According to The New York Times, coffee cocktails are becoming the new fad in the New York bar scene. The combination of a stimulant (coffee) and and a depressant (alcohol) seems to be a trend that is bringing back the classic Irish Coffee, without being as intense as alcoholic-energy drinks such as Four Loko.
Bartenders at The Randolph in SoHo and Fort Defiance in Brooklyn are taking advantage of the alcohol-stimulant-beverage-phenomenon, attempting to keep people awake without sobering them up, but in a less dangerous way. They are attempting to come up with tasty concoctions that have a good balance of alcohol, such as bourbon or rum, and a well-brewed cup of coffee.
These two bars currently stand alone in the coffee cocktail trend, but the owner of Fort Defiance, St. John Frizell, thinks that more bars will start to catch on and incorporate coffee cocktails into their every day menu.
Fort Defiance has a spin on Irish Coffee called the Koffie Van Brunt, named for the street the bar is on. The cocktail uses eight-year-old rum instead of whiskey, and cherry liqueur, with cinnamon and orange zest on top. The Randolph Bar has several coffee cocktail drinks on the their menu, including the Slow Trip to New Orleans, which is a mixed of iced coffee, bourbon, and sloe gin.
“Cocktail culture and coffee culture are so similar,” he said. “It’s a lot about machines and science.”
