Tag: coffee liqueur

mocktail

Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer | A Unique 4-Ingredient Sparkling Iced Coffee Drink for Craft Cocktail Lovers

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Revamp your afternoon pick-me-up with this Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer, a delicious & refreshing sparkling iced coffee drink with a layer of complexity and warmth thanks to the cardamom simple syrup.

This Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer recipe from Recipe Fiction is dang good. I was on the fence about all the sparkling iced coffee drinks I’ve been seeing but when Recipe Fiction’s recipe showed up in my Pinterest feed, I knew I had to give it a shot.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

I’ve seen recipes* that claim to be “the cocktail for coffee lovers!” but this, my friends, is the sparkling iced coffee drink for cocktail lovers. It’s the perfect bridge to carry you from your morning coffee to your evening cocktail.

*It’s me. I’ve claimed it. Check out these coffee cocktails: the White Russian & the Colorado Bulldog.

This Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer has got the elements of a well-crafted cocktail– the citrus, the flavored simple syrup, the bubbles– plus the caffeine kick of java. It’s the best of both worlds. Well, it doesn’t have alcohol and I’m sure some folks would definitely include that in the category of “best”. That can easily be remedied by adding in some vodka and/or coffee liqueur.

For a lower ABV drink, just add 3/4 oz of coffee liqueur. If you want it ~actually~ boozy, add in an ounce of vodka in addition to the coffee liqueur.

Revamp your afternoon pick-me-up with this Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer, a delicious & refreshing sparkling iced coffee drink with a layer of complexity and warmth thanks to the cardamom simple syrup.

You could use this same recipe as an outline for other coffee spritzer variations but personally, I love this one. Cardamom is one of my favorite flavors and I’ve long loved it paired with coffee. I lived with a Mexican-American family in a Tibetan village (long story) for a time and one of my favorite memories is enjoying freshly roasted coffee with a few crushed cardamom pods tossed in. If you’ve never had cardamom before, it’s got a beautiful warm complexity to it. I’d describe it as a little fennel-y, a little clove-y, and even a little fruity. If you’ve ever had chai tea before, you’ve had cardamom. You can read more about this unique spice in this short post.

Purchasing pre-made cardamom simple syrup is an option, but if you’ve got the patience to wait for an Amazon Prime package, 5 spare minutes, and enjoy saving a few bucks, I highly recommend you make your own.

If you’re not into cardamom, you can still try making a delish coffee spritzer by using demerara simple syrup, honey simple syrup, or even lavender simple syrup instead.

Have you had a coffee spritzer? What flavors have you tried? If you try out this Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer, be sure to let me know in a comment or by tagging me on Instagram!

Revamp your afternoon pick-me-up with this Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer, a delicious & refreshing sparkling iced coffee drink with a layer of complexity and warmth thanks to the cardamom simple syrup.

Ingredients for a Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer

  • 4 oz cold brew coffee
  • 1/4 – 1/2 oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 oz cardamom simple syrup
  • sparkling water or club soda

How to Make a Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer

Add ice to a highball glass. Pour in the cold brew coffee, lemon juice, and cardamom syrup. Top off the rest of the glass with sparkling water. Stir gently to combine. Garnish with a fresh or dehydrated lemon wheel.

Cardamom Citrus Coffee Spritzer

Revamp your afternoon pick-me-up with this delicious & refreshing sparkling iced coffee drink with a layer of complexity and warmth thanks to the cardamom simple syrup.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 3 mins
Course Drinks
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • 4 oz coldbrew coffee
  • ¼-½ oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 oz cardamom simple syrup*
  • sparkling water or club soda

Instructions
 

  • Add ice to a highball glass.
  • Pour in the cold brew coffee, lemon juice, and cardamom syrup.
  • Top off the rest of the glass with sparkling water.
  • Stir gently to combine.
  • Garnish with a fresh or dehydrated lemon wheel.

Notes

*Cardamom simple syrup: learn how to make it yourself in just a few minutes or purchase some from Amazon.
Keyword cardamom, cardamom simple syrup, coffee, coffee spritzer, cold brew coffee, lemon, lemon juice, sparkling iced coffee

Looking for other ways to use your cardamom simple syrup? Try it out in these recipes:

vodka

Chai White Russian | An Effortless 4 Ingredient Fall Cocktail Recipe

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This Chai White Russian is an easy fall cocktail recipe. Only 4 ingredients stand between you and this cozy and caffeinated delight: vodka, coffee liqueur, cream, and chai tea.

