock Candy Syrup
1 Egg

Shake once without ice and once with and strain into a coupe glass. Top with 1-2 oz of Left Hand Milk Stout. Grate chocolate over the top of the egg froth.

Last Wednesday, Andrea and I headed over to Eastern Standard for some drinks after a dinner at India Quality. For my nightcap, I asked bartender Kevin Martin if he had any egg drink ideas. When he mentioned that he had a "chocolate flip," I was a little hesitant because it sounded like it could be an overly sweet and insipid Chocolatini disaster. However, I know Kevin and his general aesthetic, so I conveyed my trust to him. And I am quite glad that I did!
I think the first aspect that got me excited was when I saw him topping off the drink with Left Hand's Milk Stout -- a dark, rich, and chocolaty beer that seemed like the perfect complement to the flip's molasses and cacao components. The flip's aroma was dominated by the freshly grated chocolate floating on top of the egg foam. The blackstrap rum's richness on the beginning of the sip blended into the chocolate notes on the swallow rather well. At first, Kevin added about an ounce of the beer for he ran out of space in the glass. He left the bottle in front of me and told me to top it off as I saw fit. After adding another ounce of stout, the drink dried out a bit with the increased hops notes on the swallow. Furthermore, the roasted maltiness of the beer began to play a more significant role in the flavor profile after this addition. From a drink that made me afraid to consent to it from the name alone to a drink that I was afraid that my glass was going to end up empty before I knew it, this creation was quite an amazing surprise!