Coffee Clutch: Three Liqueurs, Canned Cocktails, and Origin-Roasted Beans
By Wayne Alan Brenner, February 7, 2022, 3:58pm, On the Range
Go on, take a seat. Grab a cup of the hot brown stuff that helps you escape whatever lethargy’s trying to overtake your world-weary ass.
Because, yes, it’s coffee time again; and we sure do love telling you about the beneficent beverage – like, how you can get it delivered locally, and which art-filled venue is also a powerhouse of other vegan yumminess, and even what it’s like to run a coffeeshop in this crazy town – and right now we’re gonna look at three coffee liqueurs and two other javalicious products that can happily enhance your modern urban life.
[Note: Yes, we do realize that the liqueurs, with their alcohol content, might not actually abet your efforts at vigorous, sustained activity. But, gosh, Wally – it’s not all about the caffeine, is it?]
[image-1-right]
1. Caffe del Fuego
Sure, the Chronicle’s Melody Fury told us about this excellent tipple back in 2015, noting how the local brand, “unlike the aggressively scented chemical-laden varieties, is subtle on the nose. Pour it over rocks, swirl, and sip – and the coffee flavor hits the palate in a clean, inviting way.” And now, seven years later, the premium coffee liqueur from Remington Family Distillers – made with coffee, cane sugar, Madagascar vanilla bean, and neutral high-proof corn spirits – is just as sippable and worthy of yeah-it’s-from-my-city bragging about. So of course we’re reminding you about its dark goodness at the very start of this list.
[image-2-right]
2. St. George NOLA Coffee Liqueur
Now we’ll head to our neighboring state of Louisiana, where so much mudbug-mad mafficking originates at this time of year and an admirable new elixir from St. George Spirits has put a sort of Cajun spin on the ol' coffee liqueur formula. St. George’s head distiller Dave Smith concocts the company's elevated booze with Ethiopian coffee and Madagascar vanilla and cane sugar – pretty much like those Remingtons do, right? – but this is New Orleans we’re talking about, so there’s a bit of French chicory root added to the recipe as well, and it imparts the most subtly bitter notes of spice to an already complex and deeply satisfying drink. We enjoy this liqueur via any method that's used to ingest a tasty fluid, really, but especially in a Bourbon Coffee Old-Fashioned as created by the Apartment Bartender: Two ounces of bourbon, quarter ounce of St. George NOLA, quarter ounce of brown sugar syrup, and a dash of chocolate bitters; add ice and stir to chill, then strain into a rocks glass over ice. Note: A whole mess o' crawfish, freshly boiled, is one hell of a fine accompaniment, but totes optional.
[image-3-right]
3. Mr. Black
Ah, yes, Mr. Black. Mr. Black’s not from around these parts originally – although we reckon you can find him at all the better liquor stores in town. No, see, Mr. Black is from Australia. But he’s such an estimable, well-respected bloke that we enjoy having him at every party we throw or attend. We recently told you about this cold-brew fellow (oh, how we continue our wild anthropomorphizing!), because he – and those amazing Fab Slabs, come to think of it – are among the best culinary things to ever come out of that land of Oz. But so we’re including him in this little round-up, too. You’d be well served to make his liquid acquaintance.
[image-4-right]
4. Zuzi Canned Cocktails
Back to Austin, baby! This brand (a brand-new brand) of on-the-go tipples is the vision of local husband-and-wife team Ana Victoria De la Garza and Oscar Fernando De la Peña, whose love of brunch cocktails and late-night coffee drinks inspired the concept. Well, tell you what: We tried these new brews during a recent coffee spree (see the previous three products and the one that follows) and we found them to be just the sort of thing we want in a take-it-with-you coffee cocktail: Sufficiently boozy, rich with fine coffee flavor, and adorned with an attractive package. The three Zuzi cocktails currently available are based on vodka spirits and Arabica coffee and include the Carajillo (lightly sweetened with a mix of sugar, stevia, and monk fruit extract), the Black (totally sugar free and nicely aromatic), and the Latte (which combines the vodka base with a coffee cream liqueur). We’re drinking these right out of the can or pouring ‘em over ice, and we’re so pleased with the experience that we almost want to tip ourselves 50 percent.
[image-5-right]
5. Amor Perfecto
If Colombia’s known for one thing – okay, tbh, it’s known for more than just one thing – but coffee is definitely among those things. And Colombian coffee is one of the best coffees in the world, generally speaking. You want to get specific, then you start considering single-origin sourcing and high-altitude flavor profiles and so on. You start thinking about roasting methods – like those engaged in by, for instance, Austin’s own Joe Lozano at Third Coast, or the javaculture veterans at Cafe Brasil. Right? But what if we told you that there’s now – “for the first time” – a company delivering coffee that’s been roasted at origin, right there at coffee farms high in the mountains of Colombia, and then shipped directly to your door within just a few weeks of the beans being harvested? Because that’s what Amor Perfecto is doing. They’ve been in coffee in Bogota for 25 years, disrupting and improving the way the industry’s run, and now they’re offering this direct-to-you service. You can see if you like the cut of their operational jib right here, of course, but we’ll tell you: The coffee’s good. Damn good. We sampled three random packages, and two of those packages were like, yeah, this is some decent coffee, alright – rich, flavorful, the whole java-scene yadda-yadda – but one of those packages brewed up several cups of … well, it matched the best coffees we’ve ever had. For real. Okay? Just so you know.
Copyright © 2024 Austin Chronicle Corporation. All rights reserved.