When it opened, I profiled Seattle’s Corretto and its focus on “corrected coffee,” or the Italian tradition of augmenting espresso with liquor or liqueur.
Between the many possible combinations, caffé corretto can be sipped no matter the season, but something about fall fits this category of drink. While summer requires something cooler, like a cold brew cocktail, and winter weather calls for something stronger, the little kick of liquor in a corretto is just warming enough for fall, while the splash of caffeine gets us through autumn days as they get shorter and shorter.
The following are four of my favorite coffee-spirit combinations befitting fall. And caffé corretto’s beauty is in its simplicity—there are a thousand more delectable combinations out there. Experiment to find your fall favorites!
Pumpkin Spice Liqueur || BelleWood Distilling, Lynden, WA || With everywhere from Starbucks to 7-11 your local coffee shop advising you to keep calm and add pumpkin spice to everything, this rich, spicy-sweet add-in is a no-brainer. Try it with something dark, like the Sumatra from nearby Bellingham Coffee Roasters.
Grappa || Glacier Basin Distillery, Yakima, WA || Grappa is a frequent choice in Italy for a corretto. Add a Washington twist with Glacier Basin’s grappa, distilled from Washington-grown grapes at 110-year-old Gilbert Family Orchards. Just a splash should do—this spirit is a full 80 proof. To complement the spirit’s fruit base, try a bright, fruit-forward coffee like the Snoqualmie Breakfast Blend of South American coffees from Pioneer Coffee Roasting Company in nearby Cle Elum, Washington.
Amaro No. 1 Linnaeus || Long Table Distillery, Vancouver || The other classic choice of Italian spirit for a corretto, amari as a category boasts such a wide range of unique flavors that nearly any can be amazing paired with the right kind of coffee. For Long Table’s newly released herbal liqueur (the first amaro to be made in BC), flavors of vanilla, tobacco and citrus make a great match for an African coffee like Kenya Kabingara, with notes of apricot and quince jam, roasted across the water from Long Table by Bows & Arrows Coffee Roasters in Victoria.
Calisaya Liqueur || Elixir, Inc., Eugene, OR || This bright, bitter, cinchona-based herbal liqueur boasts a striking flavor of its own, and combining it with bold espresso seems like it shouldn’t work. But as devotees of espresso and tonic have discovered, these two flavors somehow highlight each other beautifully. Try it with a fruity, toffee-like washed coffee like Heart Coffee Roasters’ Colombia Bernabe.
