Do you like your coffee hot, iced, or cold brewed? How about mixed with Bacardi 151 and lit on fire?
Historic Portland, Oregon bars and a Chicago restaurant called Baptiste & Bottle serve the latter as an after dinner cocktail. For $25, a server will roll a drink cart to your tableside with a sugar rimmed coupe glass on top. Bacardi 151 is layered in, then set on fire, warming the sugar. As the flame flickers, the server sprinkles cinnamon over the top, turning the fire blue, black, and red. A mix of Kahlua and Cointreau is poured into the glass, then fresh French pressed coffee is poured in, finally putting the last of the flame out. To finish the drink off, a layer of whip cream and cinnamon is put on top.
“It’s and eye opener or a nightcap,” Michael Fawthrop, the beverage director at Baptiste & Bottle told the Chicago Tribune.
Clearly, the Spanish coffee is a lot more than your average after dinner pick me up. Fawthrop was inspired to put it on the menu by his dad, who originally showed him the cocktail.
You don’t have to travel to Chicago to get a taste of coffee cocktail extravagance. The drink is popular in Portland, Oregon, and for $10.50, you can get one at Huber’s, which bills itself as Portland’s oldest restaurant. Huber’s makes their Spanish coffee with just as much extravagance as Baptiste & Bottle.
You’ll want to be careful if you try this at home, but here’s the recipe for the brave:
- .75 ounces Bacardi 151
- .5 ounces Cointreau
- 2 ounces Kahlua
- 3 ounces hot coffee
- Sugar
- Cinnamon
- Whip cream
Rim the glass with sugar. Pour in the Bacardi 151 and light on fire. Sprinkle cinnamon (carefully) over the top of the flame. Add the mix of Cointreau and Kahlua, then the coffee on top. Carefully layer the whip cream over the drink, and sprinkle with cinnamon.