The Latest Buzz: How Distillers Are Adding Coffee to Their Spirits

Consider two mood-altering beverages that have been enjoyed for centuries—both framed as vices as well as social rituals, and both featuring bold flavors that attract afficionados, who could spend their lifetimes exploring the ingredients, methods, traditions, and the regions that produce them.

Coffee and booze, it would seem, have a lot in common.

While we more often see coffee in the day’s earlier hours and alcohol in the later ones, the two have been known to hang out together:

• There’s the carajillo, for example—a combination of coffee and Licor 43, recently revived in Mexico and catching on in the United States. But its roots go back at least as far as the 1800s in Cuba and Spain.
• The Irish coffee has been around since the 1940s, introduced by chef Joe Sheridan in Limerick, Ireland.
• In 1983, bartending legend Dick Bradsell invented the espresso martini, a high-octane crowd-pleaser that’s been enjoying a resurgence in the past few years.