Coffee Drinks

This clever coffee drink from The Daily in Charleston gets a touch of savory complexity from the addition of tahini. Here we serve it on ice, but it can also be served hot in the colder months.

Chef Jonathan Brooks of Milktooth in Indiana makes this strong and delicious cocktail as a riff on the classic Long Island iced tea.

"Two Mirrors has a special place in my heart," says New Orleans bartender Nick Detrich. "It's a frappe-style drink with a good dash of anise and floral notes like the absinthe frappes of Mardi Gras." To garnish with rose water, spray with an atomizer or float a few drops on the surface of the drink.

No Cuban meal is complete without a café cubano (Cuban coffee). A well-made café cubano has a thick layer of sweet crema (cream) floating over strong espresso. To get the crema right, whisk about 1 tablespoon of the espresso with sugar until it turns foamy, then pour the pot of espresso over it. Lourdes Castro says you can't overbeat a crema, so stir it energetically.

This double rum coffee is deliciously flavored with cinnamon and orange zest.

This refreshing coffee soda is sweetened with homemade peach syrup. Tonic syrup adds a beautiful herbal note, but tonic water is a good stand-in.

39 Degrees Bartender Denis Côté created this drink as a warmer-upper for guests who've just returned from skiing or snowboarding on Aspen Mountain, which is right outside the lounge.

Cold-brewing involves steeping ground coffee in cold water. RBC NYC coffee bar (rbcnyc.com) uses the method here.

"This is like a really fine chocolate truffle that melts in your mouth," says Carousel Lounge's bartender Marvin Allen. He makes this variation on a chocolate martini with nocino, a walnut liqueur produced in Modena, Italy.

Frasca Food & Wine bartender Steve Peters dreamed up Caffè di Alpi ("Alpine Coffee" in Italian) as a deliciously warming après-ski drink.

On a trip to Helsinki, Philip Duff drank an espresso romano (an espresso served with a piece of lemon zest). When he returned home, he tinkered with ingredients behind the bar and created this drink.