A cup of coffee is a surefire way to perk up your day, and as dawn turns to dusk, the addition of coffee in your cocktail seems the perfect way to pep up evenings, too.
From the classic espresso martini to more creative caffeine-infused concoctions, wake up and smell our top five coffee cocktails you should try in Hong Kong right now.
Espresso Martini at Terrible Baby
The bar concept at Eaton Hong Kong is not as ‘terrible’ as it sounds. In fact, it’s actually quite the destination venue with a bar, garden and music room all in one place. Named after the 1929 French novel Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau, Terrible Baby also has popular Mexican mixologist Edgar Santillan mixing it up behind the bar. One of our favourite rocket fuel sips is an espresso martini and Terrible Baby sure does a mean one. It’s created with a cold brew coffee liqueur that blends beans from Mexico, Indonesia and more; French hazelnut liqueur for a little sweetness; and handcrafted Bimber Vodka from London.
Terrible Baby, 4th Floor, Eaton Hong Kong, 380 Nathan Road, Jordan, Kowloon; +852 2710 1866
Saigon Coffee at M Bar
Offering cocktails on a menu called ‘Journey To The West’, M Bar pays homage to the classics infused with Eastern flavours while celebrating their individual colonial influences. For caffeine lovers, the Saigon coffee is the one to try. Using traditional dark-roasted Vietnamese coffee, which is known to be strong and flavourful, hotel mixologist Slamet Haryadi mixes filtered coffee with cherry eau de vie and cacao vermouth, then tops it off with sliced Gifford almonds and frothy milk foam.
M Bar, 25th Floor, Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, 5 Connaught Road Central, Central; +852 2825 4002
Nomad at Bedu
Head to the Middle East — via Gough Street — for a little kickstart to your evening with the Nomad. A cocktail in honour of a modern-day Bedouin’s drinking journey, it pairs an exotic-flavoured pineapple coffee cordial with sweet white rum for punchy results. The taste of coffee is light, but serves to round out the flavour and adds fragrance to the ultimate wake up call you’ve been asking for.
Bedu, 40 Gough Street, Central; +852 2320 4450
Clarified Coconut Milk Punch at COA
Inspired by a Vietnamese coconut iced coffee, this cocktail at Mexican-inspired cocktail bar COA is a clear winner for coffeephiles — and when I say clear, it really is. Not only does co-founder and mixologist Jay Khan use smoky mezcal joven and Ethiopian arabica coffee-infused aged rum for the drink, but it’s also clarified using a milk-wash technique with coconut cream. Here, dry sherry, tamarind, cardamom, pineapple, lemon juice and salt are used to curdle the mixture, before it’s strained to extract a clear and flavourful cocktail.
COA, Shop A, Lower Ground Floor, Wah Shin House, 6-10 Shin Hing Street, Central; +852 2813 5787
Teaspresso at Stable Bar
Named after the traditional Hong Kong drink yin yeung, which is coffee mixed with milk tea, the Stable Bar’s Teaspresso is a more mellow riff on the classic espresso martini. At the base is Japanese Ki No Tea Gin (or Kyoto dry gin) which blends juniper with green tea for a subtle but fragrant sweetness, followed by a dash of St. George coffee liqueur and chocolate bitters to bring it back up to speed. It’s finally topped with milk foam and crushed blueberry powder to balance the creamy cocktail for a refreshing finish.
Stable Bar, 1st Floor, House 1881 Stable Block, 2A Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon; +852 3988 0288
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