Coffee Cocktail

Decaf drinkers, have no fear. You will find nary a drop of caffeine in this little delight. The Coffee Cocktail seems to have been given its name for two reasons. The first is its café color. The second seems to have something to do with people's penchant to replace after-dinner coffee with an after-dinner inebriant—not that we disapprove. This drink appears to trace all the way back to the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas's The Bar-Tender's Guide. At a time when the word cocktail invariably indicated the use of bitters, this drink was a misnomer in more ways than one. Still, it grew in popularity and eventually became a classic. The Coffee Cocktail makes a superb after-dinner drink, but can also serve quite well as an apéritif. And for those with a caffeine aversion, it is, of course, caffeine-free.