Call us old fashioned, but any way you can combine bourbon, coffee and a little sprinkle of chocolate has us at hello.
On Sept. 29, the made-up holiday of National Coffee Day will not at all affect your mail delivery, school calendar, dental appointment or pretty much anything else. But hey, any reason to raise a glass to coffee is fine by us. And we particularly liked this buzzy spin on the classic Old Fashioned cocktail from our friends over at Four Roses.
Why does it work? In a word: barrels. When you put a whiskey into a barrel — which is as clear as a vodka going in — it absorbs lots of wonderful things from that big, wooden vessel: color, a bit of tannin, flavors from the natural elements in the wood (in this instance, American oak, which imparts notes of caramel, vanilla and coconut) as well as from the interior charring traditionally done on a barrel used for spirits.
Looping back to those vanilla-caramel notes (and your ‘Bucks Saturday morning Caramel Frappuccino), now don’t they go oh-so nicely with coffee? Sure they do. Four Roses, a brand born in Kentucky in 1888, is a wonderful historical American whiskey, from its workhorse 80 proof original to its more bespoke small-batch bottlings, which is what they recommend here. Indeed, the higher proof and the coffee bitters meld beautifully together, and make a pretty great cocktail to sip on as the weather is cooling down — National Coffee Day notwithstanding…
Coffee Old Fashioned
Ingredients
- 2 oz Four Roses Small Batch bourbon
- 1/2 oz simple syrup (see recipe below)
- 2-3 dashes coffee bitters
- 2 dashes orange bitters
- 3 espresso beans
- dark chocolate shavings
Directions
- Combine all liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice.
- Stir until well-chilled, about 10 to 15 seconds.
- Strain into an ice-filled double rocks glass.
- Garnish with the espresso beans and chocolate shavings. Cheers!
