Tuesday, March 1, 2011

coffee brown

1 2/3 oz Bourbon (1 1/2 oz + 1 tsp Bulleit)
2/3 oz Coffee Liqueur (1/2 oz + 1 tsp Galliano Ristretto)
2/3 oz Port, LBV preferred (1/2 oz + 1 tsp Ramos Pinto Ruby)
4 dash Orange Bitters (Angostura Orange)

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

After the President Roosevelt two Mondays ago, Andrea was in the mood for a Bourbon drink. Since I figured that a more modern book would have a better selection of Bourbon recipes, I reached for Food & Wine: Cocktails 2010. There, I spotted Coffee Brown from Jimmy Dymott from the f/l Cocktail Bar in Stockholm, Sweden. While I did not have a late bottled vintage port that Dymott recommended, I figured that a ruby port would still make for a decent drink. Moreover, I was excited to use the rather robustly flavored Galliano Ristretto for the coffee liqueur part.
The Coffee Brown possessed an orange, caramel, and coffee aroma. The sip was the Ristretto's dark roast coffee flavor that paired well with the orange from the bitters. The coffee flavor then continued on in the swallow where it played well with the barrel-aged notes of the Bourbon. The port was less distinctive of a flavor at first and seemed to be there to provide body and to tie the drink together. As the drink warmed up, the port flavor became more apparent and complemented the coffee notes well. Andrea commented that the drink was very much an after-dinner drink and would go great with chocolate cake. When I commented that adding an egg to these ingredients would probably make for a good Flip, Andrea agreed but switched the dessert recommendation to crème brûlée.

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