Coffee’s New Shake-Up

The rise of coffee connoisseurship was bound to spill into cocktail culture. While you can still get a classic hot Irish coffee (Irish whiskey, brown sugar, whipped cream) and that relic of the Sex in the City wackatini boom, the espresso martini, now you may see bourbon in a not-so-Irish coffee or maple syrup in an espresso martini along with the vodka and coffee liqueur.

At SM23 in Morristown, head bartender Sukhi Sandhu has created a signature caffeinated cocktail, the Espresso & Apricot Ecstasy (pictured), a vigorously shaken combo of chilled espresso, vodka, apricot jam, apricot liqueur and lemongrass syrup. It makes a perfect brunch cocktail, both soothing and eye-opening, with a modest hit of vitamin C from the apricots.

The ascent of cold brew from niche to mainstream (now even Dunkin Donuts offers it) has spurred activity on that side of the temperature scale. At the Farm & Fisherman in Cherry Hill, general manager Ben Menk’s team created the Not Your Father’s Draft Latté: equal parts dark-roast cold brew, bourbon and bourbon cream liqueur.

A burst of creativity with bitters has given rise to accents such as coffee bitters. F&F’s Early Bird (equal parts bourbon, Campari and fresh-squeezed orange juice, plus four dashes of coffee bitters) tiptoes away from the cloying sweetness of traditional coffee cocktails by adding the bitters and the distinctive bitterness of Campari. At imbibemagazine.com, you’ll find similar balance in the King Coffee Cocktail, made with rum, vanilla syrup, heavy cream and stout.