This Chai White Russian is an easy fall cocktail recipe. Only 4 ingredients stand between you and this cozy and caffeinated delight: vodka, coffee liqueur, cream, and chai tea.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

I love chai tea. The spices… the richness… it’s one of my favorite teas to drink. Chai tea also varies wildly from brand to brand or person to person. The best chai tea I’ve ever had was at an Indian restaurant in Xi’an, China. Yep. They also made the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten.

For years I’ve tried to recreate it, but I never can. The taste will just have to live on in my memory. I haven’t made my own in a while, but after making this Chai White Russian last night, I’m inspired to try again. Finding the right black tea is foundational to a good chai recipe. Go ahead and forget trying to find a good one at your local grocery store and opt to look on Amazon or at an Indian grocery store instead. Once I finish my current not-so-great box of black tea, I’m going to be trying this one. I have high hopes for it.

For this recipe, I used a carton of chai concentrate. It’s pretty decent. It’s not my favorite chai recipe but it satisfies my chai craving when it hits. I also don’t hate the fact that it’s incredibly convenient. Just add an equal amount of milk and concentrate then heat it or add ice.

This Chai White Russian is an easy fall cocktail recipe. Only 4 ingredients stand between you and this cozy and caffeinated delight: vodka, coffee liqueur, cream, and chai tea.

If you’ve never had a White Russian before, it’s a delicious coffee and cream cocktail. I’m not a big sweet drink drinker… but I love a White Russian in the evening. I’ve long fantasized about making a Chai White Russian and I finally made those dreams come true last night.

If you have bagged chai tea, you can steep some tea and use that instead. Alternatively, you could steep the tea in the vodka and make a Chai White Russian that way. I think they’d all turn out well.

And when it comes to coffee liqueur, you can certainly buy a bottle of Kahlúa. But you can also make your own. If you make your own, you can use your favorite coffee and adjust the amount of sweetness to your liking. Here’s my super easy recipe.

This *might* be my new favorite fall cocktail recipe. I’m still really digging the Autumn In Tuscany but since that one is citrusy, this Chai White Russian definitely wins the Best Sweet Dessert Cocktail Recipe award. If you try it, be sure to tag me on Instagram or comment down below. I’d love to hear what you think!

This Chai White Russian is an easy fall cocktail recipe. Only 4 ingredients stand between you and this cozy and caffeinated delight: vodka, coffee liqueur, cream, and chai tea.

Ingredients for a Chai White Russian

How to Make a Chai White Russian

Add a large ice cube to a lowball glass. Pour in the vodka, coffee liqueur, cream, and chai concentrate. Stir to combine.

Chai White Russian

This Chai White Russian is an easy fall cocktail recipe. Only 4 ingredients stand between you and this cozy and caffeinated delight: vodka, coffee liqueur, cream, and chai tea.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 min
Course Drinks
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • 1 oz vodka
  • 1 oz coffee liqueur (see notes for a homemade recipe)
  • 1 oz cream*
  • 1 oz chai tea concentrate

Instructions
 

  • Add a large ice cube to a lowball glass.
  • Pour in the vodka, coffee liqueur, cream, and chai concentrate.
  • Stir to combine.

Notes

Click here to learn how to make your own easy homemade coffee liqueur.
*you can use half & half, heavy cream, or your favorite milk substitute. 
Keyword chai, chai tea, coffee liqueur, cream, cucumber-infused vodka, half and half, white russian
This Chai White Russian is an easy fall cocktail recipe. Only 4 ingredients stand between you and this cozy and caffeinated delight: vodka, coffee liqueur, cream, and chai tea.
Revolver | A bourbon and coffee cocktail with 3 ingredients
bourbon

Revolver | An Easy Bourbon and Coffee Cocktail

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The Revolver is a bourbon and coffee cocktail made with only 3 ingredients. It's a delicious and simple way to celebrate the unique flavors of bourbon.

The Revolver is a unique cocktail made with bourbon and coffee liqueur. It was created by a famous bartender out in San Fransisco named Jon Santer around 2003. It was originally made using Bulleit Bourbon, a rye-heavy & spicy bourbon, but since the nation is on lockdown due to COVID-19, just use whatever bourbon or whiskey you’ve got.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

If you’re curious about what the difference between bourbon and whiskey is, bourbon HAS to be: 1) made in America, 2) made of at least 51% corn, and 3) stored in new charred-oak barrels without any additives. So, all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon. Ya follow? There are a lot of interesting laws in place about how to properly name and create certain liquors, aren’t there?

