It’s that time of year when the skies are as dark when you’re drinking your morning coffee, as they are when you’re imbibing on that evening’s cocktail. Coffee long ago found it’s way into spirits, but many of them are overly sweet and cloying, which doesn’t have quite the same appeal to the denizens in this IPA-loving corner of the country.
In Sip Northwest‘s Best of the Northwest issue, blind-tasting judges awarded the Best Coffee Liqueur award to Drip Coffee Liqueur, produced in Seattle by Rain City Spirits. Rain City Drip has a assertive coffee flavor and a mild aftertaste. And clocking at just more than 50 proof, you can almost get away with adding this to your morning java, at least on the weekends.
“I wanted to create a coffee liqueur that showcased everything I love about coffee,” says Rain City founder Cory Duffy. “The amazing nose, rich flavors and complexity that you get from artisan roasted and brewed coffee. That was something that really hadn’t been touched in the spirit world when I decided to get into it.”
Duffy says that before then, there was only Kahlua and a few companies blending flavors like tequila and coffee liqueur or rum and coffee liqueur. “Personally my favorite way to enjoy Drip is simply on the rocks,” says Duffy. “That said, there are some amazing cocktails out there.”
One of those cocktails is the Seattle Sour, created by Andrew Friedman, owner of Liberty in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The bar is a coffee shop by day, and craft cocktail haven in the evenings. Friedman has long used Drip in cocktails at Liberty. The Seattle Sour combines Oola Distillery’s Waitsburg Bourbon Whiskey, Drip coffee liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup and an egg white, mixed together until frothy. The drink is then strained into an ice-filled glass, and topped with a bit of beer foam from Georgetown Brewing‘s Manny’s Pale Ale.
“Seattle and coffee obviously mix very well together,” says Friedman. “Take those natural ingredients and add our city’s world-class cocktail program? That is a great combination.”
Friedman says he titled it the Seattle Sour for good reason. He goes on to say that with “the coffee liqueur and the Manny’s beer foam—that’s a Seattle’rific whiskey sour.”
Seattle Sour, by Andrew Friedman
2 ounces Oola Waitsburg Bourbon Whiskey
1/2 ounce Drip coffee liqueur
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/4 ounce simple syrup (2:1 ratio)
1 egg white
1 ounce Manny’s Pale Ale
Add everything to a mixing glass and shake with ice in the mixer until the drink is foamy. Strain and pour over ice in a highball glass and add just the foam from a Manny’s Pale Ale.
