This doesn’t occur typically. Unless you DIY, you’ll must go searching; the heyday of flambee was a long time again. These days, whenever you encounter booze and coffee in tandem, it’s most frequently through the ever-present espresso martini (vodka, espresso and coffee liqueur), a trendy traditional. Invented within the Eighties by London bartender Dick Bradsell, it’s greatest recognized for Bradsell’s story of inventing it for an unidentified mannequin, who’d requested him for a drink that may “wake me up and then [mess] me up,” solely in fact “mess” was not her chosen verb.
I like a potty-mouthed supermodel origin story as a lot as the following lady, however the espresso martini doesn’t normally draw me in. I choose to go additional again into the cocktail catalogue. Long earlier than Bradsell’s drink added extra confusion to the that means of the phrase “martini,” drink makers had been already mixing their stimulants and depressants into conflagrants. After all, why settle for one thing that can simply “wake you up and then [mess] you up” when you would have one thing that, if ready fallacious, may also burn the home down?
Setting cocktails on hearth provides all types of taste, bringing out the vanilla notes of barrel-aging; mellowing harshness in youthful, brash spirits; caramelizing the sugars in syrups; toasting the spices and releasing the fragrant — oh, the hell with it. All of which may be true, however the primary purpose to set cocktails on hearth is that it appears actually badass.
James Louie, one of many house owners of Huber’s Cafe in Portland, Ore., noticed this when he ran throughout Spanish coffee — a flamed mix of high-proof spirit and coffee — within the late Seventies. He was on a dinner date along with his soon-to-be spouse on the now-closed Fernwood Inn in close by Milwaukie and noticed how prospects had been transfixed by the Spanish coffees being served there. “We stole the idea,” he says. “We brought it back but embellished the presentation to make it our own.”
Make it their very own they did. “The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails” locates the origins of Spanish coffee in Coffee Grog, a drink detailed by Pedro Chicote, a famed Spanish bartender, in his 1928 cocktail e-book. It got here to America within the ’60s and had runs in Massachusetts and Florida, “but found its true home at the venerable Huber’s Cafe in Portland, Oregon.”
After borrowing it from the Fernwood Inn, Huber’s was nonetheless honing the drink when a faculty pal of Louie’s steered including triple sec and a floor nutmeg topping. A buyer taught Louie the right way to mild the match that ignites the drink utilizing just one hand, now a part of the usual presentation at Huber’s.
For security causes, the restaurant ultimately enhanced its personal enhancements: Originally, they might rim the glass with sugar, add the 151 rum and set it alight, then pour within the triple sec and Kahlua.
But “on a really warm day, the triple sec, even though it was only 30 proof, the room would get warm enough that it would make the triple sec pretty volatile,” Louie says. Back within the early ’80s, a bottle or two of triple sec exploded. Luckily, nobody was harm.
“I would like to say we tried to make it part of the show,” he says jokingly. “The amazing thing is one time when we had a bottle explosion right at the table, and both the man and the woman were covered with triple sec … but that didn’t scare them. They said, ‘We want to go ahead and have our Spanish coffee.’ So we started the whole show over again and they had their Spanish coffee, even though they were kind of sticky.”
Lest issues get stickier, Huber’s modified up its course of: Since then, the rum and triple sec are put within the glass, flamed there, then topped with Kahlua (which at 20 p.c ABV is not going to ignite; it douses the hearth), then coffee and whipped cream.
Louie estimates Huber’s serves 200 to 300 Spanish coffees a day, the employees working at spectacular pace and quantity. “You haven’t reached the black belt of Spanish coffee until you can make three at a time.”
I’ve reached sufficient of a consolation stage making Spanish coffee that I can suggest the method to cautious cocktailers. I’m nonetheless working as much as trying cafe brulot, a New Orleans custom relationship to the late 1800s, the place brandy, citrus and spices are warmed after which ignited in a particular bowl.
