#firedrinks

Cafe Royale

I really like the wake-up kick and rich brulee cognac flavor of the Cafe Royale! This drink requires the slightly risky step of flaming sugar cubes covered in brandy over a hot cup of coffee. 

The coffee has to be pretty hot and you need to leave the cognac and sugar cubes balanced above the coffee on the rim of the mug so that the alcohol begins to evaporate. Wait about 2 minutes before igniting. It is pretty and rich and just makes you swoon!

Cafe Diablo

The Devil's coffee is fiery, spicy and black. That's the point of the Cafe Diablo. It is a punch that serves four people and should be made in a medium sized punch bowl. Warming the brandy, curacao and Cointreau a little and lighting it on fire to scorch the cinnamon, cloves and coffee beans before adding the hot coffee will excite your guests and possibly start a fire in your dining room. But oh, well! That's the price you pay for messing with the Devil. The other point is to achieve an orange-like aroma in a black coffee drink that is pleasing if not too strong on liqueur. You don't even need fresh fruit. The burned liqueurs do all the work. Besides the fire issue, you may also have trouble finding four people who can agree to drink the same drink. These days, everyone wants to be the man out. Between arguments over decaf versus regular, and hot and cold punches, you're probably better off just using 1/2 oz. of brandy and 1 oz. of orange liqueurs, reduce the number of cloves and cinnamon sticks significantly, and make a single cup of coffee. Here's to drinking your hot drink alone.

Glogg

Glogg is a Swedish hot wine drink with lots of booze and tasty roasted snacks served in it. It differs from English mulled wines in having akavit in it, as well as port, and the raisins and nuts that are cooked in it are left in the mug to be eaten with a small spoon.

This recipe is strong and meant to serve 10, but feel free to make an individual portion. One tricky thing about the large recipe is how to scorch a pound of sugar cubes over a steaming pot of potentially combustible liquor. It is logistically hard to do over such a large surface (using a mesh screen of some kind, the recipe says.) It is also dangerous, as lighting a bottle of high test akavit is likely to blow you right out of the kitchen and burn your house down. I'm not kidding!

Better and safer to put sugar cubes on spoons over individual servings. That way the fire is small in size and can be enjoyed by each person who gets a glass of Glogg. 

Cafe Brulot

Brulot refers to a coffee cocktail served with liquor and certain spices. The term is French comes from Quebec. It also means a scathing (scorching?) report, and is used to describe a fire ship, a ship loaded with explosives and set on fire to be directed toward an enemy fleet. It's very fitting when referring to this most fiery cocktail. The liquor, spices and sugar are set fire before being extinguished by coffee. The effect is a nice charred flavor imparted to the liquor and coffee, like burned spices. It goes without saying that making a Brulot is dangerous. Hot liquor on a stove can combust at any time and it will spread quickly as evaporation is causing more alcohol vapor to leave the liquid and ignite. This is part of the fun, but part of the danger as well. Make this your first drink of the evening, just to be safe.