Spiked Coffee is In

In the movie Some Like it Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, the proprietors of the club shown in the beginning of the movie serve coffee in their illegal speakeasy. The time was prohibition and the way they would “officially” make the claim to be alcohol-free was to serve coffee. Of course the coffee was spiked and was offered in such playful varieties as scotch coffee, sour mash coffee and the like.

While that was fiction, it turns out that real life really does follow fiction. In addition to the issue of alcohol being mixed with caffeinated power drinks such as Red Bull that we discussed a few weeks ago, it turns out that many restaurants are now bringing customers in (if they have a liquor license) by serving spiked coffee.

The drinks are not intended to hide the alcohol from the police (given that prohibition ended long ago), but new types of coffee cocktails are now being prepared in some bars and restaurants to bring a new edge to traditional drinks.

Not Easy to Do

It turns out however that mixing coffee with alcohol, even if you are aware of the issues (as we reported previously – it can be dangerous, especially for younger drinkers) is not a very easy thing to do. Try mixing up some sweet liquor with a cup of coffee and you’ll end up with a goopy mess rather than a drink which will entice customers to keep coming back for more.

Experimentation is the Key

As with creating new dishes, your barista and or bartender will need to get together with you and do some experimenting. They’ll need to work to create a series of drinks that not only taste good but that actually look good as well. Keep playing around with the ingredients and taste test them with friends and relatives before you start offering them on the menu.

Iced and Hot

Both iced coffee drinks and hot drinks will work in this concept. It’s a good idea to work on different ideas and not just stick to the cold drinks we might assume we’d create for this kind of cocktail. You should also consider both sweet and spiced drinks in order to come up with the optimum range of different drinks for your restaurant.

Tags: alcohol, coffee, liquor license