Everything
Coffee is not just a drink to be enjoyed in a cup. Today, it is an increasingly present ingredient that serves as an essential base for imaginative cocktails.
“Over the years, I have witnessed a real evolution of coffee machines, as well as a refinement of the palate of customers who are increasingly demanding and curious on the subject,” explains Dennis Zoppi, bartender and owner of Smile Tree in Turin. “Coffee is able to express its uniqueness not only through its origin and processing, but also with different extractions. To get the perfect coffee you have to follow the rules of the revolutionary philosopher Mikhail Bakunin, according to whom coffee must be must be as black as the night, as sweet as love and as hot as hell.”
Here are a few of the cocktail designer’s coffee-based creations, which can be described as small explosions of art that can be re-created at home. Ready?
Moka Vermut
This alcoholic cocktail is prepared by replacing the water in the stove-top coffee maker with vermouth (white or red is fine as long as it is dry). The coffee used should be 100 percent Arabica Lavazza Tierra. The procedure is as simple as making a coffee using a stove-top coffee maker.
Italian Tonic
This is a non-alcoholic drink that uses Lavazza iTierra! Brazil. Place the ingredients (30ml 100% Arabica Cold Brew coffee and 120ml elderberry-flavoured tonic) in a shaker and shake well.
Noir Noir
This is a coffee-inspired spin on an old favourite, the Bloody Mary. Start by pouring the apple vinegar into a saucepan and bringing it to the boil, then pour in the Lavazza iTierra! Brazil coffee and turn off the heat. Stir and leave it to infuse for 5 minutes, before passing the mixture through a fine filter. Allow to cool. In a shaker, add 30ml Ciroc vodka, 40ml tomato pulp, 10ml cooled coffee mixture, salt, black pepper and oregano, and shake well.
Colada variant
Blend 200ml soursop juice, 100ml coconut milk, 40ml Dillon rum, 50ml coconut syrup, cinnamon and cardamom powders and avocado until a liquid and homogeneous mixture is obtained. To prepare the foam, start by extracting Lavazza iTierra! coffee by using a stove-top coffee maker. Allow it to cool. Then pour 300ml cooled coffee into a plastic container and add 1.5g soy lecithin powder, 20ml sugar syrup and 100ml of water. Blend mixture and insert an aerator tube into the plastic container, which will create bubbles that top off the drink.
Negroni Awakened
The classic Negroni with a twist. Simply combine 20ml bitter Campari, 35ml 100% Brazil Lavazza coffee, 20ml gin and 3ml Cinzano 1757 Vermouth Rosso.