The Revolver is a bourbon and coffee cocktail made with only 3 ingredients. It's a delicious and simple way to celebrate the unique flavors of bourbon.

I don’t have any bourbon in my bar cart at the moment but I DO have a corn whiskey. Baby Blue from Balcones is 100% corn, additive-free, aged for 6 months in oak barrels. But since it’s not stored in new or charred oak barrels, it’s not considered a bourbon. At least that’s my understanding. I eventually do want to try this recipe the way the bartender intended it to be made.

If you don’t have an old coffee liqueur in your bar cart (or maybe it’s real old… like, older than 2-3 years), I’ve got an easy and instant recipe for homemade coffee liqueur using either vodka or rum. If you are rationing your bar staples, halve or third the recipe.

The Revolver is a bourbon and coffee cocktail made with only 3 ingredients. It's a delicious and simple way to celebrate the unique flavors of bourbon.

I’m also out of orange bitters, which the recipe calls for, so I just used Angostura bitters and tried to squeeze a little extra oil from the orange rind to get a little more orange oil flav. We’re working with what we got here, Jon. Don’t hate me for having to alter your drink.

The original recipe also calls for a flamed orange peel. I followed the instructions in this video:

Here’s footage from my first-ever flamed orange peel attempt. Aside from the shoddy camera work, I did alright! I’ll admit, I was actually nervous (as evidenced by the recoil) but I survived. And with all body hair intact, too. I’d say that’s a win. Shout out to my nail polish! Death Valley Nails is a company owned by my friend out in LA. All of DVN polish is 10-free, vegan, nontoxic, cruelty-free, and hand-mixed. AND it performs better than any nail polish I ever used. Scout’s honor.

The Revolver is a bourbon and coffee cocktail made with only 3 ingredients. Jon Santer created this simple and unique cocktail. He serves his with a flamed orange peel- I suggest you do the same.

The Ingredients for a Revolver

The Ingredients I Resorted To

  • 2 oz corn whiskey (Balcones’ Baby Blue is 100% Corn so it’s gluten-free! Celiacs rejoice!)
  • 1/2 oz coffee liqueur
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
  • flamed orange peel

The How-To

Add bourbon, coffee liqueur, and bitters to a shaker or large glass filled with ice. Stir until very cold and blended. Strain into a Nick and Nora glass* or a coupe glass. You don’t have to flame the orange peel, but why not. I know “sheltering in place” has you anxious for some sort of entertainment and excitement.

Get a large swath of orange peel (1 inch by 2 inches). Warm the peel up by holding the flame of a match or lighter close to it. Then, carefully squeeze the peel. The oils from the peel should spray through the flame into the glass. It’ll be a small spurt of fire, nothing crazy. Rub the peel along the rim of the glass to get even more smokey orange goodness going. You can discard the peel or place it in the drink.

*A Nick and Nora glass is a small glass that looks like a mix between a wine glass and a coupe glass in my opinion. Totally adorable. They’re typically used to serve cocktails without citrus juice in them, but who’s to say you couldn’t drink chocolate milk out of one? Fun fact: these glasses get their name from the two characters in the movie The Thin Man. They sipped their cocktails out of this style of glass back in the 1930s and made the glassware popular as a result.

The Revolver is a bourbon and coffee cocktail made with only 3 ingredients. It's a delicious and simple way to celebrate the unique flavors of bourbon.
vodka

Colorado Bulldog

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A Colorado Bulldog is the perfect cocktail for coffee lovers. It tastes like a melted root beer float and is decant, yet simple.

The Colorado Bulldog is a new-to-me cocktail I’m so excited to share with y’all. I know I posted another dessert cocktail earlier this week, but I’m being honest when I say I’m not *usually* a sweet drink kinda gal. It’s just that I made a double-batch of homemade coffee liqueur so now I need want to use it. I have to be in the right mood for a sweet drink but a coffee-flavored sweet drink almost always sounds nice.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

A Colorado Bulldog is the perfect cocktail for coffee lovers. It tastes like a melted root beer float and is decant, yet simple.

I had never heard of a Colorado Bulldog until my Mother-in-Law told me about them. She’s the one I shared my first White Russian with and she told me about Colorado Bulldogs then. The recipe intrigued me but my husband and I try hard not to keep coke stocked in the fridge. If I’m feeling like a fizzy drink, an unsweetened flavored sparkling water is often enough to satiate that need. But man, sometimes you just need a COKE.