Traditionally, the drink consists of pouring the flaming brandy down a lengthy zest of clove-studded orange peel, “so what you see is the fire going down in a circular motion around that orange peel into the bowl,” says Augie Spicuzza, senior maître d’ at Arnaud’s. The flaming brandy opens up the cells of the orange peel and cloves, including its taste to the drink. “You do that three or four times, going back to the bowl and pouring it, all still on fire, then you extinguish it with coffee and add a little sugar.”
Spicuzza says employees work as much as making the cafe brulot. “You have to go through multiple training classes before you’re able to do it,” he says, and even then, when you’ve accomplished the coaching, you do it with backup from a extra seasoned staffer the primary few occasions you make it for friends.
At Antoine’s, the place the drink most likely originated, they don’t pour the flaming brandy down the citrus peel. “In a crowded restaurant, we try to keep the fire as much as possible in the bowl,” says Lisa Blount, who handles public relations for the restaurant. Then she despatched me a image of a stunt that extra skilled waitstaff have been recognized to do: splashing the flaming drink onto the tablecloth across the brulot bowl, in order that the desk seems to be on hearth. It’s gasp-inducing, however Blount says it extinguishes itself shortly and barely leaves a mark on the tablecloth.
I can’t be attempting that at dwelling. And after I do ultimately try cafe brulot, I’ll most likely attempt it outside, maybe sporting a chic hazmat swimsuit. For now, although, I’ll follow smaller, delicious fires, utilizing the Spanish coffee template for different conflagrated caffeine.
When working with flaming drinks
- Tie your hair again, roll up your sleeves. Don’t let something on you dangle into the hearth. Please don’t ship me letters studying, “Duh.”
- Drinks will ignite simply in the event that they’re 50 p.c ABV (100 proof) or extra, however you may get a flame from spirits at 40 p.c ABV (80 proof); some lower-proof combos flame weakly in some circumstances.
- Following the proof tips above, the template is fairly versatile. Start with a 151 rum and check out including cinnamon, chocolate, or fruit or nut liqueurs with the coffee.
- Warmth helps launch the fumes that ignite a drink, so it’s good to heat the glass or mug earlier than including the booze. The heat will assist the drink catch hearth, and a pre-warmed mug is much less more likely to crack.
- Work with small parts of your chosen spirits and maintain the bottles nicely away from open flames. Do not pour from any bottle of spirits into a flaming drink. It’s all too straightforward for that flame to leap up a high-proof liquid and comply with it to the bottle you’re pouring from. (Come on, individuals. Have you not seen “Die Hard 2”?)
Flaming Alpine Coffee Cocktail
Scale and get a printer-friendly model of the recipe right here.
This fundamental template — an alcoholic combination high-proof sufficient to ignite, and a sugared rim, coffee and a dollop of whipped cream — is a extremely versatile one, lending itself to a number of luxurious taste combos. You will want a stemmed Irish coffee mug or one other heatproof mug, and a kitchen torch or lengthy matches.
Total time: 10 minutes, not together with making the coffee and whipping the cream.
Make Ahead: You’ll need to have the whipped cream and scorching coffee prepared earlier than making the drink.
- Superfine sugar, to rim the glass
- 1 ounce 151 rum, ideally Goslings Black Seal
- 3/4 ounce inexperienced Chartreuse
- 1/2 ounce crème de cacao or one other chocolate liqueur
- 4 ounces scorching black coffee
- Whipped cream, for serving
Have prepared your scorching coffee and whipped cream. Warm an Irish coffee (or different heatproof) mug by filling it with boiling water.
Line a saucer with fantastic sugar. Discard the new water from the mug, moist the rim of the mug, and dip it into the sugar, rolling it so the sugar sticks to the rim.
Add the rum, Chartreuse and chocolate liqueur to the warmed mug, and swirl to permit the combination to heat up a bit.
Using a kitchen torch or lengthy match, mild the combination within the glass. Let it flame for 10 seconds or so, swirling it to soften the sugared rim. (It’s okay if the sugar doesn’t soften totally.)
Gently pour the new coffee over the hearth within the mug, prime with the whipped cream, and serve instantly.
From Spirits columnist M. Carrie Allan; Tested by M. Carrie Allan.