Recipe

• 1.5 oz Rye Whiskey
• 1 oz Espresso or Cold Brew Concentrate
• .5 oz Molasses
• .25 oz Dry or Blanc Vermouth
• 2 dashes Chocolate Bitters
• barspoon Fernet Branca
• Lemon Peel for expression and garnish

Add all ingredients except lemon peel to shaker and shake until well chilled. Double strain into a coupe. Express Lemon Peel oil over top and garnish with the peel cut into a cross.

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The Western Church is currently in the last days of the Church season of Epiphany, which is kind of a beautiful junk drawer of a season.

Advent/Christmas cover Jesus’ anticipation and birth, and Lent/Easter cover his death and resurrection. Epiphany covers everything in between. It starts with the Wise Men visiting Jesus (they weren’t at the manger!) and covers his ministry of justice. The key motif is light breaking through the darkness, waking us from our stupor, and preparing us for the repentance of Lent.

So if we want a cocktail that’s going to wake us up and mess us up, there’s none better than this espresso martini riff.

The Drink

It’s a tasty and unique drink, complex but really well balanced. But it has a lot of competing flavors so make sure each of your ingredients is strong and flavorful, especially our beginning point: the espresso. This calls us to spiritual wakefulness and participating in the work of justice that God has in the world.

Our base spirit is a strong, spicy Rye, representing the crackling warm punch that Christ brought to the world. It’s gold color reminds us of the first of the Wise Men’s gifts. Our sweetener is Molasses, providing us the earthiness of myrrh, a reminder of the world’s darkness, and a call to humility and repentance.

Now we get to our unique ingredients. First, our chocolate bitters embody the complexity and warmth of Frankincense. It’s also a great paradox of flavor because it is both bitter and sweet, just like the world itself. Then we toss in our secret weapons and what makes this drink truly special: White Vermouth and Fernet Branca. They add herbal depth and brightness, a kind of grace note within the earthiness, darkness, and spice.

Finally, we express a lemon peel over the whole drink to add unexpected light and brightness. It hearkens to the star that guided the Magi, the purifying cleansing of Christ’s work and presence, and the light of illumination in the darkness.

Ingredient Notes

I workshopped this a bit and some things need to be a bit specific. First off, use a darker coffee base, either a darker roasted espresso or cold brew concentrate. Full disclosure: we have a Nespresso machine which doesn’t make true espresso, so the coffee flavor was too weak in mine so I threw in a a barspoon of a coffee liqueur to compensate.

You need to use a Rye with strong flavor to stand up to the coffee. I used the high proof Rittenhouse Rye. I guess you could use something like Bulleit, but it could get lost in the drink. For sweetener, Molasses works really well, but you could use Demerara Syrup (here’s my favorite), Honey Syrup, or even melt some brown sugar in a pinch.

For our modifiers: First, let’s talk Vermouth. I tried a drier, more minerally vermouth and it did not work. You want a sweeter dry or (better yet) blanc vermouth. I used Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth, but I think something like Lillet Blanc would be even better.

Lastly, I used Angostura Cocoa Bitters, though any chocolate bitters would work (maybe even Aztec Bitters!). Fernet Branca is just Fernet Branca. Nothing like it. If you hate it, you can forgo it, I guess. But I love it so much. And the lemon peel expressed over the top is a really important element to this drink. Don’t skip it.

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