The World Coffee In Good Spirits Championship is a stage for pro baristas and mixologists to experiment and innovate. Forget the traditional Irish Coffee: as long as coffee and alcohol are involved, there is no limit to what entrants can create.

To learn about how you can bring a taste of the championship to your own home, I spoke to three former Coffee In Good Spirits champions from around the world. They shared some recipes that you can make at home and enjoy in the summer sunshine. Cheers!

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Summer Fruits Coffee Gin & Tonic 

An Nguyen is based in New Zealand. He was the New Zealand Aeropress champion in 2018, and the 2020 Barista League Online Season 1 winner. He tells me that his speciality is coffee mixology. 

An says that when creating coffee cocktails, he makes sure that they’re visually striking. “I like to layer the drink to make it more visually appealing,” he tells me.

Rather than focusing on making his drinks strong and full of alcohol, An likes to make light and refreshing summer beverages. He suggests that home brewers use either instant coffee or an AeroPress for his recipes, but says that any brewing method can be used.

For this drink, An took the classic gin and tonic recipe and added a refreshing, fruity twist. To make sure the drink isn’t too bitter, he recommends using soda water, rather than traditional tonic. 

Lee este artículo en español 6 Cócteles Con Café Para el Verano Que Puedes Preparar en Casa

Ingredients

• 15ml summer fruits tisane cordial (as per recipe below)
• 10ml freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
• 30ml gin
• 90ml soda water
• 30ml brewed coffee (as per recipe below)
• A slice of lemon (to garnish)
• Serve in a high-ball glass

Method

Pour all four ingredients into a glass over ice. Follow the same order as the ingredients list. When finished, garnish with a slice of lemon.

Tisane Cordial

Brew five bags of summer fruits tea (brand and flavour of choice) with 100ml boiling water. Add 100g sugar. 

Coffee

Use a ratio of 20g coffee (medium roast) to 100ml hot water. An brews the coffee in an AeroPress, using the upside-down (inverted) method, for four minutes. After four minutes, he plunges it through a paper filter. However, any brewing method can be used with the same ratio.

Piña Colada Cafè

A piña colada with a coffee-flavoured twist. An’s version of the classic tropical drink includes a homemade coconut coffee cream.

Ingredients

• 60ml pineapple juice
• 30ml white rum
• 50ml coconut coffee cream (as per recipe below)
• A slice of pineapple (to garnish)
• Serve in a tumbler

Method

Pour all four ingredients into a glass over ice. Follow the same order as the ingredients list. When finished, garnish with the pineapple slice.

Coconut Coffee Cream

Mix 100ml coconut cream with 3 teaspoons of good quality instant/soluble coffee. Add 30ml of banana oleo saccharum (recipe below). If you don’t have the time to make banana oleo saccharum, you can use sugar syrup (made with 1:1 ratio of sugar to water).

Banana Oleo Saccharum

Cut a banana into very thin slices and cover them with sugar. Use a 1:1 banana to sugar ratio. Let the mixture sweat overnight, then strain the syrup.

Forest Beauty 

Artem Bakurov is from Kyiv, Ukraine. He won the 2018 Ukrainian Coffee In Good Spirits championship, and came fourth at the World Coffee In Good Spirits Championship in the same year. 

Artem is now a green bean sourcer and quality controller, as well as a barista. He tells me that he is passionate about mixology because it allows him to experiment with unusual tastes and fermentation processes. His cocktails, he tells me, are designed to be “enjoyed slowly” at home.

Artem believes that forest berries are perfect for summertime drinks, because of their high sweetness and medium acidity. He says that they go well with gin and vermouth, which have woody flavour notes. For this recipe, any forest berries will do, such as blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, or redcurrants. 

Ingredients

• 30ml berry purée (blend your berries and discard the seeds with a sieve)
• 30ml sweet vermouth
• 20ml gin
• 50ml freshly squeezed lime juice
• 25ml muscovado cane sugar syrup (made with a 1:1 ratio of hot water)
• 2 shots of espresso
• Berries on a cocktail stick
• Serve in a highball glass

Method

When blending your berries, add the sweet vermouth and the lime juice to the purée. Add it to a highball glass with the muscovado cane sugar. Finally, add the gin and the espresso shots. Stir the mixture gently with a spoon. Add ice. This recipe makes enough for two people.

Violet 

Artem created this recipe using filter coffee. He tells me that his goal was to create a drink with floral flavour notes and a fresh taste. “This drink has notes of apple cider and kombucha, which are good in the summer,” he explains. 

Ingredients

• Rose syrup ice (as per the recipe below)
• 25ml lemongrass cordial (as per the recipe below)
• 15ml honey syrup (mix honey to hot water, 1:1.5)
• 50 to 70ml of elderflower tonic or soda water
• 35ml whiskey (ideally a whiskey with some floral notes, such as Teeling, Penderyn or Tullamore)
• 125ml cold filter coffee, brewed to your taste
• Serve in a glass of your choice

Method

Mix the lemongrass cordial and honey syrup in a mixing glass over the rose syrup ice. Add the whiskey and the filter coffee. Stir gently. Pour the mixture a glass of your choice, and then add the elderflower tonic or soda water. This recipe makes enough for two people.

Rose Syrup Ice

Mix 12g edible roses, 200ml of mineral water and 50g of sugar and let it steep for around seven minutes. Freeze the mixture in an ice cube tray.

Lemongrass Cordial 

Blend 60ml fresh lime juice, 40ml sugar syrup (1:1 ratio) and 8g lemongrass. Pass the mixture through a filter or sieve to remove any remaining chunks of lemongrass.

Strawberry Moka

Dan Bacaintan is an Italian barista, trainer, and consultant. He was the Italian Coffee In Good Spirits champion in 2018. Dan tells me that during the Covid-19 lockdown in Italy, he created a lot of coffee cocktails using simple kitchen appliances. 

Dan tells me that he created the Strawberry Moka during lockdown, while he was “waiting for the summer to come”. For this, Dan recommends brewing coffee in a moka pot, and adds that this drink can also be enjoyed hot “on a stormy summer night”.

Ingredients 

• 30ml cachaca
• 20ml strawberry syrup (blend strawberries and sugar using a 1:1 ratio)
• 10ml cointreau
• 17g coffee, ground for moka pot
• 160ml water
• Serve in a glass of your choice

Method 

Add the water and the coffee to your moka pot as you normally would. Add the rest of the ingredients into the top chamber of the moka pot. 

As the coffee starts to brew and mix with the other ingredientes, Dan says you will be able to smell “strawberry candy”. Once the mixture has brewed, pour it into a mixing glass full of ice. Strain the mixture through a filter, then serve it on the rocks.

The Coffee Spritz

Dan tells me that he created this recipe to give the Aperol spritz (a classic summer drink and common Italian aperitivo) a coffee-flavoured spin. 

Ingredients

• 30ml prosecco
• 60ml filter coffee
• 30ml Aperol
• A slice of orange (to garnish)
• Serve in a wine glass

Method

First, brew some concentrated filter coffee using a 1:10 coffee to water ratio (Dan says a double shot of ristretto will also work). Pour everything into a mixing glass over ice. Shake gently.

Pour the liquid into a wine glass filled with ice, and add a slice of orange to garnish.

And that’s it – six coffee cocktails you can make at home and enjoy in the sunshine. So next time you’re thinking about making yourself that gin and tonic or getting a beer from the fridge, why not go for something different? Give a summer coffee cocktail a try. 

Enjoyed this? Then read Four Cold Brew Coffee Cocktails Perfect For Summer

Photo credits: An Nguyen, Artem Bakurov, Dan Bacaintan

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