Kahlua Toreador

The original Toreador is a blended dessert drink made with tequila. It's pretty amazing in itself if you go all out with whipped cream and cinnamon.

This Toreador is more of an excuse to make a coffee flavored cocktail that's strong and slightly sweet. Not quite a dessert drink. Gone is the cream, whipped or otherwise, and in the place of Tequila, there's Kahlua. Holding it all together is a half of an egg white.

In place of Kahlua, I used a combination of MurLarkey coffee whiskey and sugar syrup to sweeten this liquor to the level of Kaluah. Copper and Kings brandy was also a good choice for this cocktail for its strength. You can't make a Toreador without something stronger than coffee liqueur at it center.

• 2 oz. brandy (Copper and Kings used)
• 1 oz. Kahlua (1 oz. MurLarkey Coffee Whiskey and 1/2 tsp. sugar used)
• 1/2 egg white

Combine all ingredients in a blender with cracked ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Cafe Romano

As far as dessert drinks go, the Cafe Romano is one of those excellent mixes of liqueurs and cream that have been around a long time but are often overlooked.

Part of the reason this drink doesn't fly in the U.S. is the use of sambuca and our hesitance to mix with it, particularly with Kahlua. But the Cafe Romano is evidence that this works. Even people who hate the taste of anise (which is most Americans) have to admit that this drink mellows and improves the bitterness of sambuca.

• 1 oz. white sambuca
• 1 oz. coffee liqueur
• 1 oz. half and half

Combine all ingredients with ice in a shaker. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  

Blue Mountain

It's not a Tiki drink, exactly. It's not even a "Boat Drink," those sweet rum cocktails passed around on the decks of cruise ships. It is, however a quick and dirty trick to showcase what Jamaica does best.

The Blue Mountain range is a beautiful row of rounded peaks where some of the best coffee in the world is grown. These jungle-strewn heights can be seen as a hazy humid blue from any part of the island country.

Jamaica also makes some of the most characteristic flavors of rum in the Caribbean sea. It is funky, sugary and dark with lots of oak and earthiness that comes from the humid climate where it is aged. Appleton Estate 12-year-old is so rich, it makes this drink decadent.

(A quick note: I've tried this cocktail as the directions say--"strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass." But it is impossible to fit all of this into such a small glass. Instead, use a Collins glass full of ice, which will keep this drink cold on hot days.)

• 2 oz. Jamaican rum (Appleton Rare Blend used)
• 1 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. coffee liqueur
• 4 oz. orange juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. (See note above and photo on a better serving method.)

Black Russian

The Black Russian is a classic of the 1950s, when Kahlua first hit the scene. It's more famous brother, the White Russian, came along at the same time, at the height of the red scare. It was seen as a way to drink more Kahlua by spacing the sugary coffee liqueur out with neutral spirits. It still caused plenty of headaches the next day, but you still had half a bottle of Kahlua left. And it tastes pretty good without the cream of the White Russian, so there's still a strong demand for this drink.

• 2 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. Kahlua

 Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. 

B-52 / Pousse Cafe

Just killing time at the bar this week and playing with layering sweet liqueurs as a way to practice. The B-52 had its heyday during the mid-90s, I remember. It has all the ingredients that would make it popular, Kahlua, Bailey's and Grand Marnier. Come to think of it, why did it ever go out of style? Probably because bartenders got sick of making them. Then, of course, they were warm shots. Yuck.

Incidentally, while I was taking this photo, someone ordered a Bombay Sapphire up. So this B-52 had a Bombay door (as we used to call it when Bombay gin was consumed along with a B-52, not always by the same person.)

• 1 oz. Kaluah
• 1 oz. Bailey's Irish Cream
• 1 oz. Grand Marnier

Carefully pour over a spoon into a pousse cafe glass in the order given. 

Port Antonio

I was looking for a rum drink that "puts hair on your chest." I found it with the Port Antonio. It came to my attention because the recipe calls for falernum, which I could make--and I think I will--but didn't have when I decided to mix the cocktail. I grabbed Velvet Falernum instead.

Falernum is a Barbados lime cordial used in making rum drinks a little more flavorful. It's made with a lot of lime zest, cloves, cinnamon, sugar--it's a tropical spice syrup! It comes in alcoholic varieties that use white rum to keep it shelf stable. Velvet Falernum is one of the alcoholic types, more of a liqueur than a cordial.

So the Port Antonio is a very Jamaican cocktail, and I made it with the country's most distinctive rums. Hamilton Pot Still rum is a gold rum with a lot of cane sugar flavors and a whiff of banana peel on the nose. Appleton Estate rum is an aged rum with a lot of oak and sugary character of its own. They play very well with Kahlua, which is also a rum based liqueur. Coffee is another of Jamaica's exports, so this drink has all the rum, lime and coffee of the tropical nation.

• 1 oz. gold rum (Hamilton Pot Still used)
• 1 oz. (Appleton Estate rum used)
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. Kahlua 
• 1 tsp. falernum (Velvet Falernum used)
• lime slice

Combine all ingredients except lime slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain over fresh ice in an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with lime slice.