And when I say coke, what I mean is soda. I’m from the south where “coke” means anything from Dr. Pepper to cream soda to Fanta and to, of course, Coca Cola. Speaking of regional words, did you know that SOME people in this blessed country call sprinkles “jimmies”? JIMMIES, for cryin’ out loud! I can’t process that information.

But I digress. The Colorado Bulldog is a sweet sip that’s perfect for after dinner. It honestly tastes like a melted root beer float. Er, a melted Coke float. If you’re looking for a way to use up that Kahlua that’s been hanging out in your bar cart for ages, make yourself a Colorado Bulldog. I think you’ll like it.

The Ingredients

  • 1 oz coffee liqueur (homemade always tastes better!)
  • 1 oz vodka
  • 2 oz Coke
  • 2 oz half and half (the real recipe calls for heavy cream but I always have 1/2 & 1/2 in the fridge)

The How-To

Fill a low-ball glass or a taller, skinny glass (how’s that for bartender lingo) with ice. Pour in the ingredients in the order listed. Coffee liqueur–> vodka–>Coke–>half & half. Pouring the half & half in last keeps the drink from fizzing up too much. If you’ve ever made a rootbeer float, you’ve seen what happens when you add Coke to dairy. Big ol’ pillowy bubbles. Stir together until you get a beautiful café au lait color.

A Colorado Bulldog is the perfect cocktail for coffee lovers. It tastes like a melted root beer float and is decant, yet simple.
vodka

White Russian | A Decadent 3 Ingredient Cocktail

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The White Russian is 90s classic thanks to the Big Lebowski. It's a simple yet decadent 3-ingredient cocktail that tastes like melted coffee ice cream. Make one. Your tastebuds will thank you.

My first time drinking a White Russian was at a casino in Reno, Nevada (which, BTW, is pronounced Nev-AD-a, not Nev-AH-duh… something we learned rather quickly). We had just moved there from Texas the day before and were looking to explore our new town. Like any newcomer would do, we headed straight downtown.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

I honestly can’t remember which casino we went to that night, but I DO remember my mother-in-law ordering us all a round of White Russians. Which, to my astonishment, were not only FREE thanks to us being seated at the Blackjack table, but also DELICIOUS. I’m not usually a sweet drink kinda person but I make an exception for these babies.

The White Russian is 90s classic thanks to the Big Lebowski. It's a simple yet decadent 3-ingredient cocktail that tastes like melted coffee ice cream. Make one. Your tastebuds will thank you.

I’d heard of White Russians from the movie The Big Lebowski but honestly, the thought of vodka and cream made my stomach churn a bit. Wow, though. It tastes like melted ice cream with a touch of coffee flav. The drinks were small (but free) so we kept ordering them. The cocktail waitress thought it was hilarious and even passed on a message from the bartender who informed us that he had not made the drink since the 90s. Maybe together we can bring this drink back into the spotlight a bit.

While you can certainly purchase Kahlua (especially if you want to be true to The Dude), I love making my own coffee liqueur. It’s easy and since you’ll already have the vodka on hand to make this drink, you might as well go the DIY hand-crafted route. There are a lot of different ratios for a White Russian. The most common is a 2:1:1/2 with vodka being dominant. Personally, I enjoy more of a 1:1:1 ratio. Again, though, if you’re wanting to honor The Dude, just eyeball it.

Using coffee ice cubes takes your White Russian game up a notch. The White Russian is 90s classic thanks to the Big Lebowski. It's a simple yet decadent 3-ingredient cocktail that tastes like melted coffee ice cream. Make one. Your tastebuds will thank you.

Instead of plain ol’ ice, I used coffee ice cubes that I had made using leftover coffee. This is honestly a rare thing– but when it happens, I pour whatever’s remaining into an ice mold so that I have it on-hand for cocktails and iced coffee.

Pouring the cream over the back of a bar spoon helps create a layered look in the glass. But since you’re gonna be swirling it all together anyway, it’s not a necessary step. It’s really just a fun way to use that rando bar spoon you bought.

The Ingredients

The How-To

Add ice to a lowball glass. Pour in the vodka and coffee liqueur. Pour the cream over the back of a bar spoon if you want to be unnecessarily fancy or just dump it in. Stir until the color is cohesive. Sit & enjoy & if anyone comes near you, feel free to shout “Careful, man, there’s a beverage here!”

The White Russian is the perfect cocktail for coffee lovers. And with only 3 ingredients, anyone can make it!

Love easy cocktails? Check out these recipes with only 3 ingredients: The Sidecar, an authentic Daiquiri, the infamous Moscow Mule, and my personal go-to the Dark & Stormy.