For the love of Coffee – trendy mixology brewing in China

Thursday 1st October was International Coffee Day, an event launched in Milan to promote fair trade coffee and celebrate coffee as a beverage. 

Italy has a very strong coffee tradition (after all so much coffee related vocabulary comes from Italy! Think Espresso, macchiato, cappuccino, caffe latte,…). It has such a strong link to Italian lifestyle, that locals invented a touching tradition.

The tradition of “caffe sospeso”, or “suspended coffee” in English, is a pure act of kindness born in Naples at the turn of the 20th century. When customers buy coffee, they choose to also pay in advance for a cup to be given a total stranger asking for it. Italian cafes keep daily tabs of suspended coffees to give away, sharing a cup of roasted, warming love.

What we identify here is how much of a social drink coffee is. It is both personal enjoyment and something you are sharing, be it with friends or in the above case with total strangers. You meet friends over coffee during the day, but when the sun is setting you meet them for drinks. Real coffee lovers started therefore to ask the real question: WHY NOT BOTH?

Coffee culture is booming in China. While it is an acquired taste everywhere (rare are the children enjoying its taste!), in the countries recently adopting coffee it became a statement of globalization among the upper middle class and young generations. Coffee is now being served with various local recipes, adapted to the Chinese palate, and cocktails are just one more way to enjoy it: Coffee & Tonic or Espresso Martini leading the way all across China.

We therefore selected a few cocktails to smoothly transition between your afternoon coffee and an exciting night of fun!

First going to Cuba, one of the many heartlands of Coffee, we suggest you try Black Tears Rum, a Cuban Dry Spiced Rum infused with no other than Cuban coffee beans. And what is their best take on a coffee cocktail?

01

Black Tears Rum: Tears’N’Tonic

Ingredients：

  • 50ml Black Tears Rum

  • 150ml Premium Tonic Water

  • On ice in a highball glass

  • Garnish: Orange slice & habanero pepper, whole coffee beans

 02

 Lawrenny: Espresso Martini

Ingredients：

  • 40m Lawrenny Saint Clair Vodka

  • 20ml Lawrenny Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur

  • 20ml Espresso shot

  • Garnish: 3 whole coffee beans

 03

 Adelaide Hills Distillery:Australian Coffee Negroni 

Ingredients：

  • 30ml Adelaide Hills Distillery 78 Degrees Gin

  • 20ml Adelaide Hills Distillery Bitter Orange

  • 20ml Adelaide Hills Distillery Rosso Vermouth

  • 10ml Lawrenny Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur

 04

 XECO:Coffee Old Fashioned 

Ingredients：

  • 60ml American Whiskey

  • 10ml Cold Brew Coffee liqueur

  • 10ml Xeco Amontillado

  • 2 dashes chocolate bitters

And because after such a lovely introduction on Italian coffee it would be a shame not to close this post with an Italian cocktail, here is a delicious cocktail with OSCAR.697 contemporary vermouths:

 05

 OSCAR.697 Patchanka 

Ingredients：  

  • 40ml of Black Tears Rum

  • 20ml of Adelaide Hills Bitter Orange

  • 20ml shot OSCAR.697 Rosso

  • 1 teaspoon Orange Marmalade

  • 2 dash Chocolate Bitters

  • Garnish: Dehydrat orange wheel slice

Apolline Martin