Coffee Cocktails - The future of Coffee Cocktails
Updated: Jan 25, 2022
Implementing coffee cocktails in a Bar environment can be rather hard.
Espresso machines need a lot of knowledge and skills and full automatic machines must be turned on every day and need a very strict service plan. Making a handbrew might look fancy but it also takes up a lot of time behind the bar.
How can we make life for bartenders easier and at the same time lift up the quality of coffee and coffee cocktails in restaurants and bars that want to serve good products but don’t necessarily focus on coffee?
I want to talk about two easy ways how to improve coffee quality and at the same time have a easy and fast workflow.
Coffee Capsules
My first suggestion might be controversial for a lot of specialty coffee people.
Coffee capsules are now after instant coffee the most popular types of coffee preparation and they are easy to use. The market is huge and so are the tonnes of rubbish they produce. BUT, the specialty coffee companies are about to revolutionize the capsule game with biodegradable materials and high quality coffee.
A lot of the new materials are made of sustainable and flavour free wood, without any aluminum or microplastic.
The capsule machines are very affordable and the higher price per cup can easily be calculated in the beverage as no coffee goes to waste and no further equipment like grinders, tampers and other equipment is necessary.
I would recommend capsule machines for any bar that wants to offer classic espresso martini drinks or modern coffee cocktails that are based on espresso. Espresso makes a cocktail more dense and creates a wonderful foamy and rich texture. For more recipe inspirations I recommend the book “Spiritual Coffee” by Martin Hudak.
Batch Brewed Coffee
My second recommendation is a beautiful and easy to use batch brewer.
Filter coffee is in rising demand and easy to make in higher volumes, always assuming that high quality and fresh beans are used as well as filtered water.
The machine can be used for day service and when using a thermos server it can easily hold a drinking temperature of above 60 degrees for 3 hours. The handling is easy and brewtime will maximum take 5 minutes. That's how long it takes some baristas to make one cappuccino but the Moccamaster can make you 1.5 liters of coffee in this time.
During the evening service I would recommend a signature cocktail like an irish coffee for example that can easily be prepared in the batch brewer. Make a high quality brew, add sugar and whiskey and keep in thermos to stay hot or place on heating plate that is integrated in the machine. As soon as the drink gets ordered you will just need to serve it right out of the server and add cream on top.
Again, this is just a classic suggestion but the world of coffee cocktails is huge and there are a lot of recipes in the book I suggested earlier.
If the recipe required a cold filter coffee, even easier. If you use high quality coffee it will taste great, even if it cools down.
Coffee in a bar environment can be amazing and create new flavours and cocktails, keeping you awake and happy.
I hope you enjoyed this article and if you have any questions, just message me.
Happy brewing, Nicole.