By The Fireside: A Modern Twist on Port and Coffee 

The first recorded use of the term ‘cocktail’ was in a 1798 British newspaper, but the cocktail as we know it today wasn’t defined until the publication of The Balance and Columbian Repository in 1806. Since then, cocktails have had a firm place on many drinks menus. Port isn’t often mentioned in the ingredients lists, however, but there are a few occasions when a fortified wine works well. While this may not be the ideal use for a high-end Vintage Port, there’s a place for Port in a cocktail list, and one of its lesser-known pairings is with coffee, drawing the two after-dinner indulgences together. 

 

Port and Coffee: A Match Made After Dinner

While they’re not traditionally drunk together, both Port and coffee are often used at the end of a meal as a digestif, either on their own or paired with a dessert. Neither are drinks for fast drinking, but instead, lend themselves to leisurely and contemplative after-dinner conversation. Unlike coffee, Port does not deliver its warmth through temperature, but nonetheless, both drinks are warming and comforting after a heavy meal, and are thought to aid with the digestion process. Enter the after-dinner cocktail and the unlikely combination of the two.

 

Riffing On ‘The Bishop’

The Bishop is a classic cocktail, dating back to around 1935 when it was recorded in The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book. Traditional recipes call for Burgundy, but many modern recipes suggest it a good use for any red wine. The cocktail calls for three parts light rum, one part red wine, half part lime juice and one teaspoon of syrup. The ingredients are shaken with ice, strained into a chilled wine glass, and garnished with fresh lime.

Matt Piacantini, an experienced bartender from The Up and Up, has revived this traditional recipe with Port. “Port works really well when you have a wine ingredient calling for a little more than an ounce,” he explained. In developing his modern version of the cocktail, he incorporated the concepts of the Cafe Brulot, a nineteenth-century coffee and brandy drink. He needed a bitter characteristic for the cocktail, and a chicory coffee fit the bill. Thus was born ‘By the Fireside’.

 

By The Fireside 

Piacantini’s warming after-dinner cocktail requires a coffee syrup using a strong chicory coffee. A high-quality coffee produces the best results, and if you’re making this at home, an AeroPress is a simple way to make a superior cup quickly. However, high-quality coffee can be made using a variety of home-brewing devices as long as you can trust the coffee — just be sure to use a 3:2 ratio of coffee to water. To make the syrup, dissolve white sugar in the coffee, and stabilize with two ounces of vodka per quart of syrup.

Shake ¾ oz. of the syrup with 2 oz. of Tawny Port, ½ oz. of lemon juice and ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg and cinnamon (blended at a ratio of 7:3). Strain the mixture over crushed ice and garnish with a wheel of lemon. 

Tawny Port is the most popular post-dinner wine in Portugal, and its robust nature and softened characteristics support the coffee syrup well to create a cocktail that is both warming and full-flavored. Piacentini suggests the drink not only for Port lovers, but for fans of espresso martinis, and describes the combination of coffee and Port flavors as “rich, spicy, citrusy and almost chocolatey.”

Port and coffee have long been enjoyed after leisurely meals, but rarely are they seen together, and rarely is there a call for an after-dinner cocktail. Piacentini’s creation, however, draws together the concepts of the digestif and the cocktail to create a warming and inventive after-dinner Port drink.