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Coffee Basics

Just like there is no one right way to eat a Reese’s, there is no single Way of the Black Blood. I think I may have just created the name for a new martial art there.

I can share my basic coffee testing techniques and few cocktails that have done well:

• Test 1) Straight and Cold – One shot sipped from the fridge just to enjoy the rich flavor and coating oiliness.
• Test 2) 3:1 Hot Water to BBotE – This is the way I normally have my morning BBotE, just to stretch the drinking time out a bit and warm up on a winter morning. Yes, I drink mine from a 350ml FMJ Stein of Science. That is not required, but definitely helps when people keep distracting you from your all important coffee.
• Test 3) 3:1 BBotE to Straight Vodka – BBotE is not sweet and neither is vodka. Combined together, it strangely is sweet, definitely in the the chocolate spectrum. I find the addition of alcohol blends up the oils into a more uniform and smooth flavor, while pulling out a few minor flavors that may have previously been hidden.

The point of my coffee testing is for quality & consistency.

It’s not enough that it be tasty, but it has to be comparably tasty to previous batches.

Many people like adding it to milk, normal, soy, or chocolate and just rolling that way. One delightful cocktail was born expanding on this concept. It is colloquially known as Andie’s Breakfast (made with all St. George & Hangar One spirits):

One pint glass filled with ice and shaker.
Pour 3oz of absinthe and 2oz BBotE (I find Kona & Kenya work best for this) over the ice.
Add a dash of chipotle vodka.
Fill the remainder of the pint glass with chocolate soy milk.
Shake and strain.

The absinthe louching adds a creamy quality and the chipotle vodka a titch of burn that reminds me of a good Mexican Hot Chocolate.

Actually, I find a 5:2 absinthe to BBotE mix to be an excellent combination flavor-wise to try to approach the chicory flavor of Nawlins Coffee. It looks like a three day old bruise in color, but it’s delicious.

Of course, there’s the favorite that’s been consumed at CES for four straight years as the good morning drink and the “Phil, I just got off the show floor and am dying, help” drink, the Lahar. A lahar is like a mudslide, but it much more serious. In a tumbler glass filled with ice:

1 part BBotE
1 part straight vodka
At least 1 part Irish Cream, generally fill to top of the glass

And then stir to mix everything up. It’ll pick you up nicely.

Did a few others for a Labor Day Cocktail Experiment: http://www.funraniumlabs.com/2010/09/la … periments/

How do you drink your BBotE?

Related Post:
A Caffeine Clarification